AR3 Koppamurra v. MEI Calderia IAC projects

Hi @Suni,

In reply to your Post #: 68423353, as we're straying off the original topic I thought it might be worthwhile starting a new thread and invite some heavy hitting IAC pundits (looking to you @2ic and @setfire2thehive) to share some of their thoughts with us... FWIW I don't have a dog in this fight, I've never held AR3 or MEI and have recently sold out of IXR at a loss.

Dusting off my RE comparison spreadsheet and plugging in recent SMM REO pricing I get a basket value for Koppamurra REO's of around US$30/kg (ex 13% VAT). I can't find an REE basket for Caldeira as they only give the magnet REO ppm's in their resource estimate but we can compare the paydirt - Nd/Pd/Dy/Tb oxide %'s with Koppamurra:
Nd2O3; Koppamurra 17%, Caldeira 17%
Pr6O11; Koppamurra 4.5%, Caldeira 5.4%
Dy2O3; Koppamurra 2.6%, Caldeira 1.0%
Tb4O7; Koppamurra 0.5%, Caldeira 0.2%

As you can see Calderia has a slightly higher proportion of NdPr at 22.4% v. 21.5% for Kop. and Koppamurra has a much higher proportion of DyTb at 3.1% v. 1.2% for Cal. As REO 'heavies' DyTb have a much higher price/kg than 'lights' NdPr you would expect the basket price for Caldeira REO's would be less than Koppamurra, my best guestimate is around US$22/kg. So the Koppamurra REO basket price should be around 36% higher than the Caldeira basket due to it's higher DyTb content.

While REO basket price is a factor there are many other factors that will affect the valuation of early stage REE project, the biggies being total resource and grade. Calderia has a total ore resource of 408Mt, +4x Koppamurra @101Mt, at a grade of 2,626 ppm TREO (.26%) +3x Koppamurra @ 818 ppm (.08%). All up the in-situ REO resource at Calderia is 13 times that of Koppamurra, 1074Kt v. 82.6Kt.

On these facts alone I think it is reasonable that MEI's current market cap is about 10x AR3's (A$418m v. A$42.1). Down the track with further definition and hopefully upgrading of the resources and development of mining plans, met testing confirming IAC recoveries and developing the flow sheets needed as a basis for OPEX and CAPEX estimates, we will start to see some feasibility studies and get some idea of the relative economic viability of each project. GLTAH & DYOR!..marcus A.