Must say, I am impressed by this guy whenever I hear him speak. Blunt, informed and capable - I like the combination
How best to curtail the bleeding share price?
I think thebest way is for me to deliver on what I promised over the next twelve months.So next year I promised to deliver an agreement with a strategic investor,start construction of the Bio plant, and complete the Feasibility Studies. AndI’m still committed to deliver these items.
On the November trip:
We had agreat trip. We visited seven States in three weeks. Talked to about a dozenpotential strategic and financial investors.
We startedin Nevada where we visited the Buena Vista mine site which is near Reno. We surveyedthe surrounding areas, collected samples for beneficiation testing. We alsotalked to owners of some other iron ore mines in the local area.
We spentabout a week in Nevada on the mine site. And then we spent the next week traveling. Went to North Carolina, then we went to Illinois, and then down toIndiana, talking to potential strategic investors about the plans to produceBiochar and the Green Pig Iron.
After that,we started the final week in New York, in Manhattan. We met several financialadvisors and potential investors, and this was a great learning experience forme. I learned a lot about the ESG investing world. And also, I think wesurprised a lot in the ESG investing world about the potential of investing inthe Green Steel space while actually making a profit.
And thenafter New York, we had a quick trip down to Texas. We visited the newest steelmill in the US which is in a good location to receive our pig iron in thefuture.
And weended up in Pennsylvania to meet some more potential investors.
All themeetings were really positive. We continue discussions with these investorswhile we’re here back in Australia. We’re going to return back to the US inJanuary to continue and hopefully we’ll formalize these discussions intobinding agreements.
Immediate next steps:
With ourpotential investors, we’re conducting remote meetings now and over the nextmonth from Australia. And then we plan to return to the US as I said in January.And during these January meetings we aim to sign one or two agreements thatwill allow us to begin feasibility studies for both the Biochar plants and thePig Iron plants.
...Thesentiment was very positive from all of the industry leaders. As I said, the USsteel industry is in real need of pig iron now because of the Ukraine-Russiawar. Eighty percent of the Pig used to come from these two countries. The US is now havingto import pig from as far away as India. So this is a clear opportunity forMagnum to produce pig iron in the United States for the US steel industry.
...We’re actuallyhaving discussions not with the local governments but with the US Federalgovernment because there are plenty of funds for Green Steel projects beingannounced in the recent Inflation Reduction Act which was signed into law byPresident Biden recently.
More generally on HIsmelt:
I see theBuena Vista and the Appalachian as two separate Projects with interesting goalsfrom separate investors. But in the longer term I can see synergies between thetwo projects via the back-haul of the concentrate, the pig iron and othermaterials between the two sites.
Siting the plant(s?):
Well, there are several options being investigated at the moment with different potential investors. So these include the Nevada site, the Buena Vista mine, the Appalachian site which is in West Virginia. We were shown another brownfields site in the middle of the US which has excellent logistics.
There’s also potential for a greenfields site on the Gulf coast down in the south.
So all of these sites, they’ve got their pros and cons, and each investor has their own reasons for supporting each option. So we’ll look at all these options over the next few months.
On Biochar:
Thesediscussions on both the biomass supply and the biochar production are ongoing.We had some meetings this week. We’ll progress them even further in the nextfew months. And when the final site is identified, we’ll give you some morenews.
And still plenty more to be mined from that interview.
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