Potential Newsflow

A short while ago, I thought the newsflow could be a little slow after confirmation of the Vale JV agreement. However, I am now starting to think differently. CLE appear to be fast tracking this as much as possible and we may not have to wait long for some important news. It was good to get confirmation of the first US$6.3M (A$10M) from Vale, less than one month after signing the deal .

Below is a list of potential news items that I think we could look forward too:

• Current studies being undertaken on power and rail. These will be completed before the Scoping Study, so therefore expected in the coming weeks. (Source: MarketOpen interview).
• Scoping Study including project economics. Timing is 6 to 8 weeks (Source MarketOpen interview which said within next couple of months and 6 to 8 weeks mentioned in Proactive Investors interview). Will include economic and technical numbers. Paul Berend said in Proactive Investor interview "I can say nothing about what that is, except that there are lots of zero's involved."
• "Rapid project development plan with bulk samples of DR and BF concentrates available for steel mill clients in Q1 2025 and DR and BF pellets in Q2 2025" (Source: Half yearly report). This will be important as it will confirm the market demand for the product that will be produced and potentially adding confidence to the premium that could be received for high grade low impurity iron ore - the grade of ore that will be needed to make green steel which is currently only available in limited quantities.
• Drilling program planned for June to November 2025. The drilling plan is for 24,000m (source, ASX announcement 11 March 2025). To put the size and importance of this drilling program into context, previous drilling was "In 2011 this comprised 43 drill holes for 5,662 m and in 2012, drilling of 72 drillholes for 22,359 m" (source: CLE website under Geology page). I have not been able to find details of any drilling since then, but there have been various studies on the geology that have been undertaken. Therefore, this drilling is likely to both increase the size of the resource but also increase the confidence level of the current resource.
• Another cash payment from Vale in three months time (source: ASX announcement 11 March 2025 noting quarterly payments)

Feel free to add anything I might have missed.

Whilst each of these will be important announcements, I think that the most significant will be the release of the scoping study. That will be really important to gaining an understanding of the economics of the project, its capital costs, operating costs, expected price premiums for grade to be produced, but more importantly, its IRR and NPV. That will be our first glimpse into what CLE think the project is worth and what it could get for its 25% if Vale decide to buy 100% of the project.