BigBobby20
14 Aug 2017
Re: Investor Intel 10/08/2017 A good find, Bizana and one that warms the cockles. Also well written, which these days is almost something of a novelty. I notice, however, that the author points to an uptick of 20% in the price of tungsten as "the gain thus far this year" but then suggests that this "pales compared to the type of moves that other basic materials like Manganese and Chromite managed during the past 18 months." Not cricket, however, Christopher should realise, to compare outcomes for tungsten over seven+ months with shifts recorded by these two other metals over a period of 18 months. In fact, APT was fetching up to $250 per mtu just last Friday (11th August). Comparing like with like, we should go back to February 2016 (i.e.18 months) to get a fair and level playing field for our comparisons: tungsten at that time was trading at $160 per mtu. So, this means a $90 improvement--in other words a 56% improvement (and still going some).BB 20
bizana
14 Aug 2017
Investor Intel clarification The "source" mentioned in the middle of this article refers to a chart of the price of tungsten in 2017 which I did not include in my post.That omission gives the false impression that the article was from Almonty.The article was by Mr Ecclestone and he used a price chart scourced from Almonty.
bizana
14 Aug 2017
Almonty It appears that Almonty have been very active in recent years.The following is from Almonty's website 11/08/2017 announcing the take-up of an entire share issue valued at 5 million USD (CAD 5M) by its Pres and CEO, Lewis Black, who now controls >25% of Almonty.Again I am indebted to 12Vic for this scource. Full details on almonty.comAbout AlmontyThe principal business of Almonty is the mining, processing and shipping of tungsten concentrate from its Los Santos Mine in western Spain, its Wolfram Camp Mine in north Queensland, Australia and its Panasqueira mine in Portugal as well as the development of the Sangdong tungsten mine in Gangwon Province, Korea and the Valtreixal tin/tungsten project in north western Spain. The Los Santos Mine was acquired by Almonty in September 2011 and is located approximately 50 kilometres from Salamanca in western Spain and produces tungsten concentrate. The Wolfram Camp Mine was acquired by Almonty in September 2014 and is located approximately 130 kilometres west of Cairns in northern Queensland, Australia and produces tungsten and molybdenum concentrate. The Panasqueira mine, which has been in production since 1896, is located approximately 260 kilometres northeast of Lisbon, Portugal, was acquired in January 2016 and produces tungsten concentrate. The Sangdong mine, which was historically one of the largest tungsten mines in the world and one of the few long-life, high-grade tungsten deposits outside of China, was acquired in September 2015 through the acquisition of a 100% interest in Woulfe Mining Corp. Almonty owns 100% of the Valtreixal tin-tungsten project in northwestern Spain. Further information about Almonty’s activities may be found at www.almonty.com and under Almonty’s profile at www.sedar.com.
bizana
11 Aug 2017
Big Bobby 20 Many thanks BB20Bizana
BigBobby20
10 Aug 2017
Re: ProActive investor (Bizana) Apologies: interrupted by a phone call when editing my post. The unfinished sentence (penultimate line) should read "Many investors will be viewing the Ormonde future with greater confidence."BB20
BigBobby20
10 Aug 2017
Re: ProActive investor (Bizana) Hi Bizana:You asked (Aug.2) whether anyone could throw light on the statement "Almost half of the capital cost of the project is committed".Let me say first that I have no special insight into ORM project development and finances, apart, that is, from company reports, presentations that are published from time to time and the odd review (like the Alistair Ford piece that you included in your last post). Not surprisingly, reviews are a magnet for investors but they tend to offer little that is new to the Ormonde faithful and they sometimes raise more questions than they answer. One of the few revelations in the ProActive Investor article is the capital expenditure to date, which you highlight. We have to assume, given that financial officer Paul Carroll appears to be a source of information for the write up, that AF has this figure right (though it will doubtless have increased by at least a few per cent since the time of the interview). So what else do we know and what can we infer?We know, in the first place, from the March 2017 company presentation that the Barruecopardo project Capex is projected to be 53.6 Eurom. "Almost half" can therefore be guessed at as circa 25 Eurom (and growing as the weeks and months go by). The same presentation has a useful flow chart showing the simultaneity or overlap of some activities and the sequential triggering of others, as one set of activities is completed and allows another to begin. There is also a helpful projection of costs in the different target activities: plant engineering at 32.5 Eurom is the largest; water management at 10 Eurom comes next; project services (land access, power lines) and mining preparations then follow as somewhat smaller disbursements at 4.5 and 4.3 Eurom each. Following the flow chart and adding in supporting information put out by the company elsewhere in recent months, it is possible to build a fairly detailed