Discussion with Alex Passmore

Yesterday I had the privilege of having another discussion with RXL’s MD Alex Passmore.
Bear in mind that I don’t ask Alex for market sensitive information because it would be illegal for him to provide it to me except via an ASX announcement. But our talks fill in gaps and provide additional information.
There is a lot more going on at Younami than I was aware of. Currently, there are 20 team members on site, mostly contractors under the direction of 2 Rox geo staff. Everyone is comfortably housed at the Younami mine village (owned by Rox) comprising 6-bedroom houses. These were originally for senior mine staff and there was a 600 bed donga for mine workers (since removed).
Three RXL drilling teams are in operation at Younami, a diamond drilling crew with rotating day and night shifts, an RC crew and an AC. Apart from the drill crews there is the Sub-Audio Magnetic (SAM) geophysical survey underway to be followed up with 16,000m of AC drilling.
Driving this very high level of activity is Alex’s confidence in the granite zone hosting a lot more high-grade high recovery oxide gold. The mineralisation currently being focussed on is 1.5 km in length with a series of north-plunging, high grade gold, stacked-lodes within the granite. The takeaway here is that Grace is not an isolated one-off find. It is highly likely to be a repeated occurrence within the granite. In other words, we are likely to have multiple Graces. So, whatever the Grace JORC ends up being it is very likely to be replicated. A pity that the drill 291/292 controversy sucked all the oxygen out of an announcement that greatly strengthened the prospects for multiple Graces and corresponding multiple increases in the share price.The big ann we are all waiting for is the Grace resource estimate and with Grace mineralisation being open I asked if the need for further drilling would cause a delay? Alex is excited about the JORC calculation and very much looking forward to it but would say no more than he is committed to deliver it this year. I gave it my best shot, but he wouldn’t be drawn on the month although it was obvious, he has a plan and a date in mind. But importantly he was very firm on delivering it this year. The resource estimate will show exactly how much gold Rox has, but of course a lot more will come in the future. The Grace JORC will add to the 1.2m oz au Younami JORC both in terms of total ozs and also provide a new total high grade estimate. Then we will have the pre-feasibility study, the FS itself and progress to stage 1 of the mining plan, i.e. small-scale mining. Alex has it all covered in the mining plan he previously outlined..

Turning to the nickel I asked about the 2018 proposal with BHP toll processing Rox nickel ore at their Leinster concentrator 150km away. Alex said it was still very much on the cards either by way of toll milling or an offtake deal. If the latter BHP would pay Rox per tonnage providing a near term and sustained cash flow for the company. Alex explained that the impediment at the moment is that the existing resource, while still a good sized JORC, is short of the being able to deliver the quantity that BHP want to process. Alex is very confident that he will soon have a sufficient resource and is currently drilling to prove it up. Seems very possible that the company could have a scaled up JORC and a deal with nickel hungry BHP or another company in the foreseeable future. The capex needed in an offtake deal would be low and as we know Alex has a corporate finance background that sees him raise funds with consummate ease.

Alex mentioned that while the nickel will be very profitable the gold exploration at Younami is the priority. 80% of their expenditure is for gold and 20% for nickel.

The conversation made me realise how focussed Alex is on getting a near term cash flow with both gold and nickel prospects. There is the odd gold company that plans to process low-grade tailings, but I can’t think of another gold junior with similar near term cash flow prospects. We can be confident that the price of gold will still be high when Rox gets into stage 2 and 3 of its mining plan.

Just out of curiosity I asked about the drill holes that didn’t reach depth. One hit a fault and there were issues with water and air pressure at depth. The holes are now being diamond drilled.

I topped up with more RXL shares after the discussion.