Recording date: 9th August 2023

Join Geoff Atkins and Matt as they dive deep into the intricacies of the Rare Earth industry. In this enlightening conversation, they discuss the challenges companies face in balancing market demands with operational requirements. From the complexities of pricing models in a non-transparent market to the pivotal role of supply chains and their impact on financial models, this discussion is a must-watch for anyone wanting to gain a comprehensive understanding of the Rare Earths sector.

Interview with Denis Wood, Executive Chairman of KGL Resources (ASX: KGL)

Our previous interview: https://youtu.be/FTXfdpTF6ag

Recording date: 8th August 2023

KGL Resources Limited is an Australian mineral explorer and developer focused on the delineation and development of the high grade Resource at the Jervois Copper Project in the Northern Territory, Australia and establishing a high grade, sustainable copper mine.

Using modern, cost effective exploration methods, the Company has successfully defined a current JORC Resource of 23.80 Million tonnes at 2.02% Copper, 0.25g/t Gold and 25.3g/t Silver.

The Company is currently focused on completing Project studies that will determine the optimal development scenario at Jervois, with environmental approval recommended in October 2019, and the Jervois Mining Management Plan approved by the NT Government in January 2021.

Interview with Arthur Halleran, President & CEO of Trillion Energy (CSE: TCF)

Our previous interview: https://youtu.be/SMjbKprORgE

Recording date: 4th August 2023

Trillion Energy is dedicated to producing natural gas for Europe and Türkiye, holding assets in both Türkiye and Bulgaria. The firm possesses a 49% stake in the SASB natural gas field, a pioneering and extensive natural gas development project in the Black Sea, and a 19.6% interest in the Cendere oil field (with a 9.8% interest in three specific wells).

Recording date: 7th August 2023

What a whirlwind of events in the world of uranium. From the mountains of Colorado to the plains of Niger, things are shifting. The uranium market is a geopolitical chess game, and the players are making their moves. Did you catch the news about the coup in Niger? Shocking, right? It's got everyone on edge, from Global Atomic to GoviEx. But here's the real question: should we be worried From where we're sitting, it's a mixed bag. Sure, there's concern. But there's also opportunity. The French, for instance, they're feeling the heat. But they've got options. They've got their eyes on Uzbekistan, Mongolia, even Canada and Australia. And then there's the Russians. Always an interesting player in this game. They're circling, ready to step in. And they're not alone. The Saudis are also making moves, looking to invest in uranium outside their region. In the midst of all this, there's one thing that's clear: the uranium market is not for the faint-hearted. It's a high-stakes game, with big players and even bigger consequences.

But hey, that's what makes it exciting, right?

Interview with David Rae, President & CEO of Dundee Precious Metals (TSX: DPM)

Dundee Precious Metals Inc. is a Canadian international gold mining company with operations and projects in Bulgaria, Namibia, Ecuador and Serbia. The company's purpose is to unlock resources and generate value to thrive and grow together, guided by its core values. Its strategic pillars related to ESG, innovation, optimizing its portfolio, and growth aim to deliver value for stakeholders. DPM allocates resources in line with its strategy. Its shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol DPM.

Interview with Dustin Perry, CEO of Kingfisher Metals (TSX-V: KFR)

Kingfisher Metals Corp. is a Canadian exploration company focused on underexplored district-scale projects in British Columbia's Golden Triangle region. The company has 100% ownership of three district-scale projects and an option to earn 100% of a fourth project. Kingfisher's properties offer potential exposure to gold, copper, silver and zinc mineralization. The company is leveraging its technical expertise to unlock value from these under-explored regions through systematic exploration.

Panel with John Cash, Chairman, President & CEO of Ur-Energy (TSX:URG) & David Cates, President & CEO of Denison Mines (TSX:DML)

Ur-Energy is operating its Lost Creek in-situ recovery uranium facility in Wyoming. The company has produced approximately 2.7 million pounds of U3O8 since the commencement of operations. Ur-Energy now has all permits and authorisations to begin construction on its second in-situ uranium recovery operation, Shirley Basin, also in Wyoming.