picture of the current state of play in each of the principal development categories. We know, for example, that land acquisition is complete and paid for; we know that bypass roads, site access, lay down areas, drainage and power are in place; also that 10 Eurom thus far has been invested in procurement, and that this process (procurement) will be completed, along with all plant engineering, within the next month or two. And we can see a start has already been made to the final phase of activity, that is to say plant construction and commissioning, scheduled to be completed in Q3 of 2018. There is enough information here in other words for us to arrive, with a little forensic detective work, at a breakdown of the 25 Eurom already committed, which allows us to see, in broad brush, near enough what expenditure has gone to progress which programme of activity. I shall resist giving more examples here, as it is simpler for readers to refer to the sources I mention, especially the March 2017 presentation, to gain a good picture of events.The source of the “nearly 50% of Capex” spent will be evident: it comes from the Oaktree funding (a total of 99.7 Eurom) and I am assuming it is being drawn from the equity portion of that deal (44.2 Eurom), avoiding, for now, draw down from the debt portion (55.5 Eurom) so that interest is not clocking up. As the development programme accelerates towards the finishing line, I imagine we will probably be tapping into the debt finance element early in the New Year 2018. I think we can all see now the benefits of having securely in place all the development finance that will be needed, including an exploration fund; the late Kerr Anderson was right to suggest that this was something of a coup, which, just as he claimed, put the company and its investors “in a much happier place”. Meanwhile, tungsten APT was last week fetching prices of $240 mtu in Europe, a rise of 50% over the low ($160) in February of last year. The Ormonde SP has been slow to react but investors appear now to b
bizana
02 Aug 2017
ProActive investor today This ia a rather long article and one may need to scroll down between gaps.I draw attention to the statement: "Almost half the Capital Cost of the project is committed".Can anyone enlighten me on this?Bizana 13
7 02 Aug 2017 Ormonde Mining is now only a year away from production at Barruecopardo Ormonde Mining now just a year away from tungsten production at Barruecopardo INVESTMENTOVERVIEW: ORMThe BigPicture Tungsten prices are now on an upward trajectory “We are now full speed into production,” says Steve Nicol of Ormonde Mining plc (LON:ORM).What a difference a year makes.Back in 2016, Ormonde’s Barruecopardo tungsten project just wasn’t quite cutting it as far as the economics were concerned. The weaker tungsten price was cutting deep scars into Wolf Minerals every day, and Ormonde’s major backers, Oaktree, were wary of having that happen to their own project too.But although some adjustments were necessary, including a trimming of the fee that Ormonde itself takes for managing Barruecopardo, there was actually no need to rush into production.The funding, from Oaktree, was already in place and wasn’t going to go anywhere. And because of the nature of the deal Ormonde struck when Oaktree came in a year or two ago now, there was never any danger of an equity or working capital shortfall undermining things.Ormonde’s chief financial officer Paul Carroll takes up the tale.“During 2015 the tungsten price saw significant reductions,” he says. That was largely because the global oil rig count fell as oil prices contracted, and the use of tungsten in drillbits was severely curtailed.But 2016 was also the year when actually, things began to stabilise.“In 2016 the market was in balance for the first time in five years,” says Carroll. “There had been a cumulative 27,000 tonnes of excess supply over the four year to the end of 2015. But in 2016 the Chinese finally got a grip on their production, which is now down more than 4% on where it was in 2015.”Those two factors combined have created a new dynamic in the market which Ormonde and Oaktree are now preparing to address.“There was a time when we were stretching the development timeline,” says Nicol.“But now a series of factors have meant we’ve been able to greenlight construction. There’s been a definite increase in the tungsten price and a definite increase on the demand side. In general tungsten growth is related to GDP growth and we believe that it’s definitely the right time to build.”Accordingly, commissioning at Barruecopardo is now planned for the third quarter of 2018, a relatively short build time that’s reflective of the amount of planning that the extended time has allowed for.“We’ve been doing a lot of preparation work and putting in equipment orders,” says Nicol. Now though, it’s full steam ahead.“We’ve awarded the dams construction contract, we’re finalising the electrical installation, and almost half the capital cost of the project is committed. The first step is to concentrate on delivering stable production.”At the moment the plan is to process 1.1 mln tonnes of ore per year to produce 260,000 metric tonne units (mtus) of tungsten trioxide (WO3) per year over a nine year life.But within that broad outline there is plenty of room for fine-tuning for greater returns. For one thing, the original plan as it was put together before the project was funded and before the gyrations in the tungsten price, paid closer attention to the shift patterns of the workers than is now needed.Thus, the plan as it stands allows for production across a five day working week only. A straightforward enough board-level decision could move that over to a seven day week and right there a 40% increase in production suddenly appears.In the immediate term, Ormonde is content to allow a certain amount of spare capacity to remain in the project.“For initial start-up
