RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Peru gov'tPopeye82 wrote: juanPeru wrote: Popeye82 wrote: Can anybody speak spain?
Or what is it, spain??
Hi there. It's spanish indeed. P
osted the transcript back in July: https://www.stockhouse.com/companies/bullboard?symbol=v.plu&postid=28382207 Popeye82 wrote: I'm not sure, but guessing, as it is in domestic language, it is maaay something relevant important, to explain the Project the peruvian people, may important relevant to permitting, or so???
Very interesting information about economics, geology, history, social context and permitting of the falchani project in this conference. And yes, it was aimed at Peruvian people.
It doesn't really help me, in spain,
but thanks Mate.
Sorry, I dind't noticed your native language wasn't English. Here's the google's translation with a few corrections:
Dr. Ulises Solis General Manager of Macusani Yellowcake We have been in the area of Macusani since 2006 exploring for uranium. Since 2006 that we called ourselves Global Gold, today Macusani Yellowcake, we have changed only the name; the RUC, the representatives, the address, is the same, and we changed our name because Global Gold had nothing to do with uranium, right? Global Gold, the company was more of gold. But, ok, today we are Macusani Yellowcake.
Since 2006, as I repeat, we have been drilling and little by little we have been consolidating the entire Macusani area; in this area there were 7 or 8 foreign mining companies, among Americans, Canadians and Australians, so much so that they were Vena, Vena Resources, Conminergia, Solex with Exploraciones Macusani, Contact Uranium of Australia, which acquired practically the properties that IPEN left (Instituto Peruvian Nuclear Energy), the Quijitian, Corachapi projects. Well, something we must have done well in all this time because we have consolidated the entire area via merger of companies, because they were all shareholders, investors, via merger or via acquisition of mining properties. Well, we have the management, the operation of the entire Macusani plateau, except for an area that belongs to Fission, which is an American company and that in Peru corresponds to the name of Peruland, which has 2,400 hectares in the Corani area. But they are not working, they had a small stage of exploration, I think they did not do well, we believe that they did not do well and they are stranded at the moment.
Returning to the topic, we made our first resource calculation in December 2016, where we had 124 million pounds of equivalent uranium as resources and 175,000 tons of lithium carbonate, also as resources. This was presented at the PIDAC in March of 2017 in Canada and, tests to the singing as it is said, were the engineer Oshiro and the engineer Bernuy in our exhibition and they were surprised of the finding of lithium, but as we say we were a company of uranium.
We have knocked the door of several communities because we in the area of influence have 9 peasant communities and there was a community that did not allow us to enter, which was the community of Chacaconiza. For the last semester of 2017 we signed an agreement with the community of Chacaconiza and we entered its drilling zones. We find higher uranium values but the minimum volume. That is, our resources in uranium increased very little, but great was our surprise to see the results of laboratory analysis ICP mass, where we began to find lithium, lithic saplings with high content of purity, bone, high grades. We have not reached 5,000 ppm, I believe that a sample reached 5,000 ppm, but all are above 3,000 at a certain depth. We have found a body of lithic tuffs, which has opened our eyes to the world. The engineers that know about this, know what I'm talking about and how crazy it is because it was practically the last quarter of 2017 and we have continued and continue to date. We have drilled only a part and the resources in lithium have skyrocketed. We must officially present the resources the last week of August. We must expose them to the world lithium resources, but we to date with which we have already drilled estimate that they greatly exceed the 2.2 million lithium carbonate equivalent, as resources in the area.
