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MINBOS RESOURCES LIMITED — AGM Information 2012
Nov 18, 2012
65355_rns_2012-11-18_7fe9a419-3260-4355-a833-3998a2b9d396.pdf
AGM Information
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ASX ANNOUNCEMENT/MEDIA RELEASE
Chairman’s Address to Shareholders Annual General Meeting 19 November 2012
Good afternoon, and welcome to the Annual General Meeting of Minbos Resources Limited for 2012.
ASX Code: MNB PERTH OFFICE 108 Outram St West Perth WA 6005 Australia T: +61 8 9476 4500 E: [email protected] W: www.minbos.com SOUTH AFRICA OFFICE 42 Kyalami Boulevard Kyalami Business Park, Kyalami Johannesburg South Africa T: +27 11 466 8516/7
My name is Peter Richards, and I am the Non Executive Chairman of the Company.
I would like to provide shareholders with a brief overview of the past year, as well as an update as to how the Company is progressing as we move towards the conclusion of the 2012 calendar year.
Over the past 12 months, Minbos has made good progress as we work towards our objective of developing our two West African phosphate projects.
We have continued to achieve success with our exploration program, with the most important outcome of our recent endeavours being the discovery and delineation of high grade resources at both the Cacata Project in the Cabinda province of Angola and the Kanzi Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
At Cacata, Minbos defined an Indicated Mineral Resource estimate including a high grade zone which formed the basis for the commissioning of a detailed scoping study. The objective of this study was to evaluate the economic viability of the Cacata project as a stand-alone phosphate rock export operation. The results which we released in June of this year surpassed all of our expectations and demonstrated the potential of Cacata as a viable low cost, low capital project with forecast pre-tax cash flows of US$746 million (100%) over a 10 year mine life.
Although taking longer than expected, we successfully consolidated our Kanzi licences and regional concessions through the formation of a joint venture (“Phosphalux JV”) with Allamanda Trading SPRL. Allamanda is a well-established local company with good relationships and knowledge of Government.
This JV provides for the exploration and development of the Kanzi project and surrounding areas in the west of the Democratic Republic of Congo (“DRC”). This JV has exclusive rights over approximately 200,000 ha of highly prospective phosphate exploration ground. This makes Minbos the largest holder of phosphate exploration ground in the Congo Basin.
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ASX ANNOUNCEMENT/MEDIA RELEASE
Having secured the Phosphalux JV, Minbos announced an upgrade to the initial Inferred Mineral Resource estimate at our Kanzi project. Then two weeks ago, we released the results of a scoping study conducted on the Kanzi Project. Again, this study demonstrated very positive economics, confirming the potential of Kanzi as a viable standalone project with forecast pre-tax cash flows in excess of US$1.5 billion (100%) over a 17-year mine life.
We have since commenced a three phase drilling programme at Kanzi which is designed to upgrade these known high grade inferred resources to indicated and measured status and to conduct regional exploration.
We also continued to make good progress with metallurgical testwork, receiving outstanding results from a testing program conducted by leading global fertiliser company Yara. This program successfully examined the ability of the Cacata concentrate to be converted to phosphoric acid and DAP fertilizer.
In summary, both our key projects are progressing well and we are now firmly focused on their development with both Cacata and Kanzi entering into the bankable feasibility study stage.
We certainly believe we are in the right place at the right time in terms of developing our phosphate projects. Global demand for phosphate rock as an essential input into phosphate based fertilizers is continuing to grow, driven by a combination of factors.
This includes a growing world population which is now heading towards 7 billion, a continuing trend towards urbanisation and changes in diet which leads to greater demand for fertilisers, and a growing demand for biofuels; all of which are adding to already significant pressures on the world’s agricultural producers to improve their crop yields from the arable land that remains available.
As a result, we certainly believe that demand for phosphate fertilizers is only going to increase, which places Minbos in a very good position to meet this growing need.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our small, hardworking team of people who have steered the Company through its initial development stages.
In particular, shareholders will be aware that we have had a changing of the guard over recent weeks, with our Chief Executive Officer, Robbie McCrae, moving to an African based consultancy role with the Company, and the appointment of our new Managing Director, Scott Sullivan.
The Board certainly wishes to thank Robbie for his efforts in guiding the Company from listing and establishing the structures in Johannesburg, Angola and the DRC that are needed to support our projects.
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We are of course delighted to welcome Scott to the Company. He has over 25 years of diversified mining experience across multiple commodities and projects both domestically and internationally, most recently having held the position of President NSW Energy Coal with BHP Billiton.
The Board believes Scott has the right mix of experience and skills with selective and bulk commodities to further progress the Company’s strategy of developing our projects in the near term whilst driving further growth and shareholder return in the medium and long term.
At the time of appointing Scott, we also appointed James Carter as Minbos’ Chief Financial Officer. James is a CPA with 17 years’ experience in the mining industry and he was previously CFO of Straits Resources, a diversified metals group listed on the ASX.
We are of the view that Scott and James will provide the leadership we need to take Minbos through its next exciting phase of growth and development.
I would also like to pay tribute to the dedication and efforts of our site-based management, employees and contractors for their hard work over the past 12 months.
As we move forward, the Board believes Minbos is well placed to achieve its goal of becoming a low capital and operating cost exporter of phosphate rock. We will however need assistance and hence we instigated a global search for a strategic partner. We believe solid progress is being made and site visits are to be conducted early next month following due diligence that has been undertaken by several parties over the past two months. We will keep you abreast of these developments over the coming months.
We certainly look forward to an exciting 12 months ahead, as the Company moves from explorer to developer.
Thank you for your support of the Company, and be assured we will keep you informed of progress over the months ahead.
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For further information please contact:
Scott Sullivan Managing Director [email protected] +61 (0) 8 9476 4500
For media enquiries contact:
David Ikin – Professional Public Relations email: [email protected] (+61) 8 9388 0944
About Minbos
Minbos Resources Limited (ASX:MNB) is an ASX-listed exploration and development company focused on phosphate ore within the Cabinda Province of Angola and the adjoining areas of the far western DRC. Through its subsidiaries and joint ventures, the Company is exploring over 400,000ha of highly prospective ground hosting phosphate ore.
Minbos is focussing on the development of the high grade Cacata project in Cabinda and the high grade Kanzi project in the far western DRC whilst growing its current resource base in incremental stages on the remaining deposits in both areas.
The Company’s strategy is to specifically target the exploration and development of low cost fertiliser-based commodities in order to tap into the growing global demand for fertilisers. Phosphate is an essential component in certain agricultural fertilisers, with the market supported by the increasing global demand for food and bio-fuel products.
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