I think we will be probably doing a raise in near future to handle working capital requirements rather than fund the project.
The project, at just $50M capex will very likely be covered by a mix of pre-payment and some debt. Any equity raising is likely to be for supporting working capital and exploration.
My guess is potential offtake partners would be throwing offers at them to secure the copper/cobalt concentrate, and in some cases there could be a deal to also fund and JV on cobalt chemical (preferably cobalt sulphate) production with an extra $20-30M. Cobalt Sulphate currently fetches a 25% premium to cobalt price for contained cobalt.
There are two new SXEW plants being put up in Kolwezi specifically to process cobalt ore and the pressure from major customers like Apple and Tesla on the DRC cobalt traders to remove artisanal supply is huge. To secure a clean, safe, source from a mechanised mine would secure a safe future for either of these plants. So there is not just the pressure from cobalt demand but the pressure to clean up the supply chain is also real
To add to this Copper smelters are losing business to SXEW plants as concentrate producers want cobalt credits. So the copper smelters are providing increasingly lucrative terms to overcome the fact that they can't pay for cobalt. Which will work very nicely for our later years of production with reduced cobalt content.
Its nice when you have a product everyone wants. But wait till we get to 2018 and beyond, it will be ridiculous.
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I think we will be probably doing a raise in near future to...
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