2ic,
Fair enough on your views, can I ask you to expand on these.
"The real concern for me was the price deck BSE used to get the NPV, IRR etc to where they did. The PFS made it clear that management used their own internal research and assumptions to come up with LOM product pricing, but the prices all seem to be 15-20% higher than reasonable IMO."Base have been selling into these markets for a number of years and have some handy personnel that know how it works, they are the biggest exporter of ilmenite into China. As a shareholder I would expect them to know it better than most, why do you think this pricing mechanism used is unreasonable?
"Also, the current 2% royalty figure looks a concern given the rates in Australia are 5-7% generally. Who would be surprised if the Madagascar government increased the royalty to 5% after the mine is built, matching the country BSE is listed in, and raising much needed extra government revenue?"
The biggest ilmenite mine in the world is on the east coast of Madagascar owned by Rio Tinto. They are also listed on the ASX, should they have the same concerns?
Just to add from previous posters. I thought the capex was on the high side also, but the counter argument is the opex is a spot on.
Something I thought was interesting in the pfs, was the three ilmenite product streams. I thought they would take the simple lower capex approach and produce two, but it looks as though the market has spoken and they are forking out the loot and are going three.
If this market runs short of Rutile into the future (which I think is inevitable), Toliara's chloride ilmenite could become incredibly valuable. And yes, Iluka would be making money like no tomorrow.
Pep