Thanks Nihilism, great to have some constructive discussion here.
Completely understand that the 210m resource valuation on 180 capex, but of course they are in early days of exploration. Despite the fact they would never progress to production with 30mt, on the assumption they did, any new ore discoveries would affect the valuation enormously as the plant etc would be in place.
Another possibility is a JV with an Aluminia major. Lets use Rio as an example. Rio provide plant investment in return for the first 30mt. QBL get back to their strength which is exploration. If margin was $10/t, QBL then sell for say $5/t and the Rio get a $5 discount on market prices. Additionally, Rio would have full control of supply chain with a JV partner highly insentvised to prove up more.
QBL stated their target at South Johnston is 200 – 250 Mt with an acid soluble alumina range of 31% to 40%. Lets say conservatively they are only able to prove up 100m/t at 30%, then in the above JV scenario, QBL is looking at $500m.
Win/Win??
QBL Price at posting:
5.9¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
