Just a bit of ANTIMONY information from the Canaccord report.....

Just a bit of ANTIMONY information from the Canaccord report..

Cheers Whisky

Antimony:

Antimony is primarily used as a flame-retardant chemical in plastics and fabrics (children’s clothing, aircraft, car seats, bedding etc). It also used in glass, ceramics and is alloyed with lead (up to 4-6%) as a hardener. The metal has been classified as a critical raw material by the EU, USA and the UK on account of supply concentration within China and its use in military applications. China is the world’s largest supplier of antimony, producing c.70% of global supply. As with many minerals in China there is a significant amount of small-scale mining that occurs which do not meet environmental standards. This has placed pressure on supply, particularly for ex-China consumers. There is a desire in the industry to find additional long-term sources of antimony which are independent from the Chinese supply chain. Antimony is generally priced internationally for ingots with grades of +99%. Straits Resources previously studied the marketability of producing a concentrate and expected payabilities depending on the partners to range from 50-83%. Over the next year RVR will have to re-engage with offtake partners however with expected concentrate grades of c.60% Sb (China produces c.50% Sb concentrate) we are confident RVR will be able to place the material.

Processing:

The mill is capable of processing 250ktpa however RVR management believes it could de-bottleneck the operations to lift throughput over 300ktpa. Works were focussed on prepar
ing the plant for restart including installing a gravity gold circuit, intensive leach circuit, recommissioning crusher and mill and leach tank rehabilitation. Previously ~A$200m has been spent on the plant which included a POX circuit, antimony leach and electrowinning circuit and cyanide leach circuit (cyanide licence still in place). The antimony circuit previously operated consistently and produced saleable amounts of antimony ingots. We toured the facility which is still in place (with a multitude of spares) and believe this offers optionality once drilling has defined the resource to allow for predictable operations. The initial processing flowsheet will involve crush, grind, gravity, gold flotation, leach, gold electrowinning and smelting. This process flowsheet may be applicable for initial underground material with low Sb levels. As Sb levels lift, an Sb flotation circuit will be commissioned.The gold circuit will be directly electrowon once target concentrations are met and then smelted. Gravity gold will be processed through the intensive leach circuit and separately electrowon as concentrations will be much higher than the main leach circuit.The POX circuit would require a full rehabilitation since the electronic controls were removed, however the bulk of the processing circuit is there, and this represents an opportunity for RVR to unlock value at the operation. Overall, the plant condition was reasonable given the four years in care and maintenance. As with most restart plans the first 12 months may throw up challenges, however the team on site has faced this at Thalanga and are capable operators. Previous owners spared little expense with the warehouse being fully stocked for operations (including a new mill girth gear). This will help current operations get a head start and save on costs during the restart.

Optionality:

RVR initially plans to produce gold bullion in year 1, with ore sourced from the BakersCreek stockpile before moving to Stage 2, mining fresh underground ore. Stage 2envisages producing gold and antimony concentrate. We now build Stage 2 into ourassumptions (Figures 2-5). Once operational, RVR can elect to recommission the POXcircuit (for processing refractory gold concentrate) and/or the antimony circuit whichwould produce a salable antimony ingot (higher price realisations). This would requireadditional capital and a clearer picture of the resources and mine schedule, in our view.