Niocorp Developments Ltd (NB)

[grunt23]

Good evening Niocorp Aficionados:

Re: Higher Niobium Recovery Rates:

Well, well after all our name is Niocorp. Fantastic that they have some very favorable news regarding the processing of our Niobium.
After all Niobium is our bread and butter.

Just about 4% increase in the recovery rate. That should add 4% or so, to the bottom line. We must look deeper into the just released news.

The 20222 technical report shows 970 kilotons of niobium oxide at the Elk Creek deposit. The quoted price for ferroniobium at that time was $39.60 per KG. Purchase contracts are confidential between buyer and seller, so it is difficult to obtain exact current prices. Historically, the price of Niobium Oxide tends to be 50 - 60% higher than ferroniobium.
At this time, we don't have enough information (we do not have the split between the ferroniobium and the niobium oxide) to calculate the extra revenue from the higher purity niobium.

Just for the fun of it:
First of all, we would not need to purchase as much iron to produce the ferroniobium.

Assuming a 50% split between ferroniobium and niobium oxide, we could assume revenue to increase, that would look like:

970 KT * 1.04 = 1,008 KT after the 4% increase in the recovery rate. Using the 38-year life of the mine, we have 26 KT per year of production.

If only ferroniobium is produced we would have 27,000,000 KG of annual production at $39.60, or a revenue from the ferroniobium of $1,069,200,000.00.

If we have 50% ferroniobium (13,500,000.00 KG) we would have $534,600,000.00, plus the 50% of the niobium oxide at $59.40 per KG (13,500,000.00 KG) would provide revenue of $801,900,000.00. Or total annual revenue from the Niobium only of $1,336,500,000.00. After a shitful* of zeros, a very simple 25% increase in revenues from the Niobium alone.

I Imagine the information Scott said would be available before the end of May is now all available.

https://www.niocorp.com/niocorp-achieves-processing-breakthrough-in-demonstration-plant-testing-of-niobium-and-titanium-production/

https://www.niocorp.com/niocorps-rare-earth-demonstration-plant-showing-strong-rare-earth-recovery-results-in-line-with-expectations/

In the past I have written what I expect from the titanium extra revenues and for sure what I expect from the REE's. For the REE's I wrote a considerable amount addressing not only revenues but expected profits from them.

I know, we all want the revenue numbers from the company. They will not have them until the entire technical study is complete. And that is a tough cookie. So, in the meantime, just suck it up and wait. Maybe one of these days, I will work with the new REE information and give it a try at calculating the potential revenues alone.

These numbers are very important for us. Just sharing them, if they are informative to you, very good. If not, please disregard.

Good Day!


Bibliography:
https://www.niocorp.com/wp-content/uploads/NioCorp_June-2022_NI_43-101_Technical_Report.pdf
https://www.unitconverters.net/weight-and-mass/kiloton-metric-to-kilogram.htm