One of the reasons I thought you were a social media paid shill for MRQ for so long was the stubborn refusal to understand basics, and determination to push on with flawed FA regardless. Then I realised nobody that ignorant would get paid...
There are reasons Coburn says (yet to prove) they can mine so cheaply despite a low head grade and relatively recoverable value per tonne of ore. In no particular order, they include:
Ultra low-clay sands that can be pushed through cyclones in a wet plant at 23Mtpa with very high HM recovery. Almost zero cost for de-sliming and slimes management, co-disposal etc (capex or opex). Corridor higher slimes is more expensive to process with lower recoveries... slimes are not helpful.
1.1% THM head grade means despite running at 23Mtpa front end throughput, Coburn only has to process 20% of HM that Corridor would at 6% THM head grade. That means approx 20% the capex and opex from the wet plant rougher spirals onwards... through the rest of the wet plant, up-grade concentrator and dry plant to the point only VHM is being processed.
So, not much trash mineral and the VHM is extremely valuable, being high in Zr, Rt and predominantly >60% TiO2 premium Chloride plant direct feed Ilm. Trucking 250km is a pain, but the average value per tonne of HM Concentrate trucked is from Coburn is twice that of Corridor product, more than making up for the extra distance.
Of course, great roads and not much traffic on the highway to Geraldton for a triple road train efficiently moving directly from dry-plant port storage shed. Either Corridor trucks at half the speed and twice the cost to Maputo port, trying not to kill any locals or their animals, or it's the Never-never train... twice the cost of road trains because of double handling, purpose built rail-loading infrastructure near the mine, and price gouging by a corrupt government owned rail corporation also needing to cover costs with only a few clients...
Next we have to consider Coburn only got up and running because NAIF provided cheap $150m 30 year debt. nice if you can get it.... you expecting the Moz government or Chinese competitors up the road to gift MRQ that sort of lolly? lol. No, of course there is no handout coming for a marginal and unrequired poor cousin to Corridor 1.
Speaking of Chinese, you do realise Corridor 1 is a competitor not a friend just up the road? Chinese ain;t Chinese... Corridor 1 was bought by private Chinese money back in the silly days of reckless deals post-GFC, funded by corrupt banks and game of mates. Paying $500M for marginal deposit BHP couldn;t make sense of was way over, though to be fair min sand prices were on a tare. Unsurprising it's taken DingSheng so long to build even a pilot plant... over-paid, company broke after doing similar silly deals elsewhere in Africa, at risk of losing the project for non-compliance on the original purchase agreement... what a mess.
Still, Corridor 1 is head and shoulders better than MRQ's cast off, it will get built to serious capacity eventually. Probably after it is sold to another Chinese player with deeper pockets to pay down Dingsheng's parent debt. Corridor type ilmenite is a poor quality with specific qualities looking for off-take 9probably in China). Corridor 1 has enough to supply the world with this stuff for 100 years, they don't need MRQ's higher cost, lower margin ore... or need the competition. No favours form China I'm afraid.
MRQ are Kangaroo Edward, and you should have learned enough by now to realise it...
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