Pre-MRE Projects

By Tshepo Magagane

At this early stage is where the greatest value creation lies!

You will hear all this, “we only do feasibility stage projects” – know that the capital does not understand the sector.

No one ever made real money in mining by coming in at BFS!

You need to do the risk unlock to make those returns.

Why African Copperbelts present such a unique generational opportunity for capital!!

Las Bambas – a very interesting one!

MMG’s most profitable – why I always say that “find an asset that works in current pricing environment, as WHEN copper prices start to migrate towards unlocking even a 35Mtpa market, you will be sitting on a free-option that is like sitting on a gold asset that produces at close to 3 figures”.

Anyway, Las Bambas got into Chinese control as they made it a CP for approving the Glencore/Xstrata merger.

And when we talk about replacement cost/capex intensity – this is when we started to see this moving upwards – came in at USD22k/tpa…

…you compare that to brownfields which we have seen recently come in at USD28-33k/tpa…

…and Tier 1 projects at USD43k/tpa.

And what about SAmerican low grades – honestly, you will be lucky to bring them in at anything less than USD80k/tpa.

Why the Chinese are so aggressive across the Copperbelts in Africa – think how much of a fight they put up to try and get Chemaf – this is an asset that is still not working even after Trafi put in all that money…

…or even see in Mongolia with Xanadu…

…they understand what is coming with the Copper market.