Good news, page-6

Freehold – Following the announcement and price activity in RIE today I decided to have a geologist I work with (mining services consultant) take a look at the releases. I was also interested to get his thoughts on your comparisons with some of the other ASX listed stocks that claim to have high grade as it can get very confusing when some compare apples with oranges.

In short he thinks RIE could be the ‘real deal’.


First he said that Riedel’s reported grades were very high grade. He made a distinction between REAL RUN OF MINE PRODUCTION GRADES produced from the dual concentrate streams and the rock chip samples carefully selected and reported by most other companies.

He also highlighted that the average ore grade of 0.9% cobalt mentioned in the body of announcement related solely to the re-treatment of dumps and tailings. Although this number was still very high it was some 50 years after the original mining took out all the best part of the ore. It would be safe to assume the original average ore grade was significantly higher.

He reviewed the announcements from the other companies you mentioned and again highlighted that many of these are not average ore grades as you claim.

For example CLY announcement from 15 June - Nockelberg does NOT have an average ore grade of 3-6% Co. In fact the opening line states that they are ROCK CHIP SAMPLES (only 5 samples to be precise). The highest reported grade of 15.76% Co was also a ROCK CHIP SAMPLE and actually from Leogang – and not average ore grade as you incorrectly claim. Also believes that the Austrian project has significant environmental issues that will be very difficult for CLY to overcome.

Also very important point he made was that CLY will have to pay $1.5 million to get initial 20% of project before they start spending money in ground, Riedel however get up to 90% without giving the vendors any cash or shares – all expenditure goes directly into developing the project.

In CHK’s investor presentation they say that Mount Cobalt reportedly produced 3225 tonnes of hand-picked ore to produce net yield of 226.4 tonnes of cobalt (approx. US$13 million worth). In comparison, Riedel’s La Profunda Mine produced 100,000 tonnes which subsequently produced 2 streams of concentrate that had a net yield of 3500 tonnes of cobalt (US$203 million worth of cobalt alone without adding in value of copper).

The CHK’s Wee Macgregor project, are getting cobalt sample grades of 0.01 – 0.06% (not 0.1% but 0.01%) which is probably why they refer to highly copper grades instead.

If you read the EUC announcements you will note they are very careful in the wording. They do not claim a number of tonnes at average ore grade of 4% but instead quote some guy named Rozlozsnika from 1935 who states the the Zemberg Vein System reported average PRODUCTION grades of 4%. They say nothing about how many tonnes produced at that grade or how much was converted into a concentrate.

Also important to note that EUC/WMN had to give up a significant portion of the company in order to vend that project (287m shares on signing + 73m shares on milestone) = $20m + $m at current prices.

I expect the market will compare Riedel's market cap plus potential and value it accordingly. Market Cap $5.8 mil. Good potential.