What Strategic Minerals owns
Subsidiary Southern Minerals has the rights to process the Cobre magnetite stockpile in New Mexico, US.
Central Australian Rare Earths (nickel sulphide, cobalt): CARE holds tenements and has access to mining rights for cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements in these tenements in Western Australia.
Leigh Creek (copper): Strategic acquired the rights to the old copper mine situated in the North Flinders Ranges of South Australia, 500km north of Adelaide in 2018. The project comprises three sites: Mountain of Light; Paltridge and Rosmann East.
Redmoor (tin tungsten): Located 25km from Plymouth, and 40km from the Drakelands (Hemerdon) tungsten mine and processing plant.
How it’s doing
Strategic Minerals recently slashed the projected costs and increased the cash expected from the Leigh Creek copper mine project.
The project funding requirement to get production up and running at Paltridge North has now been reduced to US$2.2mln as a result of the adoption of an alternate mine schedule for processing and use of external contractors to undertake mining.
What’s more, the total project pre-tax cash has increased to US$35.4mln due to earlier commencement and shorter processing of Lynda/Lorna Doone deposits.
The company is currently exploring funding options, including the possibility of a standalone listing for the project.
At Cobre, meanwhile, there was a 46% year-on-year boost in sales volumes in the third quarter to end September 2020, with sales revenue up by 55%.
What the directors say: John Peters, managing director
“Steps have been taken to move both the Leigh Creek and Redmoor projects forward in a manner that avoids dilution at the parent level.
“With copper prices around US$3lb and the recent emphasis on the strategic nature of tungsten, the board is confident that the underlying value in its projects will be realized.”
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Inflexion points
- Cobre sales recovering strongly
- Costs reduced at Leigh Creek after reworking of plans
- Strategic Minerals now has total ownership of the Redmoor asset
- Redmoor has scope to mine 600,000 tonnes of ore a year for the next decade based on a 7.1mln-tonne resource with a 1.09% tin equivalent grade