Last week I had the good fortune to visit Santiago together with Dr. Laurence. There was the Latam Summit and I listened to the exhibitions of the lithium mining companies in Chile and I told them that they only spoke about lithium in Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. Peru? They did not talk, they did not talk and they did not talk. And I want to tell you, I'm a lawyer by profession, I'm not an engineer, but I can tell you with my heart in my hand, that when Dr. Laurence spoke and explained, and Dr. Miguel Inchustegui was a witness, he was present and he is Vice Minister of Mines to date, knowing that Peru can become the largest lithium deposit in the world, everyone was stunned. But it is not only that, but it is the highest purity lithium, because we are not brines, we are not going to get salt lithium. The brines work with 350 ppm average per ton, we have found values that exceed 3 thousand, 4 thousand and almost 5 thousand ppm per ton, and we do not say it, the certificates say, CERTIMIN, which is a prestigious laboratory, and we have countered with ALCCHM, they are the drills and the values are what they are.
Regarding the communities, just to tell you that we are in the area of influence of 9 peasant communities. It is not easy social work in the area, there are many needs. I always criticize the State that every year we have the same news. It seems that we hear the same news every year, the subject of frost. The topic of poverty, the theme of children. A boy has been recorded in ojotas, without socks, and posted on a Facebook post that has run around the world. This happens every year and we live with them. Our geologists, our engineers, drill over 5 thousand meters. There are days that we can not drill all morning to thaw the ice or the ice that has been done all night because the trucks can not reach the drilling points. The cold is for everyone and our main objective has been to work with the communities. We do a participative work with the communities where we give work to all the comuneros, but we can not give them jobs at the same time, the work is rotative.
Then we participate with them, they work with us, we lead a life together, we live with them, and there we are, we are giving the struggle as they say, with the communities, and the great concern that we have at this moment and that thanks to heaven the engineer Susana Vilca is here, which was one of the first developers to issue a bill that would allow the exploitation of radioactive minerals in the country, which we do not have. The question of some of you is going to be, and how are you going to explode? Oh, I do not know, I have the General Mining Law. As my grandmother used to say, the load is fixed on the way. We'll see what happens. But I remember very much Mrs. Susana Vilca presented a bill, you already know how the congressmen are, what the authorities are like, they only attend when the problem is present, when the potato is hot. There is no regulation that allows the exploitation of radioactive minerals. Well, but you also understand why, modesty aside, who knows about uranium or who knows about lithium in the country? There is no mine in the country, nor in South America. Mine as mine, not as brine. Of uranium, less. So we are in the struggle, we are visiting Congress, we have been on this issue since 2007, Mrs. Susana, trying to get the bill issued but this last government has changed so many ministers that one goes, knocks on the door of the Minister of Energy and Mines and the next day someone else attends, I mean you can not work this way. We hope that the engineer smodes now lasts a good time because investors come from Canada, they meet and after a week they changed the minister, so you can not work. But, ok, we have to learn to live with the things we have, which is what we have. Gentlemen, I dont’ want to tire you, to bore you, and introduce Dr. Laurence Stefan.
Dr. Laurence Stefan COO of Plateau Energy What do you think of this white powder, of very high purity, very high purity, crystallized lithium and made in Peru 100%? I see faces that are not happy, others that I do not know. I'm sure everyone is wrong if they're thinking what I think they think. It is very high purity lithium carbonate, 99.74%. It is pure. For example, in the international market lithium is sold as lithium carbonate almost 85-90% and the other 10% as lithium hydroxide, because that is the most alkaline, lightest metal in the world. It is very difficult to have it in a natural, native way, it does not exist, that is why it is always kept under fat, volcanic fats, minerals, it does not matter, because from the moment it enters into action with oxygen it is transformed into lithium oxide and burns, like nothing. To sell lithium carbonate you need a purity, it depends a lot on the technical specifications, more than 99.5%. This is a very complicated refining process, very expensive and very hard, hard in the sense that there are many procedures. We have reached 99.74% purity without refining. I hope you understand me, without refining. In this case the part of the processing that was more expensive, getting from an intermediate or dirty product to produce a lithium carbonate that can be sold without fines, without penalties, that may not go to China that has become the largest refiner of the world and makes a lot of money like that, exploiting the Chileans, the Argentines because their product is very dirty. We have produced it here, this mineral, this white powder well crystallized and of very high purity, 100% made in Peru, without refining. It's something, I think it's a miracle. Well, and I hope that we will continue to live the miracle for the next 100 years with you, and you will understand why 100 years. If 100 years is not enough, I think 120.
