Transcription of The Stock Network Interview with KGL Resources (ASX:KGL), Chief Executive Officer Sam Strohmayr
Lel Smits: KGL Resources has got the green light to build its wholly owned Jervois Copper project in the Northern Territory. Since last speaking with The Stock Network in August, KGL has received the full early deposit from Wheaton Precious Metals, joined the All Ordinaries Index and added a new independent director to its board. KGL Resources CEO Sam Strohmeyer joins me to discuss the final investment decision, the Jervois processing plant and the road to first copper.
Sam, welcome back to the Stock Network.
Sam Strohmayr: It’s great to be here, Lel.
Lel Smits: Great to have you on after a very busy period.
The board approved the final investment decision with more than half of the Jervois project cost already undersigned contracts. Sam, which major packages are still to come and also how certain is the budget?
Sam Strohmayr: Yeah, look, it is great to have the FOD. It’s a huge achievement for the company.
But the pieces of work that are still to come, really the key one is our mining services agreement and that’s progressing really well. We’re aiming to have mining starting halfway through next year. So that’s probably the biggest package that’s still to be finalised.
And then it’s really the sort of ancillary work around civil works for the enabling pad for the processing plant, for the tailings dam, for the tailings dam facility and also for the aerodrome on the site. So there’s sort of the key sort of packages that are still outstanding.
Lel Smits: And you mentioned the processing plant.
When it comes to designing it with room to grow, you’ve awarded Sedgman the Jervois processing plant contract and also widened its scope. So future plant additions can be installed earlier at lower cost. What could those additions be? And also, Sam, why are you planning for them now?
Sam Strohmayr: Yeah, look, the key, I suppose, change of scope there was to bring forward some of the capital to enable us to treat the transition material that we see in the open pits.
We’re planning to treat that sort of later in the mine life. But if we have the opportunity to treat it earlier, then we’ll have the equipment in place. And really, it was a capital efficiency and construction efficiency point as well.
And we’re sort of just building in, I suppose, contingency into the plant operations from the get go. So it’s really just sort of continuing to de-risk this project from where we are to into execution. And Sam, finally, with construction moving ahead and work on site really coming first, and once the plant is built, what does the ramp up to full capacity really involve? Yeah, so I mean, one of the great things about this project is it’s high grade, it’s a high grade copper deposit.
The metallurgy is excellent. But we still, of course, have a normal ramp up process. So that’ll take about 6-months.
And we factored into our throughput predictions and also our recovery predictions that will ramp up from the start, sort of about 50% up to 100% over about 6-months. And we’re really focused on getting the plant ready, the operational readiness, and also our commissioning plans to make sure that’s as you know, as smooth as it can be.
Lel Smits: Thank you, Sam, for the update on KGL resources. Look forward to what comes next.
Sam Strohmayr: Thanks, Lel, lovely to be here.
Ends