I thought I would post a few thoughts on ESS.
Currently we have reported a reported Minera Resource of 11.2 M tons at 1.2% lithia. We know from the reports of the February drilling that the oxidised zone, previously excluded from the calculations are now considered probable ore. This not only gives us another couple of million tons of additional ore, but gives us ore from surface, substantially reducing the capital cost of a start up as we have virtually no pre-strip item. We await the assay results, promised May, to allow metallurgical work to include this ore in our Resource. We have new drilling commencing in May, or already commenced, to test the extension of Cade. I think that it is reasonable to assume a resource of 20 million tons. Consider a production of 2 million tons a year of ore. The capital cost of such an operation would likely be less than $400 million.
The figures would look something like this:
Production of 6% concentrate from 2,000,000 tons of 1.2% ore 400,000 tons
say 70% recovery 280,000 tons
Value at latest BMX auction by PLS 280,000 by 5,600 $1,568,000,000
Operating cost at $300 a ton of ore $84,000,000
Net $1,484,000,000
Tax and Royalty $593,600,000
Profit $990,400,000
Quotes from the quarterly "A mining lease application will be lodged at the appropriate time during 2022"
"Dome North Lithium Mineral Resource remains the only Australian Lithium Mineral Resource not yet subject to commitment."
Predictions are that the production of electric vehicles will be restrained by the availability of lithium. These words mean that billions of dollars invested in production facilities will remain idle because the owners cannot obtain sufficient lithium for their production. Do you believe that raising the $3M to $4M required to get into production when we have a mining lease will be a problem?
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