I posted this on SH in response to a couple of bashers... don't usually respond to these guys, but profittakes question about whether TTQ would be economically feasible called me to action.

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Back on March 13th TCM announced an expansion of Endako from 28,000 tpd to 50,000 tpd. Based on the numbers in TTQ's 43-101 and the strong indications that the resource is expanding I would expect TTQ would be planning a mill to handle similar tonnage.

"Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc. (the "Company"), one of the world's largest publicly traded, pure molybdenum producers, today announced that its Board of Directors has approved plans to expand capacity at the Endako Mine from 28,000 to 50,000 tonnes of ore per day beginning in 2010. "

In my previous post I rounded some numbers... so now I'm using numbers in the 43-101 and getting my calculator out....

Indicated at grade > cutoff of 0.096% -> 171,9 million lbs
Inferred at grade > cutoff 0.093% -> 123.10 million lbs

Average high grade for indicated + inferred > cutoff 0.094725% -> 295 million lbs

Now let's crunch through some more numbers... following profittakers methodology

0.094725% moly/tonne. 0.00094725 x 1000 kg x 2.2 pounds/kg = 2.084 lbs/t

Using profittakes price of $34/lb Mo, we get

$34 * 2.084 = $70.86

Subtract costs/t of $10 - which I'm told is very conservative (high in other words).

You get $60.86 profit per tonne ($4 less than my previous calculations or about 6.25% lower)

Now... can this project still be feasible with these new numbers.... hmmmmmm What do you think MaketheCash/Profittaker?? Do you think you could make more cash shorting this one or going long.... hmmmm... let's see. Calculator out again.... <click> <click> <click>....

Oh yeah... let's drop the 50,000 tpd down to TCM's current rate of 28,000 tpd -> even though it would appear that taking 50,000 tpd is possible... even better... here is a list of profits for various tonnages.

tpd profit
1 $60.86
10 $608.60
100 $6,086.00
1000 $60,860.00
10,000 $608,600.00
20,000 $1,217,200.00
30,000 $1,825,800.00

Now personally, I expect that TTM will use a price for Mo in their NPV to be somewhere between $15/lb and $18/lb. Although Virgin Metals just released their NPV using $25/lb so who knows. I submit to you that taking 50% off the numbers above still leaves you with a tidy daily profit and a project that is very economically feasible.

One of the many great things about CHU is that it is still open in all directions and they have two more anomalies to drill that are larger (at least from a geophysics perspective) than CHU. If one of these proves to have economic grades too... well... the sky is the limit. IMHO

Do your own DD and GLTA

m.z.