Rio Tinto ready to build Simandou after almost 30 years of setbacks
Simandou has faced delays due to legal disputes, political changes, and the challenges of building a 600 km rail and port infrastructure.
George thinks the uranium price hovering around $21 means that there is currently enough supply to meet demand in the market. At least for the next couple of years. Sooner or later the utilities will need to start contracting which will drive the stock price. Eventually, the price will have to come up.
Vanadium is currently more valuable as ore than uranium. The Sunday mine has five times more vanadium than uranium. The price of vanadium ore has changed the economics, as a result, they are looking at being a primary producer of it instead. The question is how long will that price hold. The key with vanadium is to tie up a supply contract for two or three years. That will give them the capability of starting the mine as the economics make sense.
They are now required to get a milling license tied to ablation. They are currently contesting this decision since it would increase the transportation costs somewhat. However, it’s not crucial for the ablation technology to be at the mine site.
George says they will likely have 30 to 35 million pounds of vanadium. They want to increase the resource base since they would prefer to have twenty to thirty years of supply.
George is looking at several vanadium projects including a couple of uranium properties. He thinks this is a good time to be making these decisions.
They hope to be producing in a year or two instead of waiting for the uranium price to catch up.
