With permissions from the poster, Podgy1 on iii in the UK and from the author of the email Brad George, no major news but the sentiment is all-important as is the inferred potential;
Nick
It isnt my place to to be suggesting how many p this would add to the share price, that is your job. Given past criticisms that the company had overpromised a bit, we are actually trying to just keep our heads down and get on with things, while leaving the market to its own devices. Having two sexy commodities running side by side is probably going to get some parts of the market a little excited and so we are being rather careful to not add more fuel to the fire than can be verified by facts.
The REE is interesting and confusing at the same time. When the first sample came out we were in two minds as to whether we should announce it, lest we be accused of being too spivvy. In in the end however two factors pushed us to disclose - firstly the value of the contained REE in these samples far exceeds the value of the contained uranium (at least on paper), by a factor of between 5 and 10, and second, my plans to start the full metallurgical test and design program for U had to be put on hold as there was no point in embarking on a uranium design program only to then find it isnt a uranium mine after all.
Of course it isnt that easy, value per tonne of contained metal is all very interesting and makes for good headlines, but REE processing is tricky stuff and I confess it is not something I can claim any expertise in. Should we find there is a resource there, then we have to determine if the revenue from the REE justifies the extra cost of extracting it. I am reasonably confident, but I dont have the answer to that question yet, however the process to find the answer is reasonably clear, we just have to do the work. We have a number of concurrent programs underway in Guinea to this end.
Reassay
The first sample was interesting, but the cost of reassaying all of the samples stored at Firawa would be about $250,000 or thereabouts, and I didnt want to embark on that level of expenditure without some more substantiating evidence, and thus the intermediate step of those 5 samples we had in sweden. We have pushed the button now, but it will take us a few weeks to dust the camp off and to get a prep-lab commissioned up the road in Siguiri so that we can follow the same assay process as we are doing in Mauritania.
Mettallurgy
Because Firawa is such a simple open cut orebody, with soft friable and easily dug ore, it was always going to be a processing game; that hasnt changed, but it has got more complex. There is plenty of material available for full metallurgical testing, but this is a specialised area and so the trick is to ensure we have the right expertise brought in. I am talking to a number of global consulting groups now and should in Jan be in a position to decide on who will lead this process.
Size
The Firawa resource as it currently stands is open in all directions, as logistical constraints at the time it was drilled in late 2008 -early 2009, meant that only a small part of the total mineralised structure could be accessed. We think it is quite a bit bigger, and will drill to test that once we fix the road and a bridge or two that got washed away in the last wet season - bulldozers are rolling out there now and we would expect to be ready to drill later in February.
None of this answers your question I guess, but then I dont actually have the answer right now, all I can say is that we are working toward it. I suppose all I can say is that the worst case scenario is that the REE is ignored and so we fall back to the uranium base case. However the other point is that we are also working to add value in other ways by increasing the size of the resources in both Guinea in Mauritania. I set myself the target of being able to say something meaningful to the market at least every two weeks or so, and with both project areas running concurrently we seem to be on track to keep that up.
I do apologise that the REE has perhaps muddied the waters, but it is what it is, we didnt put it there but we have to deal with as we find it. Thats exploration.
Regards
Brad George
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