From some quick skim reading Waterberg's $849mil CAPEX does not include downstream refining. The refinery/smelter PFS is due for completion end of year i believe. At this stage, Waterberg will be producing a poly metal concentrate like POD. With no refining, the CAPEX is approx. AUD $1.2 bil for Waterberg.
The gist is that due to the poly nature of the ore effectively 40% of the PGM grade is lost. Why? Well because recoveries are "poor" and the concentrate sells at a discount. PGMs only work with "large" tonnage and throughput it seems.
I would love to see some info if the above is actually not true. But it really doesn't seem like PGM mining can be done small scale low capex like a gold mine can. I.e. AUD $250mil capex for a small gold mine is not uncommon.
As i side note, the high recoveries achieved by POD are only for the shallow oxide material. Typically that's up to 50m depth.
POD Price at posting:
36.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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