Firering Strategic Minerals plc (LON:FRG) Independent Non-Executive Director Vassilios Carellas caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss the projected duration of the quicklime production, increasing production, the deposit being ‘tier one,’ development plans for domains B & C, and the significance of the pit optimisation results.
Q1: Vassilios, what’s the projected duration of Limeco’s quicklime production based on the Maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate announced today?
A1: It’s been a great result for us, we’re absolutely thrilled with the result to be honest. Based on this current resource that we have and based on the current setup on site, we have a production capacity of well over 50 years.
So, this provides a solid foundation for this project and the lifeline of it.
Q2: Is this based on the planned daily output of 600-800 tonnes or with the larger resource, are the plans to further increase production after achieving the target in 2025?
A2: Well, this is based on the current kiln setup with the eight kilns that do roughly 100 tonnes of quicklime each a day. Obviously, our focus for next year is actually to get all eight kilns going and so that’s the focus for us, the larger resource if supply-demand metrics are there, we do now have the resource space to expand and add more kilns.
So, it puts us in a very good position.
Q3: Now, EarthLabs describes the deposit as being in the tier one category, what does that mean?
A3:Basically, if you take a comparison of all the other quicklime producers and then you compare them and rank them against our resource, this resource is basically one of the bigger ones around, and that’s A and B. It also enables the project to scale up and so that’s effectively what they’re inferring by being tier one.
Q4: Now, the focus is on domain A, but do you have plans to develop B and C?
A4: Yes, domain A is obviously the material that will get fed into the kilns, B and C are currently what we produce aggregate with. If you recall, we’ve actually got a cement plant that’s sitting in containers on site and the plan will be eventually to take that out and erect it. Instead of selling aggregate, we’d be selling cement.
So, domain A, B and C ultimately would all down the line be processed.
Q5: What’s the significance of the pit optimisation results regarding the stripping ratio and sensitivity to operational costs?
A5: The pit optimisation has basically shown that we’ve got a very negligible stripping ratio, all the material, 99.5% of the material being mined will actually be used. So, in other words, either it’ll go into the quicklime or it’ll get used for aggregate or cement, very little material is wasted.
So, unlike some operations where you see these big dumps lying around, Limeco won’t have any of that, and when they ran the optimisation runs, they ran them at different costs and different pricing for products and it had very little effect on the pit shell.
What that tells you is that it’s an extremely robust project with very little waste in terms of material being mined.
