Transcription of The Stock Network Interview with Sky Metals (ASX:SKY), Managing Director & CEO Oliver Davies
Lel Smits: Sky Metals has significantly strengthened the investment case for its Taliban project after delivering a major mineral resource upgrade that exceeded its previous exploration target. Ahead of presenting at Noosa Mining, I’m joined by Sky Metals Managing Director and CEO Oliver Davies to discuss why Taliban is rapidly emerging as one of Australia’s most compelling critical minerals development stories.
Oliver, welcome to the Stock Network.
Oliver Davies: Thanks, great to be here.
Lel Smits: Now, the updated resource has exceeded your previous exploration target with really strong growth across that tin, tungsten and silver. Can you explain how this really has changed your view of Taliban’s ultimate scale? Also, what you think makes this project stand out from the other emerging critical minerals opportunities?
Oliver Davies: I think one of the really clear things for Sky Metals and our Taliban project is that we’ve had a very strong conviction about this project for a long time.
There’s a significant amount of historic workings that have happened across the site, so it’s a very disturbed site already, almost 100 years of mining history on the site, and so we’ve always been able to see that there’s the scale here for a very large system, and it’s really good now that we’ve been able to put the drilling in and the work in to show how big this system is and realise the potential of this project. I still think that there’s more to add to this resource and this will continue to get bigger and better, but it’s certainly a great start and really, yeah, beginning to show some great foundations now for us to start talking about what we think is the really compelling aspects of this project, which are the project economics now.
Lel Smits: Looking more at those foundations, as you say, you’ve established now a large-scale resource, the pre-feasibility study is just around the corner, and the deposit remains open in all directions. How close do you think Taliban is to becoming a development story, and also, what do you think that investors should be looking at now?
Oliver Davies: I think that it really comes back to that conviction we’ve had around the project for a few years now, and that’s meant that we have started a lot of our background environmental work early, so we’ve already completed a lot of baseline studies, so we’ve had groundwater monitoring boards in place for over three years now. We’ve got a lot of our background work in place there, and a lot of our long-lead time items done, so looking at a PFS to be released in the next couple of weeks, and then on the back of that, then quickly moving through these government approvals. We’ve already successfully submitted a scoping report to the New South Wales Government.
They approved that and issued us our SEERS, and now we’re moving into the formal EIS stage, but with a great head start behind us with a lot of the background studies already done, this project can move very quickly now over the next 18 months or so into getting all of our mining approvals and getting started building this project and making some tin, tungsten and silver from New South Wales.
Lel Smits: Oliver, thank you for the update on Sky Metals. Look forward to seeing you at Noosa Mining.
Oliver Davies: Thank you, Lel. Thank you.
Ends