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How many years to do the more drilling that is required to get an actual MRE? How long to design a Plant?"
We are currently having part of the mineralisation undergoing metallurgical testing, it's this testing that determines the design of the processing plant. It's happening at exactly the same time as further drilling to raise the level of confidence in the ore body, as in from inferred to measured and indicated.
The measured and indicated will be the basis of the ore body to be mined and we have already been told upgrades to the MRE later this year, so months not years.
By next year studies will be under way looking at all aspects of the entire operation that are not already being studied, likely to come out in a document called a feasibility study, possibly by the end of next year.
Then plans and deals can be done with companies and governments on funding. Governments will likely fund road upgrades, perhaps an airport with decent landing strip for FIFO workers and fresh supplies for workers and local community. They could start building by '26/27 and be mining a year or so later.
If they decide to go for a smaller plant to begin with, depending upon deals done with companies needing Niobium, and using a higher grade ore, say 3-4%, then the smaller starting operation might be quicker to get going plus need less capital.
At say just a 500kt/yr plant and using 4% ore grade (probably over 2 decades at even this grade, then expand plant size after year 3-5 depending upon demand; the initial plant will still produce around 12,000t Nb2O5 and perhaps 75Kt of P2O5, being revenue worth over $850M/yr with a high profit margin.
With a smaller plant, high graded, we could be up and running by late '27/'28, and looking to expand by 2030.
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How long to make the Access roads, then build an entire Town for the workers, Including waste treatment facilities and everything else?"
Probably months, as they are very good at doing this for remote mines in WA, and the experts in the various fields involved in this work have decades of experience. If you want one place in the world to set up a remote mine, where lots of expertise already exists, it's Perth...
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How do they get food and water there?
They need to truck everything in remember?
Do they need to build a store for the workers food etc?
What about power?
Do they have to build a power station?"
All pretty much answered already, we are in the best place in the world for knowing how to do all this stuff, it's never been an issue before for setting up places like Degrussa or Telfer, so it wont be a problem now.
It's all easily possible if a company has the resource size and high grade mineralisation. We have both in spades, so the development of this wont be an issue. Also because Niobium is on the critical minerals list, for countries outside the BRICS group, a whole lot more funding should be expected from governments than would normally apply, to hasten the development..
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No-One has even seen the deposit as its around 50 metres deep."
This is an absurd statement, no-one needs to see it either.. No-one has ever seen the underground deposits of Broken Hill, Mt Isa or Olympic Dam either, yet they seem to have been able to make a few dollars out of them over the years.
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