Impact Minerals Releases ‘Positive’ Lake Hope Scoping Study

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Impact Minerals (ASX: IPT) released, what it declared as being, “positive results” of a Scoping Study for the company’s Lake Hope high purity alumina (HPA) project in Western Australia.

Impact Minerals explained the Scoping Study had been carried out, “based on realistic production and capital expenditure estimates”.

The Lake Hope project contains a substantial alumina (Al2O3) resource, which the company believes could become a major global supplier of HPA due to the unique nature of the deposit that allows very cost-effective mining and processing.

By combining the Scoping Study results with other published data, Impact come to believe the Lake Hope project could be one of, if not the lowest-cost producer of HPA globally, possibly by a healthy margin of up to 50 per cent.

“This Scoping Study demonstrates the world-class potential of the Lake Hope project and supports what we first thought was possible when we came across it and the work already done by Roland Gotthard and the Playa One team,” Impact Minerals managing director Dr Mike Jones said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“If you are playing in the industrial minerals space, at least one of four things has to be true about your mine otherwise you will not make it through the market cycle: the deposit has to be either the biggest, have the highest grade, be the first to market or, preferably, be the lowest cost producer.

“The unique characteristics of the Lake Hope deposit, both in terms of mining and processing, look like they could possibly deliver HPA at the lowest cost globally by a significant margin.

“Even though we are only at the Scoping Study stage, with all its inherent uncertainties, the financial model demonstrates the world-class economics of the project, which has an NPV of more than $1 billion, very large operating margins and significant after-tax earnings of $174 million per year.

“The ability to deliver sub-US$4,000 per tonne HPA is an extraordinary competitive advantage that Impact will continue to leverage in the current Preliminary Feasibility Study, due for completion in 2024.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE