As I've been Buying a few POD shares up again @Fitz65
I'm really trying to get a better understanding on way the market values Aus PGM projects namely POD/FME at such low levels ... having muti Billions in gross resource values ...and I think I know why ... CAPEX bit more so OPEX of operating a PGM focus mining operation in Aus ...
As we know at present Met studies showing 80% recoveries etc but more so what I want to know is how many grams per ton of PGM5 would be in the mined and processed ores the end product "PGM concentrate" from metallurgical flotation .. I see FME had PGM concentrate grading >130g/t PGM from 70% recoveries per ton ....
Now how much value is in 1ton of PGM concentrate of say 130g/t ? I guess you get all the other metal values in the concentrate
Using some rough numbers (130g/t PGM5) you get 4.17 troy oz (this of course is not including any smelting -refining losses ... now using POD PGM5 basket value of same $4k per oz = A$16,000 per ton .... say POD setup a 1Mtpa mining operation.. just how many tons of PGM concentrate would one get... scoping studies ? looking forward to the numbers
OPEX wise (CAPEX not going be cheap for a start but IMHO it would be a good start to know rough OPEX numbers)
In POD project case they are 480kms to port then how far to the smelters + refinery's in Asian ... In South Africa they have the smelters refinery's nearby the mining operations !!....
Then I think if FME + POD + CHN all want to be future PGM producers then surely it would make sense for someone to build a smelter / refinery to take the mega tons of concentrate
https://allafrica.com/stories/201710260005.html
Demand for platinum, also known as the rich man's gold, has been growing because of a long list of evolving industrial applications, including computer memory chips, dental crowns, defibrillators, catalytic converters for cars and even wedding bands. The metal is so rare that miners and smelters literally move mountains to extract only a few hundred tons of the metal out of the earth's crust every year. Following an expensive and time-consuming process, it takes them half a year and around 12 tons of ore to produce just a single troy ounce, or 31.1 grams, of platinum worth around $1,100. No wonder producers like Lonmin platinum-mining company in South Africa, where 70 percent of the world's platinum is produced, are looking for an upgrade.
