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Gold/Mining/Energy : Geomega Resources -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Combo who wrote (21)	8/23/2012 4:59:48 PM
From: sense	Respond to of 39

Twenty percent is on the low side for an iron ore... and probably wouldn't be considered economic if that were all there were in the rock. If you're looking for an iron ore resource, you'd want to see something more in the mid thirties... But, I agree with you that, particularly when you're looking at a couple of high value, low quantity elements as you are in the REE game... it's a really good thing to have a stable base of support in values in "other" minerals... particularly if they have value enough in them to justify the development even without the REE values... Here, the iron content wouldn't justify an effort in development in its own right... but, as it is there, it's worth taking it out, and doing that will probably add enough additional value to more than cover the cost of development, and pay for the mining costs... It won't be a spectacular and highly profitable iron mine... but, it likely WILL turn a profit, just based on the iron ? Consider it as an marginally economic project, at the lesser end of the scale in the range of what is in production, now... equal to 1/2 to 2/3 of the value of an better iron mine prospect... ? Looks like a similar issue with the niobium here... probably not quite enough there to make it fully competitive with other purely niobium focused plays... but, as a secondary value, it's a really good one to have... with a lot of demand growth occurring, and it has quite a lot of near term upside potential in pricing... So, consider it perhaps as equal in the mineral values to something like 1/2 to 2/3 of one of the better niobium mine potentials out there... ? And, then, of course, there are the REE. They do have a relatively LARGE deposit... considered already as the third largest outside China ? But, they're still not showing values that are close to being comparable to the sort of values they have at Mountain Pass. Lower values... with lower mining costs... are still quite alright. Consider first that they're equal to or better than the other undeveloped REE potentials out there... and, their REE values are solid enough... so, consider that they've got something that's roughly equal to 1/4 of a Mountain Pass equivalent REE deposit... ? Even at the low end in the value ranges for the elements they have... that adds up to 1.25 mine equivalent mine project... with a less conservative take giving it 1.58 mine equivalents... or more, perhaps, depending on other things they have ? This thing started life as a gold prospect... and there ARE gold values found in and around the structure... whether there is any in the right places, or enough of it to matter ? Otherwise, we're in a market "lull" in interest in iron and REE, and at or near recent market lows in prices for both of them... so, you could consider the commodity market timing issues here as favorable... If it pencils out as economic, now... it will look a lot better in a better market... .

To: Combo who wrote (21)	9/19/2012 5:44:31 PM
From: sense	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 39

Looking at the flowsheet... another way to consider the nature of the impact obviously shown in the diagram... If you mine this deposit for the value in the iron and can make a profit just selling iron... you get the side benefit of improving your REE grade to something over 9% in the "now fully paid for" concentrate created as a byproduct of mining and separating out the the iron ores... and, that's even before considering the secondary values in niobium, which you'll end up having to sort out, too... So, I'll revise my prior numbers... with this now looking like a full 100% iron mine, even if a smaller and lower grade one, paired with full 1/2 of a niobium mine, leaving you with 100% of a REE mine that produces an ore grade in REE that is over 9%... and does that for free. That balances out to being 2 1/2 mines for the price of one... which is something of a no brainer. That the large iron miners are reducing development expenditures now... doesn't hurt the argument in relation to the benefit of timing the development of a smaller iron producer... with a long term outlook in the market that's conducive to development of a multi-metallic deposit. I don't see many other deposits out there that can mine for a profit... and deliver REE ores grading 9%... for free... as a byproduct. The other issues in the market, right now, look like they're probably tied to the saber rattling going on between China and Japan, one of the components elements of which is China again threatening to cut off the REE supply to the Japanese... That threat will lose its currency, over time, as alternatives are developed to undercut the artificially created Chinese monopoly... but, there will be much longer lasting market impacts from China having postured the threats... as the markets react, as they should, to the fact of the inability to trust your Chinese suppliers. It's just basic common sense that customers do have choices... making it stupid to threaten your customers. And, Montveil is still there.. the third largest REE deposit outside of China... only, now, it's showing secondary values that already more than fully justify its develolpment for things other than the REE ? That's just crazy... Clearly, either China or Japan are likely going to have to buy this... China might have to... just to sit on it to try to extend their control over the REE market... although whoever buys it, the economics at Montviel appear advantageous enough to make it necessary to develop it anyway. Japan probably will... in order to accelerate it to development and obviate the Chinese market advantages in the REE supply with a more direct linkage than exists in the current efforts of other wannabe REE producers... Japan could buy this just to defang China... but, they'd also have the ability to buy it as a concentrate only producer... planning on doing the work refining the concentrates in Japan... and still make it a profitable deal of it for everyone... given how wildly undervalued it is now... Japan already has the expertise required to manage the REEs... which is a thing a lot of folks in the market are overlooking in thinking the REE story is all and only about China, or Molycorp... I have no idea what others are thinkinig about Montviel... but, I'm looking at the numbers and seeing that is makes no sense at all to NOT move this thing along smartly into development... well ahead of many others out there that are making a lot more noise in the market.