SWOTANALYSIS
Strengths Positive PFS: The recently completed PFS highlights a robustoperation based on a world class deposit, which has been the catalyst for theCompany to proceed to the DFS. Simplegeology: The style of mineralisation is characterised by reasonably simplegeology and continuous high grade mineralisation, making for relatively simplelow strip open cut mining.
Shallow oxidation: The northern part of the resource has only ashallow (5m to 10m) depth to the base of complete oxidation; this is importantas it reduces the amount of time and cost of pre-stripping on any start up ofoperations to get to the readily treatable transition and fresh mineralisation.
Positive metallurgy: Work to date indicates that the project willhave good metallurgical characteristics, with premium grade V2O5 being producedin bench scale testwork. This is by virtue of the mineralisation being able tobe concentrated into a high grade, clean feed for the planned roast/leachprocessing.
Mining friendly jurisdiction: Gabanintha is located in WesternAustralia, a mining-friendly jurisdiction which in 2017 ranked 5th globally and1st in Australia in the Fraser Institute Survey of Mining Companies. Cashed up: Having just raised A$6 million, the Company hassufficient cash to fund activities for the foreseeable future - in addition inthe money options have the potential to provide an additional A$8.4 millionupon conversion.
Weaknesses Development funding: Given the “spike-collapse” nature of the price history of vanadium, traditional project financing may bedifficult to obtain with price forecasts being unreliable, even with thepotential for a structural change in the industry. However, on the other side,there may be a number of financing options open, including offtakepre-payments, vendor financing and a partner taking an equity stake in theProject.
Opportunities Growing vanadiumdemand: This is largely tied into the forecast growth in the storage andrebar markets, and with Gabanintha, the Company has a project that is wellplaced to take advantage of improving markets. Gabanintha development options: There is, should the Company wish, thepotential for different development options, including the possibility to valueadd by installing a vanadium nitride or electrolyte plant. Gabanintha co-products, alternative metallurgical processroutes: Although not being actively pursued, there could be the opportunity toextract high quality titanium and iron products through additional processingof the Gabanintha mineralisation – TNG Limited (ASX: TNG) is planning such anoperation at Mt Peake in the Northern Territory using the licenced TIVANprocess, however such projects will require significant additional capital thanthat required for a vanadium only operation. Neometals (ASX: NMT) is alsodeveloping a multi-metal leach process for use on their Barrambie deposit,targeting titanium production. There is also the possibility to extract basemetals through the additional flotation of the minor amounts of sulphide thatare present in the concentrator tails.
ThreatsMarkets: Although junior resources markets are strong at the moment, they canturn on a dime; junior resource stocks are very susceptible to falls in theoverall stock markets, which will affect