Transcription of The Stock Network Interview with Castile Resources (ASX:CST), Executive Chair and Managing Director Mark Hepburn
Lel Smits: Castile Resources has completed a scoping study that puts a value of around $1.1 billion before tax on its Rover One gold, copper and critical minerals mine in the Northern Territory. The company is also working through more than a hundred exploration targets across the wider rover field where it sees room to grow beyond the first mine. I’m joined today by Castile Resources Executive Chair and Managing Director Mark Hepburn to discuss the scoping study, the gap between the project’s value and the company’s own and the plan to fund the build ahead of presenting at the Rockstars Mining Investor Event in Sydney.
Mark, welcome to the Stock Network.
Mark Hepburn: Thank you, it’s great to be here again.
Lel Smits: Now, Rover One is Castile’s golden copper mine plan in the Northern Territory with bismuth, cobalt and magnetite on top.
What is really driving the $1.1 billion value and also how much comes from metals beyond gold?
Mark Hepburn: Well, that’s a great question and it’s a great thing about Rover. We do have those five revenue streams. Gold and copper are the foundations of the valuation.
They’re doing up between $400 and $450 million of revenue per year. Then we have this great call option on bismuth, which is currently going mad at the moment price-wise. Bismuth is a strange market.
It’s only 16,000 tonnes per year, of which China is responsible for 14,000 tonnes. You’re seeing that an export control placed on the bismuth that’s coming out of China now, we’re talking about four nines or 99.99% bismuth. That really only leaves 2,000 tonnes of production that is ex-China.
If we can produce up to 600, 700 tonnes per year, all of a sudden you can see we’re about 30% to 40% of that ex-China availability of 4n bismuth. That’s a great appeal. The cobalt and the magnetite are, again, good revenue earners and good by-products to have.
If you’re bringing them to surface, why not get the money out of them? But we are primarily a gold-copper driven price, priced on gold-copper production.
Lel Smits: Yes. Mark, in terms of closing Castile’s value gap ahead of funding for Rover One, you’re valued at a very small fraction of that figure today.
What has to happen through the feasibility study and really those funding talks for the market to close that gap?
Mark Hepburn: Well, it’s strange. The ASX just looks for who is going to partner us or who is going to fund us. The ASX can’t look at our billion dollar value and really do much with it at the moment because, as I say, we need to bring it to life.
We are trading at a fraction, as you say, a fraction of that billion dollar valuation and the ASX has to wait. It can’t play that lead role anymore like it used to. It has to wait to see either that first piece of funding or who is going to be that partner that we’re looking at.
What we can say is that it’s being driven by the demand for copper concentrate for us and for everyone involved in copper development at the moment has gone insane. And obviously, we’ll be looking to drive value through that and create value through the partner that we choose who, like us, is dependent upon this mine getting into production.
Lel Smits: Yes, well, Mark, I appreciate the update today from Castile Resources.
Look forward to hearing more when you’re on stage at the Rockstars Mining Investor event.
Mark Hepburn: Thank you.
Ends