Firering Strategic Minerals plc (LON:FRG) Independent Non-Executive Director Vassilios Carellas caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss expected capacity of the quicklime plant, processed limestone, operational cash flow, commencing production at Limeco, and details of the Shard Capital research note.
Q1: Commissioning of the first of Limeco’s eight kilns, it’s an exciting milestone. What’s the expected production capacity of the quicklime plant once they’re all operational?
A1: I’ve just come back from Zambia last week. I was actually on site there on Tuesday and witnessed the operation in full swing with the crushers working and kilns being loaded and material being discharged. So, it’s all up and running.
Each kiln should roughly produce about 100 tonnes of quicklime per day so once all eight kilns are operational, one is looking at about between 600 to 800 tonnes of quicklime per day.
Q2: How much limestone has the newly installed impact crusher processed since its commissioning in Q3 2024?
A2: We’ve done about 87,000 tonnes of material. It has been crushed to date with the material for the kiln, which is minus 90 to 60 millimetre size fraction now totalling roughly about 26,000 tonnes of material that’s now stockpiled and growing daily.
So, there’s quite a lot of material on site already waiting to be processed.
Q3: Could you give us an idea of what percentage of Limeco’s operational cash flow is contributed to by aggregate production?
A3: Currently, I’d say roughly half with the balance coming from the logistic services agreement. As we start ramping up quicklime production from January, which is obviously our core product, this will reduce with the majority of the revenue coming from the quicklime.
I should also remind everyone that we also have the future revenues coming from the cement plant, which is on site and that we will look to erect once we’ve got the quicklime site to the business fully operational.
Q4: What steps remain for Limeco to commence production from the first kiln now that it’s been commissioned?
A4: The gasifier, as you can see from the photos, it’s there on site, it’s been erected. We’re busy now doing the pipe works, in other words, connecting the piping from the gasifier to the burners so that the gas can actually then flow through to the burners.
We’ve got the coal shed erected now and over there we just now need to put in the conveying system that will take the coal from the coal storage shed to the gasifier, and really the installation of a water purification plant, the unit for which arrived on site today so that can commence pretty much tomorrow.
Q5: Now, I understand that Shard Capital has initiated research on Firering Strategic Minerals. How can investors access this?
A5: If you visit the Firering company page on the London Stock Exchange, you should be able to find a tab there that one can click through that will take one to the Research Tree and one will be able to access it there.