Denison Mines is a uranium exploration and development company with projects in the Athabasca Basin region. The company’s flagship Wheeler River project is the largest undeveloped uranium project in the region and is host to the high-grade Phoenix and Gryphon deposits. Denison is looking to make a construction decision on Phoenix in 2025.

Both discuss how geopolitical risks and project development challenges could constrain global uranium supply. This underscores the need for their new mines to fill looming shortfalls.

What’s been happening:

Niger – awaiting the next catalyst?

On 26 July news broke of a coup in Niger - borders were closed and a nationwide curfew was declared, and all institutions of the republic were suspended.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66320895

In the days following we saw statements from Global Atomic and GoviEx that employees were safe and it was business as usual.

 https://globalatomiccorp.com/investors/news/news-details/2023/Global-Atomic-Updates-the-Situation-in-The-Republic-of-Niger-July31/default.aspx

https://goviex.com/site/assets/files/4676/2l_nigerupdate_310723_final.pdf

With 25% of the EU’s uranium coming from Niger the coup raised a series of concerns for their clean energy sector. Orano the major operator in the region said ‘operations continue as normal’.

https://greeninvesting.co/2023/07/niger-coup-threatens-frances-uranium-supply-nuclear-energy-industry/

We discuss how this key development might affect the uranium market.

Winner of the week:

It’s a tie between Vogtle & China.

Georgia Power declared that Plant Vogtle Unit 3 has entered commercial operation. They are the tied winner because the US administration saw the bigger picture and persisted, and can now look forward.

https://www.georgiapower.com/company/news-center/2023-articles/vogtle-unit-3-goes-into-operation.html

China approved 6 new nuclear reactors commencements at $17B investment. Even though these are the first approvals for 2023, they are in addition to 10 in 2022. China accounts for 23 of 55 nukes under construction globally.

https://world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Six-reactors-approved-for-construction-in-China
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-01/china-approves-six-nuclear-reactors-at-17-billion-investment?utm_source=website&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=twitter#xj4y7vzkg

Bungle of the week:

Collectively award it to all of those that proclaimed that renewable pricing can only get cheaper.

These last 2 weeks Vattenfall and Ørsted abandoned offshore wind projects in the US & UK due to soaring costs of up to 40%.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-22/biggest-offshore-wind-power-plans-in-crisis-iberdrola-orsted-vattenfall-hit

https://www.rechargenews.com/wind/too-expensive-us-state-refuses-lone-offshore-wind-bid-by-orsted-jv-on-cost-concerns/2-1-1488381

Siemens Gamesa board has initiated an "extended technical review" that will incur "significantly higher costs" than previously assumed, estimated to be in excess of 1 billion euros ($1.09 billion).

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/06/23/siemens-energy-scraps-profit-outlook-as-wind-turbine-troubles-deepen.html

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-29/wind-turbines-that-shake-and-break-cost-their-maker-billions#xj4y7vzkg

Question of the week:
KAP’s sales have gone up 13% because of (FLEX) in their contracts. What does that mean?

Kazatomprom 2Q23 Operations and Trading Update - https://www.kazatomprom.kz/en/media/view/kazatomprom_2Q23_operations_and_trading_update

Moonshots & Fizzers:

The potential moonshot is the physical uranium funds… or will they fizzle out?

For 11 days before the coup in Niger SPUT had been trading at an average discount of 11.00%, since the coup it has substantially reduced, sitting at an average discount of -7.82%.

https://twitter.com/skysurfer75/status/1686513074394578944/photo/1
https://twitter.com/janwolansky/status/1686470708984008704/photo/1
https://twitter.com/quakes99/status/1686517113756975104?s=20

Yellowcake is up nearly 6% in London

https://www.holdcomarkets.com/post/the-month-in-u-inventory-yellowcake-p-nav-discount-too-narrow-in-relation-to-sput
https://twitter.com/moniology/status/1686030693975912448/photo/1
https://twitter.com/HoldcoMarkets/status/1686505128793141248/photo/1

Tweet of the week:

https://twitter.com/sollidnuclear/status/1683467634216509443?s=20What’s been happening

“Strategic patience” is required by all… an exciting September coming up.

