Funny you mention how everyone was happy to laugh saying 1% cobalt wasn't possible, yet here we are. I had a few laughing at us and accusing me and JB of lying but having chatted at length with JB I walked away supremely confident. Surprise surprise we have "small mechanised contractors" and +1%Co......
Here are some of the more interesting quotes that I found challenging and really out there in no-man's land
"........mining at the stated rate of 10,000t/month. That works out at 10,000 1 tonne ute loads per month, or over 300 per day."
Deliver the ore in trucks sounds like the go........obvious?
"I'm just wondering why Glencore are bothering with their ore that averages 0.54% cobalt, now with high uranium levels, are spending millions of dollars to extract the Uranium, instead of just going down the road and picking up all the 1-3% cobalt that seems so abundant.We do assume that Glencore know what they are doing, so getting 1-3% ore from artisinal miners should be such a no brainer for them, instead of spending millions on their rubbish quality 0.54%"
Well that's quite a scathing report on Glencore and perhaps they aren't so smart after all. WFE can get 1-3%!! Maybe everyone hates and want to see the back of Glencore for screwing all in sundry for so many years and not giving back to the DRC economy and it's people? Just saying........
"In the first 6 months of 2018 Katanga milled a total of 3,595,014 tonnes at the 'Kamoto' concentrator. This consisted of 1,628,751 of the KITD 'tailings' with a copper grade of 1.56% Cu and 0.17% of Co. There were also 1,923,493 tonnes of open pit ore copper grade 3.74% Cu and 0.48% Co"
Well obviously Glencore decided to process 1.63MT of tailings at 0.17%Co. Alternatively in 6mths they could have processed 275KT of 1%Co and likely extracted the same amount of cobalt for approx 6 times less processing time and effort. Imagine if the ore is 1.5% or 2% cobalt? Mmmm, Glencore strategy of processing bulk dirt on mass not so shrewd in terms of efficiency......
Sometimes it pays immensely to take some posts with a big pinch of salt, especially from non-holders, as you are not aware of their research or motives. I prefer to contact management and find out first hand the company's project strategy and what is "actually" going on. I also highly recommend attending company meetings where possible, you can ask all your questions. Seriously they are a wealth of information to fill the gaps in between major milestones and announcements
It was indicated to me some time ago there were other players getting high grade ore supplies from mechanised local contractors at 1-3%Co and as high as 7%, with an average somewhere around low 2's. The mechanised part is now confirmed, now let's see what average grade we get delivered to our lovely spacious ROM pad???
I'm predicting possibly 5 receiving points in a 10hr day at around 30min for a tipper to dump 20T and move out of the away for the next guy..... Of course you will have disruptions such as rain days etc etc
5 x 20 loads x 20T x 30 days = 60KT per mth
GLTAH
WFE Price at posting:
2.4¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
