Edmonton Meeting, Part II - The Details
in response to
by
posted on
Sep 20, 2008 06:26PM
Producing Mines and "state-of-the-art" Mill
Liberty Mines Investor's Meeting
September 20, 2008, 2pm @ Edmonton Delta South
Gary stated that he would put the PowerPoint slides from this meeting up on the Liberty Mines website for all to see. For someone who is fairly well read up on what the company is up to, it was what he had to say that wasn't on the PowerPoint that was the most useful information.
I feverishly wrote down 4 pages of notes. I'll try and encapsulate the meeting as best I can... much of this people will already know, some of it will be new:
-McWatters pre-production of 400tpd has started and the results are very promising. The recovery rate is even higher than they had hoped for, with an 87-88% recovery from the pre-production ore of 0.59-0.61% Ni. They had expected around 83% recovery from the low grade pre-production ore. This is creating 12-13% concentrate. The ore is floating well and is requiring less chemical than anticipated. With the effectiveness of process the McWatters pre-production ore, it may be economical to process down to 0.4% grade ore if nickel prices are favorable enough.
-Repayments to JJNICL: At $10 nickel, we expect to have them paid back in 275 days. At $8 nickel, this stretches to 344 days. JJNICL is keeping 30% of the concentrate that we send them as payment against our debt. The other 70% comes back to us as cash.
-Salman loan of $16.4mm is due October 29, 2009. This is anticipated to be able to be paid off by this date at $8.50 nickel.
-New financing required of $5-$10mm as mentioned in my summary. Gary feels confident that he can source this financing without causing share dilution.
-Concentrate from the Redstone mill is around 16.5% Ni (very good)
-We are averaging around 80% net smelter return from JJNICL/XStrata combined.
-We will explore acquisitions/expansion once we are generating healthy cash flow.
Details on each of our mines:
REDSTONE
-Ramp is down to 1600', all development is complete
-Considering mining the hanging wall if feasible. The ore is lower grade but easy to get at.
-May sell shaft to raise short term cash
MCWATTERS
-Planning to hit high grade ore around December. Full production around February 2009.
-Preproduction ore is running well through the flotation circuit and is producing a higher recovery rate than expected
HART
-Mine development scheduled for second half of 2009
-Grade increases at depth, 2-2.5% Ni at lower levels.
REDSTONE MILL
-3rd ball mill up by December 2008
GROVES
Permit issued to build bridge. Need permit before we can build bridge. Bridge needed before we drill. Need cash before we drill. Therefore Groves is a few years away from development.
SOTHMAN
-6-8 holes have been drilled, all have had mineralization
-lots of tons at Sothman, but low grade - feasible at $8 Ni?
McARA
-Has a rich cobalt deposit, but we will need to build a hydrometallurgical facility to process the ore since we will be unable to find a company (including China) to take it given the high Arsenic content.
-Chinese may be interested in going 50/50 in building a hydromet facility
-Not entertaining further work at McAra until we have significant cash flow
That's about it... combined with the other info I put in my other post.