Thanks earmelon for that info.
Probably a bit early for me to make any assumptions (particularly with the three samples), but I'm going to make a rough comparison of ilmenite to the iron ore market, which many here may understand a little better.
Lower grade ilmenite is like lower grade iron ore. It requires a lot more processing, energy and with ilmenite - sulphuric acid and the chinese don't want to pay a lot for this product (they don't want to pay anything for anything).
Western pigment producers (Chemours, Huntsman, Tronox, etc) have moved into a clean environment and only take high grade material (Leucoxene, Rutile). You won't find low grade material going into the U.S, Europe, Quebec/Canada. All low grade mainly heads to China, but even they are starting to move away from that (will take years). If you look into slagging ilmenite, that's where they will be, but again years away.
Slimes
15%, on face value - manageable for sure. Probably some similarities to Kenmare there. (You could read into them for more info). As I said, it's a complex area of a sand plant and this is where metallurgical results kicks in.
Zircon / Rutile
Okay, here's the fiddly part of all this (based on earmelon's 2.7%).
It's a pretty low number (probably not want you want here, but there are no perfect deposits - anymore). If the slimes were single digit (even low single digit), then that improves the overall metrics.
These two products are the cream of a sand mining operation, here's an example of that.
This deposit is overall around 7-8% HM. You can see 40% of the HM is Zircon/Rutile, but 84% of the revenue.
As earmelon stated, if the ilmenite turns out to have a decent grade of TiO2, that's good news. If it doesn't, you've got a problem (I won't sugar coat that), the Zircon and Rutile grades are just not strong enough.
Think about the above slide. If the offtaker said we don't want the ilmenite (for whatever reason), it's only 15% of the revenue, far from a company killer.
P
(just my view).
Add to My Watchlist
What is My Watchlist?
