From my notes last night:
1) Mark made it clear that he and the team want to develop this world class asset and not sell it
2) Mark still has hopes that production could come as early as 2018
3) During the construction phase, there will be anywhere from 1200 - 1500 workers who will be living in southeast NE
4) The cash flow is still estimated to be near $438 million
5) The acquisition of land agreements is about 90% complete
6) A challenge with multiple options of resolution is what to do with the underground water and Scott called this a relatively wet mine. The water will have to be pumped out. Some of the water will be used in the flow process and there will be extra. There are engineers working on other plans on how to deal with it. As solutions are proposed, the options will be narrowed to be listed on the feasibility study. My impression is that this is a concern but nothing that cannot be dealt with.
7) Anyone seeking employment, even though no hiring is being done now, is encouraged to submit a letter of application and resume. When hiring begins, there will be advertisements in the local news services. If you have questions then please submit them to Jim S.
8) You have already read this but don't expect the FS to be completed sooner than 4 months from now. They said they hope to complete it within a 4 to 6 month time span.
9) Mark is not counting on the DOD to buy the output of the mine directly from Niocorp. If they purchase a lot of the output and stockpile it, then the DOD becomes a player in setting of the price by possibly selling their supply and thus lowering price. Mark is keenly aware of the economics of supply and demand.
10) A person in the crowd asked about the mine and its capability of producing "rare earth elements". His response was that there are scant quantities that Niocorp is not looking to mine and that the probability that they will mine them is approximately zero.
11) With the excess water, sodium chloride, i.e. salt is the concern. That is one waste product. Another is the rock that contains no niobium - scandium - titanium. This quantity of rock will be stored and then used to back fill the voids created by the extraction of the ore. Another concern is associated with the dust that the mining operation will create. That will be addressed with the use of water.
12) When up and running, the expected output would be approximately 4 trucks per day. I don't know the size of the truck
13) A question about offtake agreements came up and Mark was careful with the words he used to duck/dodge/defer a straight answer. All due to the strict non-disclosure rules. I thought by the look on his face that he would really like to say something but he thought the company lawyer would have a problem with that, lol
14) Mark mentioned dilution and said that dilution will happen. He is not concerned with the percentage of ownership but rather the value of ownership.
15) With regard to the sale of niobium and price, he made it clear that Niocorp will be a price taker and not a price maker because of the large mine in Brazil. That is not a concern because of the stability of niobium over time. The stable price enables them to make predictions without wild fluctions.
16) The current price of scandium is not well known.
17) Scandium will be sold to various countries across the world
18) The question of liability of adverse health effects of operation of the mine came up and regarding liability, that is on Niocorp and not on the landowners
19) They are patiently waiting for the Army Corps of Eng. to issue a permit. There was no given date of when that permit will be received.
20) When a question about closing the mine in years from now was asked, Mark assured us that everything possible will be done to return the area back to normal. That area may grow to about 200 acres over the life of the mine. Interesting to me was that the top soil that will be removed will be stockpiled to be used later.
I said that I would report what I heard so here is my list of 20 things. For the other I-Hubbers in attendance, if more can be added please do so. I may have missed some things. B-P
