“Yes Yes and Yes Who else was going to buy it. “My understanding...

“Yes Yes and Yes Who else was going to buy it. “

My understanding is there was more than just EQR trying to pick up this asset. We are talking about a mine that had $200m sunk into it. If you believe EQR and the team it is a very modern, clean operation. EQR believed they could turn it around based on their mining/processing expertise. We have to assume OakTree agreed and made the deal. Would you agree that EQR has already come a long way in turning the operation around? We will have to let the future decide if Saloro was a terrible, bad, neutral, good or great acquisition. I still believe it was a great acquisition. You obviously view it as a terrible one.

The $40m of debt is an issue, I imagine it will just be refinanced. What do you think will happen?

“Although I think the distraction away from MC at a critical time is the biggest cost. Scottm said they were looking at this for 12 months before. Do you think that the 350t crusher that was 12 months late and delivery 11 months ago would still be sitting in a shed and they would not have been stripping the high bench's last year, If they had not bought Saloro.?”

No I do not believe the stripping would have been kicked off any earlier if they had not acquired Saloro. It's not the machine operators dealing with Oaktree……

“What are you basing that on? Looking at the share chart since the purchase suggests differently.”

It is my opinion and there are a lot of things impacting the share price. My opinion is that without Saloro we would have a lower share price than with it.

“Yes but as Mr kleinhempel pointed out and lots of other source's, demand remains flat and as per Scottm post the current price is still lower than a few months ago.”

I expect an increase in the Tungsten price. Look at the Almonty share price; it hit $2.40 today. I assume those pushing the price up are all banking on an increase in the price of Tungsten. The increase in Almonty’s share price is great news for EQR. If buyers are valuing Almonty at over half a billion dollars while they produce less than a third of EQRs production and have 3x the debt I believe that EQR has room to move.

I agree with you that AISC is still above the revenue for Saloro MTUs, hence the use of “operational”. I believe this will flip in the near future.

“That not my reading of the mine plan. They stop processing it to offset the mine production / grade drop in year 3.”

Are you able to link/tell me which mine plan you are referencing here? I was referencing the announcement “SALORO’s XRT SORTING PERFORMANCE EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS, ADDING 26% MORE MATERIAL TO GRAVITY PLANT” on the 15th Feb 2024

“During ramp-up, the XRT Sorting Plant achieved ore grade upgrades of >25-times, with a sorter feed grade of below 0.06% WO3 processed into a sorter concentrate with a grade of 1.5-2% WO3.

Due to the excellent sorting performance, the XRT Sorting Plant is now treating 100% of the previously discarded stream and thus adding 26% more material to the downstream Gravity Plant.”

“This is the biggest area to produce a step change in MTU's produced and I am not seeing it.”

Did Saloro and its team not just hit its all time record production numbers last quarter? What are you not seeing?

My reference to serious expansion options when it comes to Saloro was in reference to the ongoing improvements i.e. getting recoveries from ~45% up to ~70% and the ability to add more XRT sorters in the future so that they are sorting the main ore feed not just the previous waste. On top of this I expect the mine life can be drilled out for many years to come and there are 4 or 5 satellite deposits that were obtained along with the Saloro acquisition.

Thanks for engaging. GLTA.