steelwatch1
02 Aug 2017
Hi from advfn Nice upbeat article today to kindle some enthusiasm:[link]
BigBobby20
29 Jul 2017
APT still climbing Metal Bulletin on Friday 28th July reports European free market tungsten APT $/mtu: $230-235 per mtu (up from $218-226 on 14th July). BB20
BigBobby20
20 Jul 2017
Re: APT prices edging up That is, to make matters clear, first production to be expected in Q3 of 2018. BB20
BigBobby20
20 Jul 2017
APT prices edging up Charlotte Radford (Metal Bulletin, July 19) reports that APT prices "resumed their ascent in earnest last week" with Metal Bulletin recording APT prices in a range of $218-226 per mtu, cif Rotterdam, on Friday July 14. Buyers were said to be "bidding aggressively to secure material", with bids reaching $224 as early as Wednesday. Over 200 tonnes of APT and oxide business were reported to Metal Bulletin over the course of the week, tightening the spot market, and suggesting further price gains would be likely in the next few weeks. "Buyers have swept up all the prompt material" one trader source said. Fingers crossed, please, that this uptrend continues steadily for some time yet. Q3, when production is due to start, is not so very far away.BB20
BigBobby20
28 Jun 2017
Topped up... Good to find that a number of ORM stalwarts are still alive and well. Perhaps we shall hear from others in due course.Today's RNS was positive, even if the contents were largely unsurprising to those of us who have been aboard for some time. We know we have competent management at HQ and out at Barruecopardo, as well as all the funding that we need and good reserves to turn to in the near future. What we could most do with, after such a long and testing wait, is a continuing rise in the tungsten price. Is it too much to dream of an SP that returns to double figures a year or two down the line and yields a dividend of sorts to reward us for our faith and tenacity? My average buying price has been higher than I liked. I have twice added fairly chunky tranches in the last few weeks and one, somewhat smaller, top up today at 1.43p. I am now very close to an average of 4p and may look for an opportunity to reduce this further to the mid/high threes. Nothing in life is certain but I do think there is a sporting chance that I shall be back in the black by the end of next year.Good luck all. BB20
greatpotential
23 Jun 2017
Still here! Yes Bobby et al,Still here, no way have I , or would I , be selling any of these shares.Now recently retired, Huddersfield Town promoted, and Ormonde's plans finally progressing towards fruition!....happy days!....
BigBobby20
23 Jun 2017
APT prices edging up Metal Bulletin, June 19:Charlotte Radcliffe reports that ammonium paratungstate (APT) prices, used as a reference across the tungsten supply chain, have risen 16% since the start of 2017. APT is trading in a range of $220-226 per mtu, cif Rotterdam, according to Metal Bulletin’s research. Demand for tungsten concentrates has proved particularly strong this year.BB20
bizana
20 Jun 2017
Today's RNS Davy ViewOrmonde’s full year result is most remarkable for the commentary on metal pricing. The certainty of a funding package and debt provision, allied with a returns-sensitive partner, ensured that timelines were dovetailed to better match the tungsten pricing cycle. In an industry not known for expansion restraint, such timing adjustments can and did give rise to a degree of uncertainty. However, the results commentary provides firm evidence that the strategy was well thought out. We think markets will also gradually reap the benefits. Barruecopardo project now in accelerated development phaseThe recent decision to proceed with the development of the Barruecopardo tungsten project means that activity levels at the site will pick up steadily into the third and fourth quarters of this year. All the longer lead plant and equipment has been sized and ordered and secondary plant ordering is also well underway. Current planning schedules are designed to have mine commissioning underway in Q3 2018. Recent APT pricing has achieved levels of $223 per MTU (Metric Tonne Unit). This has taken some time to achieve, which likely reflects a hangover of inventory from earlier Chinese production; however, there is good evidence that this is being worked through. At the same time, many producers of mine concentrate are struggling to meet output demand. With more restrained Chinese output, due to efforts to limit illegal mining, pricing is forecast to continue to recover. As Ormonde does not have a trading revenue line until production commences, the actual results are of most interest in pointing out that the group had €0.7m of cash at year-end and was debt free. Moreover, with an annual management fee of €1.0m due to the group, it remains well capitalised through the development phase of the mine.
