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Watch the video Landmark posted.
Mark Smith:
"Our goal with this project is to finance it, construct it, and ultimately to operate it, because that's how we generate revenues, that's how we get a return to the shareholder on a consistent basis. So the feasibility study is one step along the way, and the feasibility study is meant to de-risk a project. We have clearly de-risked the project as a result of finishing this feasibility study. The details that Scott and his team have gotten into with this particular feasibility study, are some of the deepest details I have seen in my 35 years. They have virtually an operating plan for our business, and we're calling it a feasibility study. So the depth that this feasibility study has gotten into is actually tremendous, and it will be viewed as a huge de-risking tool by anybody, institutional or otherwise that wants to invest in this project. So the real goal behind the feasibility study is first of all, is the project positive? Absolutely it is positive! We are thrilled with that NPV. Is it a doable project, is it constructible? Absolutely it's constructible. Scott and his team have worked out all those details. This is an outstanding tool that we will now use to take us to the next step, which is financing."
Well said.
Must watch video for all investors. It answers alot of questions.
Excellent video! I haven't seen that one before.
There is a disconnect between the share price and management's many achievements so far.
That was years ago. There is no chance of that happening now. There really is no comparison between then and now. We have been significantly de-risked since then. The fundamentals here have not changed, they have only grown stronger. There is no real reason for this drop. You can thank negative posters for spreading fear and uncertainty for no good reason. Management has been doing everything the right way and they are always 5 steps ahead of anything we talk about here. I trust Mark and the team to get things done, as they always have in the past.
Excellent post.
REMINDER: NioCorp to Host Town Hall Meeting and Buffet Dinner on Friday, Sept. 8, 2017 in Syracuse, Nebraska
Attendees Must Pre-Register here: https://goo.gl/KN6imo
For Those Who Cannot Attend The Event, Live Audio Streaming Is Available by Registering Here: https://goo.gl/WjBojy ;
Just a quick reminder that NioCorp will host a Nebraska Town Hall Meeting and Buffet Dinner on Friday, September 8, 2017, at the Kimmel Ag Expo Center, 198 Plum Street, in Syracuse, Nebraska.
The doors will open and food service will begin at 6 p.m. Advance registration is required, which can be done online at https://goo.gl/KN6imo or by calling 1-855-2-NIOCORP and selecting option 1.
FOR THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY REGISTERED, THANK YOU AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU ON THE 8TH!
The Kimmel Ag Expo Center, located here in Syracuse, is approximately 30 miles from Lincoln, 47 miles from Omaha, and 30 miles from Elk Creek.
Representing NioCorp at the Town Hall Meeting will be the following: Mark A. Smith, NioCorp Executive Chairman and CEO; Scott Honan, President of Elk Creek Resources Corporation; and Jim Sims, NioCorp VP of External Affairs. NioCorp will present the details of the Project Feasibility Study and answer questions from participants.
Those unable to attend in person can participate via a live webcast, with listen-only audio and graphic presentation slides that can be seen on computers, laptops, and smart phones. Participants must pre-register here: https://goo.gl/WjBojy, and connection options will be then provided to each individual registrant
Agreed!
There are no sources to back up the statements made in that article. The article mentions that their annual Scandium production capacity is only 6tpy. That number speaks for itself. Also, do you think that the font size is big enough in that article? What a joke.
I agree.
You are 100% correct! I agree.
Excellent post!
You still fail to acknowledge that there are different prices for the same purity Scandium based on different individual customer specs.
"In the spec chem industry, pricing by customer can differ dramatically for the same purity of product, such as 99.9% Sc2O3 (what we call “three nines” scandium, or 3Ns Sc2O3, for short). This is driven by a number of factors, including the following:
Different Product Specifications: the specifications for a 3Ns Sc2O3 material can be very different between customer A and B, even though both products are the same purity (99.9%). Often, this is due to the maximum allowed impurity levels that are present in the 0.1% of the product that is not Sc2O3. For example, Customer A might have a list of 5 elemental impurities that cannot exist above a certain level, typically measured in parts per million, or ppm, in their 3Ns Sc2O3. By contrast, Customer B may have a specification requirements that lists 30 or more elemental impurities that cannot be present above a certain ppm in the Sc2O3 they use. While both products are 3Ns Sc2O3, the differences between these materials can be substantial. One can be much more difficult to make than the other, as it can require more purification steps (e.g., chemical “washing” or “polishing”) to hit the product spec. It also can command very different pricing as a result.
Application-Specific Value. In a number of applications, Sc2O3 enables revolutionary performance and value to manufacturers. The use of “revolutionary” as an adjective here is appropriate; if you research the potential value and cost savings that Sc2O3 delivers to any of a number of industries (as we have done), it quickly becomes apparent that the value proposition of this specialty chemical is enormous. The pricing of our 3Ns Sc2O3 spec chem product will incorporate a portion of the added value it will deliver to our customers. If, for example, our Sc2O3 products helps a manufacturer save an estimated tens of millions of dollars per year – savings it could not achieve but for the in-spec 3Ns Sc2O3 we provide to them through our reliable supply chain – that fact will have an impact on the pricing of our material.
