Firebird Metals Limited (ASX: FRB) has achieved a significant milestone, with the company delivering an impressive Scoping Study to produce manganese concentrate at its flagship Oakover Project in Western Australia.
Firebird Metals Limited (ASX: FRB) has achieved a significant milestone, with the company delivering an impressive Scoping Study to produce manganese concentrate at its flagship Oakover Project in Western Australia.
Completion of the Scoping Study follows the recent and significant 170% increase in the Oakover Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) to 172 Mt @ 9.9% Mn (7% Mn cut-off).
“The excellent results from the scoping study have confirmed the outstanding potential of our flagship Oakover project and the exciting opportunity to establish a significant, long-term WA manganese operation that will deliver significant value to all our stakeholders,” Managing Director, Peter Allen, said.
“The sizeable MRE upgrade at Oakover from our successful maiden drill programme enabled the opportunity for Firebird to consider large-scale production over a long life of mine.
“We believe Oakover has all the necessary requirements and characteristics which include resource size, near-surface, gently dipping geology and multiple processing options, provide a suitable production pathway, which If successfully executed and developed, will ultimately deliver superior long-term value and position Firebird as key supplier of high-quality manganese to a growing market.
“I am very proud of the effort from our team to deliver the Scoping Study and furthermore, the performance and progression of the company since we listed a little over a year ago. We are dedicated and focused on executing our growth strategy at Oakover and importantly, continue to tick the boxes required to progress towards the development stage.
“The future is very exciting for Firebird and we look forward to updating the market as we achieve further milestones in the busy months ahead.”
Highlights
- Scoping Study confirms manganese concentrate production underpins Firebird’s strategy to develop a manganese hub at Oakover, including high-purity manganese sulphate production
- Robust financials using conservative assumptions to achieve:
- NPV of approximately A$329M at a discount rate of 8% 4
- Exceptional IRR of 47%, based on CIF US$5.27 CIF per dmtu for 30% manganese lump concentrate
- Average EBITDA of approximately $72.7 M per annum,with EBITDA increasing to approximately $125M 5 per annum based on recent pricing (March / April)
- Payback in less than three years and within forecast production from Indicated Resource
- Mining & production profile o Low mine strip ratio of 0.9:1 o Envisages processing plant throughput of ~4 Mt annually, to produce ~900 kt of 30% Manganese (Mn) concentrate annually o 10 year Life of Mine
- Based on Mineral Resource Estimate at Sixty Sixer, with approximately first 6.5 years of production based on 30.5Mt Indicated Resource and following years based on 11.9Mt Inferred Resource
- Potential near-term upside to NPV o Potential to significantly extend LoM through conversion of inferred to indicated at Jay-Eye and Karen, which combined, host 62.9Mt of Inferred Resources 1
- Infill drilling at Jay-Eye and Karen to be completed through remainder of 2022
- Company has a high level of confidence of increasing Indicated Resources, following strong success of the 2021 infill drilling programme, which converted 96% of Sixty Sixer inferred Resource to Indicated Resource
- CAPEX estimated at a modest A$143.8M including $14.3M contingency
- A$73.4M for plant
- A$70.4M for renewable power plant, road upgrades and other infrastructure
- Strong ESG credentials, with proposed renewable energy package delivering significantly lower processing costs and a long-term sustainable footprint.