Nickel briefly popped through $22,000 (10/lb) and remains in the upper end of $20,000-$22,000 where it has been sitting for the last 6 weeks. LME inventories remain low at 37-38,000 tonnes. Sulphate prices are flat and sitting at a similar discount as last week. In contrast, ore prices and NPI prices ticked higher in China – haven’t seen a rebound in stainless prices yet.  May be driven by rumours that China SRB is stockpiling some nickel.

The big news of the week:

Saudi Arabia is investing $US3.4 billion for a 10% stake in Brazil’s Vale base metals business – good to see the Middle East $$ in the sector.

Australia going to include nickel in the critical minerals list.

Potential for Russian nickel to be subject to sanctions in UK/Europe in the upcoming year – think a lot of people choosing not to use it, but if implemented, a little more challenging given that nearly ½ of Russian nickel used to end up in Europe.

Magna Metals PEA on Crean Hill/Denison project picked up earlier in the year from Sibanye – unfortunately share price was off by about 15% (but had popped up 10% in the week before). 
Metrics on IRR and NPV are both good at $C200 million and 22% IRR with a 15-year mine life mining 1.5-2 Mtpa of ore for a few years with an open pit and then 1.25 Mtpa underground operation with roughly 10ktpa of nickel production.  However, the market reacted negatively for a couple of reasons with capital cost being the primary one:

- Total of CAD$129 million including $48 million of “advanced exploration” costs, $24 million in open pit costs, and $57 million in underground capital. Think the market was expecting was going to be open pit restart and then underground so was a little surprised at the total amount.
- They had some pretty splashy high-grade intervals but the life of mine grades are 0.6% nickel, 0.6% copper and over 1g/t PGMs so some investors were probably expecting some more grades to pop out.
- The third reason was valuation – at $0.75/share has a market cap of $120 million versus the value for the project at $C200 million (and they also have Shakespeare) – which is a pretty healthy P/NAV in the industry sector that is struggling.

A good example of challenges with high grade – can be narrower, less continuous = more drilling capital, particularly if has to be done underground.

Widgie Nickel had nice step-out results and infill drilling
100-metre step out Eastern Limb MEDD069 29.0m @ 1.66% Ni from 79m Incl. 5.0m @ 3.23% Ni from 88m.  Widgie Townsite MEDD061 30.85m @ 1.59% Ni from 435m Incl. 13.43m @ 2.74% Ni from 449.7m And 3.36m @ 3.27% Ni from 471.3m.

Our Timmins neighbour had updated resources from their W4 higher grade deposit:

Measured + Indicated Resources of 31.3M pounds at 0.98% Ni (2.1x the 2010 historical estimate) and Inferred Resources of 12.1M pounds at 0.98% Ni (3.6x the 2010 historical estimate) – about 40% of that in open pit and balance underground resource.

Interview with Chris Reed, Managing Director & CEO of Neometals Ltd. (ASX: NMT)

Neometals is a sustainable battery materials company that has developed proprietary technologies to recover and recycle valuable materials from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries and industrial by-products.

The company has three core business units focused on battery material recycling and resource recovery:

Lithium-ion battery (LIB) recycling through a joint venture called Primobius. This operates a commercial recycling facility in Germany and has partnered with Mercedes Benz. A larger facility in Canada with Stelco is planned for 2023.

Vanadium recovery from steelmaking slag through a joint venture in Finland. This aims to produce high-purity vanadium pentoxide from slag supplied by Scandinavian steelmaker SSAB. Production is expected to start in 2023.

Lithium chemicals production from brines and hard rock using Neometals' ELi electrolysis process. A pilot plant with Portuguese company Bondalti is under development targeting 25,000 tonnes per annum of lithium hydroxide.

Neometals also owns the Barrambie titanium-vanadium project in Australia. This is one of the world's highest-grade deposits and a take-or-pay offtake deal is being finalised to support the export of titanium concentrate to China.

In summary, Neometals is leveraging proprietary technologies to sustainably produce battery materials by recycling end-of-life products and recovering co-products from industrial processes. Its commercial facilities are expected to come online in 2023.