Supply Chain Security. Meeting a customer’s detailed product specifications can be a lengthy and difficult process, and start-up junior miners who have limited experience in producing spec chem products often learn this the hard way. Once a spec chem producer can demonstrate to a customer that it can consistently meet the customer’s spec, the customer is inclined to stay with that producer – particularly if there are limited supply alternatives, as is likely to be the case for Sc2O3. Spec chem customers tend to be “sticky” customers, which is very good for a producer that can meet a product spec. Given the cost of supply interruptions for a spec chem, a manufacturer will want to ensure the security and stability of its upstream supply chains, and this can factor into the pricing the customer is willing to pay for material produced in such supply chains.
Supply Chain Risk Mitigation. This is closely related to factor #3. Manufacturers not only want upstream suppliers that can meet their product specifications, but they also prefer those suppliers who produce materials in locales or nations that present minimal country or political risk. Materials produced in nations such as the U.S. are considered to have very low country risk as opposed to those who produce in nations with less stable political or governmental regimes. (You might want to Google recent developments in Tanzania, for example, regarding how country risk can influence the security of supply chains for products such as Ferroniobium, which we also will make at Elk Creek).
Robust Production Capacity. Another factor that can increase the market value of a specific producer’s Sc2O3 is production capacity. Independent estimates of global market demand for Sc2O3 peg that demand into the hundreds of tonnes per year. Producers with relatively larger production capacities are often seen by downstream manufacturers as more reliable suppliers, given that they have the ability to ramp production up in the event a customer’s demand grows. At present, NioCorp’s planned production capacity will be among the largest in the world. That provides us with added flexibility in negotiating pricing with customers who may wish to increase supply purchases as demand for their own products grows.
There is another issue to keep in mind with regard to spec chem markets: companies that make spec chem products rarely disclose the pricing they can command for the various chemistries they make. This is a fundamental tenant of the spec chem industry: you do not publicly disclose the price of the spec chem you make for Customer A versus the price you can command from Customer B. This is just good business practice.
That said, current pricing for higher-purity levels of Sc2O3 range $3,000 - $5,000 / kg, as has been noted by many observers. One can purchase Sc2O3 at even lower prices, but that is almost certainly for lower-grade material that probably needs additional processing, at additional cost, in order to meet a particular manufacturer’s product specifications.
All of this may help to explain why it doesn’t make sense to say that the price Sc2O3 has been set at ~$2,000/kg by junior miners who have executed non-binding letters of intent on their Sc2O3. There is no “commodity price” for 2Ns Sc2O3, or 3Ns Sc2O3, or 4Ns Sc2O3. Of course, in the wild kingdom of the internet, where anonymous voices can claim industry “expertise” without a day’s worth of experience in the spec chem manufacturing, sales, or customer service sectors, there will always be those who speak authoritatively about how these markets work, albeit inaccurately. "
Your argument has been debunked. Thank you Jim for this info! I trust the experts with experience in the field.
Once again, not all Scandium is created equal. Your argument has been debunked, over and over. Give it up.
Agree 100%!
Agreed.
You deny it is a specialty chemical? Wow, just wow. What a joke.
It's a specialty chemical, get it right. Read the sticky post and learn something.
Agree 100%
I agree! Great post!
Well said!!
Agreed.
Great post.
Well for one, I seriously doubt that the Democrats will come back into power then. Democrats have lost 1200 seats and counting. That number is continuously increasing all the time. On the other hand, so what if they did? Niocorp will support many GREEN technologies. Also, the party in power has nothing to do with the spot price.
You are right!
Agreed.
Trashing Niocorp and pumping excelsior, Hello lcp ALT ACCOUNT.
I agree!
NioCorp Files NI 43-101 Feasibility Study for the Elk Creek Superalloy Materials Project
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (August 11, 2017) – NioCorp Developments Ltd. (“NioCorp” or the “Company”) (TSX: NB; OTCQX: NIOBF; and FSE: BR3) is pleased to announce that it has filed a CIM-compliant Technical Report (the "Report") prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") regarding a Feasibility Study completed for the Company’s Elk Creek Superalloy Materials Project (the “Project”).
The Report supports the Company’s June 30, 2017 news release that provided high-level results of the Feasibility Study. The full Report can be seen on SEDAR here and on the Company’s website at www.niocorp.com.
Key findings of the Report include these:Financial Returns: Pre-tax net present value ("NPV") of $2.3 billion, at an 8% discount rate, with an internal rate of return ("IRR") of 24.3%, and after-tax NPV of $1.7 billion, at an 8% discount rate, with an IRR of 21.7%, and an effective tax rate of 24.1%.
Revenue: Gross Run Of Mine (“ROM”) revenue of $17.6 billion, with operating margin of $12.2 billion.
CAPEX: Up-front direct capital costs of $705 million, in addition to indirect costs of $189 million, pre-production capital costs of $85 million, contingency of $109 million, and pre-production net revenue credit of $79 million.
EBITDA: Averaged Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Interest (“EBITDA”) is $389.6 million per year over ROM. The averaged EBITDA margin (EBITDA as a percent of total revenue) for the project over ROM is 69.5%.
Pre-Tax Payback Period From Production Onset: 3.4 years (3.7 years after-tax).
Production: On an annual averaged basis, estimated production and revenues are as follows:
Ferroniobium (“FeNb”): annualized production rate of 7,055 tonnes at an averaged realized price of $39.60 per kilogram (“kg”) for contained niobium (65%), yielding annual gross revenue of $183.4 million.
Scandium Trioxide (“Sc2O3”): annualized production rate of 103 tonnes at an averaged realized price of $3,675/kg of Sc2O3, yielding annual gross revenue of $378.3 million.
Titanium Dioxide (“TiO2”): annualized production rate of 11,445 tonnes per year at an averaged realized price of $0.88/kg TiO2, yielding annual gross revenue of $10.1 million.
Production Costs (net of TiO2byproduct credit):
$12.14/kg of niobium on a niobium-equivalent basis.
$1,126/kg of Sc2O3 on a Sc2O3-equivalent basis.
Mine Life: 32 years, producing over the ROM approximately 143,824 tonnes of payable niobium, 3,237 tonnes of Sc2O3, and 359,128 tonnes of TiO2.
Mineral Resources and Reserves: Probable Reserves of 31.7 million tonnes of ore at 0.79% niobium (Nb2O5), 71.6 grams per tonne (g/t) scandium (Sc), and 2.81% iO2. Total Indicated Mineral Resources are 90.9 million tonnes at 0.66% Nb2O5, 70 g/t Sc, and 2.59% TiO2, with Inferred Resources of 133.6 million tonnes at 0.48% Nb2O5, 59 g/t Sc, and 2.23% TiO2.[ii] Mineral Resources are reported inclusive of Mineral Reserves. Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves have an effective date of May 15, 2017.“The Elk Creek Project is highly unique on many levels, and one of the most powerful aspects of the project is that it enjoys a level of project de-risking that is one of the best I have seen,” said NioCorp Executive Chair and CEO Mark A. Smith. “The Project has 75% of its Ferroniobium product under contract. It has a key federal permit already in hand. It enjoys strong local community support, and support from both political parties. It now has a very detailed Feasibility Study that was completed after just over three years of work. This project is ready to move forward.”
“The filing of our NI 43-101 Technical Report allows us to accelerate our ongoing discussions with potential institutional investors in the U.S, Asia, Europe, and elsewhere, including with the German Government’s loan guarantee program,” Mr. Smith added.
On Behalf of the Board of Directors
“Mark Smith”
Mark Smith
Executive Chairman, CEO and Director
Qualified Persons
The following qualified persons have read and approved the technical information and verified the data contained in this news release.
Qualified PersonArea of ResponsibilityJeff Osborn, BSc Mining, MMSAQP
SRK ConsultingElk Creek SRK Project Manager and mining infrastructure operating and capital costGrant Malensek, MEng, PEng/PGeo
SRK ConsultingElk Creek capital and operating cost summary and economic analysisBen Parsons, MSc, MAusIMM (CP)
SRK ConsultingElk Creek resource estimateJoanna Poeck, B.Eng., SME-RM, MMSA-QP
SRK ConsultingElk Creek mine plan and reservesJohn Tinucci, PhD, PE
SRK ConsultingElk Creek geotechnical programMark Willow, M.Sc., C.E.M., SME-RM
SRK ConsultingEnvironmental studies, permitting and social or community impact portions of the Elk Creek projectPaul Williams, PG, CPH, SME-RM
SRK ConsultingElk Creek hydrogeology programClara Balasko, P.E,
SRK ConsultingElk Creek tailings designMartin Pittuck, CEng, FGS, MIMMM
SRK ConsultingElk Creek resource estimateDavid Stone, PE
MineFill Services, Inc.Elk Creek project mine backfill systemEric Larochelle, B.Eng
SMH Process InnovationElk Creek hydrometallurgical designArun Vathavooran, PhD CEng MIMMM SME
Tetra TechElk Creek mineral processing designSylvain Harton, P. Eng.
Tetra TechElk Creek pyrometallurgical designDavid Winters, SE, PE, MBA
Tetra TechElk Creek infrastructure designJoe Baxter, P.E
Olsson AssociatesElk Creek offsite infrastructure designBrian S. Prosser, PE,
SRK ConsultingElk Creek Mine Ventilation Design
# # #
I remain long here. Have been since 2011. I will continue to buy shares, especially now. The company has done everything right so far, and I have complete confidence in them to build this mine. Everything is still right on track. Nothing has changed, so I will stay invested until Mark sells, or until production starts.
I agree!
Stating facts from the company is pumping? What a joke. This board has been polluted by baseless negativity for awhile now.
I agree.
Stop trying to act like Niocorp wrote the letter. Conspiracy theory, and not true.
Well said, I agree.
This is the most ridiculous post I have read in a long time. Conspiracy theories, what a joke.
Who here is going to the Town Hall meeting?