Replies to post #103422 on Niocorp Developments Ltd (NB)

[User-462888]

Thanks for elaborating, Walter.
So you’re basically saying that we shouldn’t expect financing to happen without prior offtake agreements for scandium alloy products?

[scooter83]

Thank you Walter for believing the point that I and others have been making for quite a while. That is there isn't enough scandium demand for all the supply that Niocorp intends to produce.

Mark has stated that OEM manufacturers won't do offtakes without a stable scandium supply and financiers won't do financing without offtakes. Catch-22.

Overlayed the fact that scandium is 62% of intended revenue and you have a problem. Now after 2017, 2019, and 2022 we look to Rees and 2024. But prices are off 50% in the last 12 months, and inflation is sky high since 2019 estimates. Coupled with NB at a 5 year low - selling stock at these prices to raise the equity side for the mine will be disastrous.

Now that you are a believer, I want to know if you are a true believer or just a half-ass believer?

[grunt23]

Good Morning Walter:

Great summary.

The vertical integration, not only of the scandium but of all of the other products is of great interest to me.

Have a great day!

[stark12]

Thank you, Walter, for elaborating. I understand the reasoning and I am supportive of the collaboration with Nanoscale to develop these alloys as originally announced here: https://www.niocorp.com/niocorp-launches-phased-approach-to-commercial-production-of-made-in-america-aluminum-scandium-master-alloy/. There have been some subsequent press releases on the progress of this collaboration.

I view this as a worthwhile endeavor. If our ability to secure financing is dependent on this endeavor then it becomes necessary to devote the required resources to further the primary/core endeavor which is to mine critical elements. However, there is something troubling about this new "requirement." It suggests that previous feasibility studies misread the scandium market. The project scope keeps getting bigger and bigger, the can keeps getting kicked further down the road, all with promises of eventual payoff.

Our stock value has plummeted. Have we been mislead going from niobium only to niobium/scandium/titanium to niobium/scandium/titanium/REE and now to niobium/scandium/titanium/REE/scandium-aluminum alloy? The alloy was never required with previous promises of imminent financing, plans A,B,C,D, etc. All the while operational costs continue to result in dilution. More delay, more dilution has been a consistent reality, especially for long-term shareholders.

Yes, I am a believer in the project and that it will eventually happen, but if this latest focus on scandium alloying is the latest excuse for lack of financing, I find that unacceptable. I feel like a mule chasing a dangling carrot.

Furthermore, from what has been previously stated, the CAPEX for this Nanoscale phased development collaboration is supposed to be independent from the updated feasibility study. We are waiting for the long-ago promised REE final recovery rates from the demonstration plant. (Without explanation from management about why it is taking so long!) That updated FS will have to include scandium calculations. Are we to conclude that these scandium calculations are contingent on the Nanoscale alloying collaboration? That seems like a shell game to me. Aren't the REE financial implications, improved titanium numbers, etc. supposed to make the project more attractive to financiers? Now we need Sc-Al alloy offtakes to secure financing? I'm having a hard time with that kind of rationale.

This leads me back to my position of working on completing the updated FS without devoting any resources to other endeavors that slow completion of the FS.

[douginil]

I undestand and agree with your explanation.

[ALDRADJKD123]

So this is the new story the creative writing team has come up with for the next pump?