Emma Pearson: The Excellence in Mining and Exploration conference, here at The Hilton in Sydney, is a chance for Australian junior mid-cap mining and exploration companies to present their latest exploration and investment stories to the investment community in the one spot. Here investors have the opportunity to meet CEO’s, ask questions and network with over 50 mining, coal, energy, and investment companies represented here at the conference. Nickel mining company Mincor Resources
(ASX:MCR), Managing Director David Moore, spoke about the companies Kambalda nickel operations and what the future holds for Mincor.
David Moore: We’re a nickel mining company, we mine nickel around the Kambalda nickel district of Western Australia. We have been doing that very successfully since 2001, so about 8 ½ years now, so yes we are in production. We are running currently about 13 ½ thousand tonnes of nickel in ore per annum. We have produced to date well over 100,000 tonnes of nickel metal and gross revenues to date cumulatively about $1.4 Billion. We have paid out around $80 million in dividends to our shareholders, so we are a very committed dividend payer and a very successful company over the last 8 to 10 years. The thing that excites us most at the moment in Mincor, is the exploration opportunities that we really have developed over the last 12 months, particularly the last 6 to 9 months. So we are seeing a tremendous range of exploration opportunities. We think we have a unique opportunity this financial year to really bring to account some of the exploration potential that we see in our Kambalda nickel business. So our operational business will proceed, we will make hopefully, depending on the nickel price, good money out of that. But really, the real excitement is in the exploration upside that we see actually being able to bring about through the exploration drilling that we are carrying out over the next 12 months, I think that’s where the real excitement for us internally lies.
Emma Pearson: An emerging uranium producer Alliance Resources (ASX:AGS), Managing Director Patrick Mutz, spoke of the companies Four Mile Uranium project in South Australia, which is believed to be the largest Australian uranium discovery in 25 years. Mr Mutz says, economically the Four Mile Uranium project will make very good sense in the current uranium market, and even better sense if the uranium market rises, as the company expects it will. There were unique stories shared like that of miner Kasbah Resources (ASX: KAS), who develops tin projects in Morocco. Managing Director Wayne Bramwell, says the company is hoping to make a decision to mine at its Achmmach tin project, located in Northern Morocco, by 2011. Minerals explorer Minemakers (ASX:MAK), is focused on developing its 100% owned Wonarah rock phosphate project in the Northern Territory, with production planned for the first half of 2010. Managing Director Andrew Drummond, spoke about the size and scope of the project, and rock phosphate as a recession proof commodity.
Andrew Drummond: Current resource is 1.1 Billion tonnes. We think that will increase. Right now, it’s a little bit hard to actually say its $100 per tonne times a Billion tonnes, isn’t quite right as it is going to take us a long while to mine that much. But the rock phosphate price has been impacted by the global financial crisis; we expect it’s going to increase again relatively shortly as the world goes back to applying normal levels of fertiliser. We expect a decent increase then in the price of the phosphate, it should be then well above our operating costs, as we are currently projecting them and we will be in production by the middle of next year and start making a profit. We are really exposed to a commodity that is essentially recession proof, even in recession people have to eat, and if you eat you are using up fertiliser and it has to be replaced. There are not many sources in the world of rock phosphate and we aim to be one of the largest ones and so that should bode very well for our shareholders going forward.
Emma Pearson: The conference was not just Australia focused, Mr Jose Blanco from Banco Santander, spoke of Latin Americas emergence as a lucrative region to invest. The region he believes is better placed to recover from the global financial crisis than other markets. Event organiser Resourceful Events has been running the conference for 5 years, and believes it to be an important event on the mining and exploration calendar, giving companies a unique opportunity to tell their stories and network with new investors.
