Last Tuesday I decided to give the company a call and see if I could get through to anyone.
One of my biggest concerns from reading the thread was that management were not responsive. So I called, got the receptionist, she took my name and number and told me I would get a call back. I was thinking "here we go again, the old run around". To my absolute shock I got a call back 40 minutes later from the Chairman Carl Popal.
The conversation was about 16 minutes long and before anyone asks he didn't give me any market sensitive news but he did explain several things to me in great detail which helped paint a much better picture of EPM for me.
The Deposit
The location of the deposit close to ports is fantastic. Carl said that shipping the ore would be no hassle at all. The actual deposit itself is an outcrop (sticking out from the surface), meaning that it just has to be drilled and put on the back of a truck as ore. From what management currently know they have 167k of Manganese at surface. Manganese sells for over ~$200 million per tonne. This confirms that we have about $40 million worth of ore just at surface (5 times the current market cap).
From
@DPR post we know that the company has confirmed that the ore goes to a depth of about 40m (would indicated potentially 1mt deposit). Management are expecting and
they are hopeful that it actually goes much deeper. If this is the case I personally see EPM having 1.5mt-2mt of Manganese ore. That equates to $300 million plus worth of ore. From previous mining in the area it is extremely low in contaminants which makes the deposit even more attractive.
The deposit itself is historically high grade. Anything above 20% manganese is good, our historicals have shown 30%+ which makes the deposit even more economical.
Drilling
Carl couldn't give me an exact date but said that drilling is to commence "quite soon". I alluded to it being this year and he indicated yes but wouldn't give me anymore. I ask about the turn around time on results from drilling and he said that drilling would take 5-6 weeks to complete and results would be about the same time after that.
He said going off historical drillings in and around the area that management are VERY confident that they have a high grade manganese outcrop.
Transport of ore
Given the location of the deposit I asked about the potential for DSO as it has been discussed several times in the past and was wanting confirmation that it was still the plan. Carl agreed 110% that it would be economical and justified for EPM to ship DSO given the deposit is at surface.
The outcrop which has very low level of contaminants from historical work would simple be broken down and loaded on a truck and driven to the port. I didn't ask what port it would be shipped from.
Raising funds
EPM will have to raise funds at some point in time. This will be done after the first round of drilling, or so it was indicated. I assume this is done once we have confirmation of high grade manganese and some sort of share price appreciation. I asked if we could get funds from a potential partner for the ore and Carl said we could but said it was unlikely given the stage of the project.
Going Forward
Carl was aware that shareholders were frustrated and so is he, after all Carl owns 21.6% of EPM and wants to see some value added to the company in the long term. He mentioned that getting the titles were the biggest problem over the past 12 months. Moving forward Carl and the rest of the management team are very optimistic about the potential that the company holds.
I know it's easy to say this and every chairman has to say this but given the photo's, the historicals, the outcrop itself, current manganese prices, location and current valuation of EPM I see it really as a no brainer if they are able to ship DSO. It is
too cheap to ignore in my eyes, hence why I have loaded up. Best of luck to all invested, I will attend the AGM and post more after that and lets hope drilling starts soon!!!!
(20min delay)