Fe in the ilmenite is a valuable bi-product in ilmenite and V-mag, so removing by downstream processing reduces the value matrix unfortunately. With iron-ore falling to US$100 and precited to fall further, even a high-Fe magnetite ore will barely cover transport alone form Musgraves to port before considering mining costs, capex, debt, interest etc. For this reason I didn;t even look at the Barrumbie DSO option, and consider all iron-ore based products from the Musgrave to be uneconomic at anything like current prices. The world is full of stranded ioron-ore and V-mag deposits too far from port to make sense, most of which will make sense before Dante.
By way of example, I came across this Canadian project from Vanadium One a few years ago who was trying to get a high garde 65% Fe, 0.66% V2O5 deposit funded for shipping con to China. Just looked them up, name changed to Voyager Metals, updated 2022 PFS as below. Note the cheap costs of transport and modest credits for Vanadium content...
What would the AISC for Dante look like? If they mine and process just for Ilmenite then that means from surface and more of the LG HW ore above the HG basal zone. If they want Cu-PGE credits, then the top ~20m is waste and the HW is so low grade Cu-PGE that it would probably fall below the mining cut-off grade and isnl;t worth taking. I'm done or today, but most enjoyable way to get the grey matter firing again after the weekend's festivities.
GLTAH
Add to My Watchlist
What is My Watchlist?
