Fouad Haidir, Market Herald: Magnum Mining and Exploration signed an MOU with Anglo-American to progress negotiations towards a 100% off-take of the Buena Vista iron project in Nevada in the US. To discuss this, I'm joined by the company's CEO, Neil Goodman. Neil, good to have you here once again. This is Magnum’s third off-take MOU in the last few months. Why’s the company continuing to look for partner's when the likes of Mitsubishi are already involved?
Neil Goodman, Magnum CEO: We’re not looking for extra partners. Anglo actually came to us. They’d seen the agreement we signed with Mitsubishi. They came to us and said they think they could do a better deal for us than Mitsubishi. It brings in a bit of competitive tension, which is good for us, and they’ve got some different ideas. So we’re pursuing that with them.
The other off-take agreement with the Midmetal team in Saudi Arabia is a totally different kettle of fish. They are looking to off-take ore, but they're also looking to use Pig Iron from waste materials in Saudi Arabia. So it’s a whole different ball game.
We’ll pursue all three in parallel and see what's best for our shareholders.
Haidir: Are you quite hopeful about this potential uptake with Anglo-American?
Goodman: I'm hopeful for all of them in different ways. But it does show the market for this DRI grade concentrate is very hot at the moment. Everybody's looking for this grade of ore. It's in short supply already. More and more DRI plants are being built in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. So this demand is going to grow.
Haidir: You just returned from the States, Neil. We had a chat just before you hopped on the plane last week. How was the trip?
Goodman: It was good. It was long, tiring - but very fruitful. We’ve got a full team of advisors now working in New York on the listing on disallowed there; lawyers, accountants, advisors, researches, and we're talking to investors now online from Perth. So New York's busy.
I visited the project team in Nevada. We visited the port. There was some good discussion with ports. The mine side is all finished now. We’ll concentrate on the middle link between the port and the mine – is the rail. Get that all done together, that will be …we’ll have the full package ready to talk to investors.
Haidir: And what's next on the work?
Goodman: Next on the work is keep going on all fronts, keep pushing through. The demand is there. We have the results. The timing is right. The stars are aligning. So we need to push this through to completion and get some concentrate onto the rail, onto the ship, and out to the Middle East.
Haidir: They are aligning indeed. Neil Goodman, thanks for the chat today.
Goodman: Thanks, Fouad.
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