Ok. Located in Macusani. Macusani is the area almost 200 km north of Lake Titicaca, very close to the border with Bolivia and Brazil. Before going into details, I want to say one thing. First is the legal disclaimer in case everything I said before can cause me harm. In this case no, this comparison with the dust, please, you should read it very well that we will not have problems, and I have the lawyer to my right, in case we have problems (laughs from the audience). Ok, I can say, I want you to listen to me for 2-3 minutes, it has nothing technical, but you must understand that Macusani, because I heard here in the hall that there are people who think there is no lithium in Peru. I do not want to prove anything, only the facts and the data as they are. But Macusani is the result of a war, of two (and we will give more words on this matter) very tragic accidents and a proof of corruption that unfortunately has had very serious effects here in the country. But all those four facts in the end have given us the chance to discover Macusani, the potential for lithium and uranium in the country.
The first event is the Falklands war. You here in South America call them the Malvinas Islands. It is not for me the important thing to know what a general thinks of a military junta in the 70's or 80's, if he wants to invade that territory, if he is English or is Argentine. I'm not a historian. But I believe that the inhabitants of an island can decide if this island can be considered British or Argentine. Argentines have thought that because it is very close to them, other things can be done. The war of the Falklands began in the 80's, we know how it ended. It has been 36 years, it has left very hard wounds here on the continent. Some countries supported, for reasons of history. We talked about other times, uh, in the 80's the world was a little different, military juntas, terrorism, something else. And to think that we always say that the world is terrible, that we have lived better times. But as a result of this war, in which some countries, like Chile, have supported the British, and others like you in Peru that supported the Argentines, for reasons of history, of neighbors, of what I know, the services British geologists have flown all over Peru, part of Bolivia and the northern part of Chile. Why? We are in the early 80's. In the cold war (the Cold War) the world was divided between communism and capitalism more than anything else, and the British were interested in seeing where they could get more uranium. And in Peru, which was one of the few countries in the world without any knowledge of radioactive minerals, they overflew all this and Macusani has been the result of flying with radiometric instruments. Why? Because the uranium in Macusani is on the surface. On the surface there are yellow fields. Because Macusani, it is very interesting and we are going to talk about it a little later, it has only secondary and tertiary uranium minerals. There is no primary mineral, as the geologists knew it. In this case, we did not know what there was before, but now we know. We have a PhD, several masters, and we understand the geology, at least the uranium, what happened there. And why is it so important? Because it is a product of water. The minerals of Macusani are products of water precipitation, born of water and very simple also to re-precipitate them to produce uranium as a natural product. And as a result of this the IPEN works have started, they have worked very well in several tunnels, and they have discovered more or less a little less than half a million pounds of uranium oxide (yellowcake, yellow cake), which is how it is sold, the product of uranium in the world, of high purity as well.
But then came the second strong event, called Chernobyl. You remember, in 1986, in April, the largest nuclear power plant part of the Soviet Union, today Ukraine, as a result of human error had a strong explosion, many people died there. It is an ecological disaster and it will be for many hundreds of thousands of years in the area. But this put the cross on modern uranium explorations. Because nobody was interested, it was something dead, and the price of uranium dropped from something of $30 or $40 and remained until 2004-2005 at less than $6 per pound. It was a total impediment to the uranium exploration, nobody was interested in uranium. Then, as usual, IPEN stopped the work and left everything behind. Nothing happened for more than 20 years. In 2004 the prices of uranium began to rise, rise, rise. They left these minimums of $6, and when they entered $10 we understood that something was happening in the world, that the world wanted uranium again. We entered, we explored, not only us but several companies. As Dr. Solis explained, Australian capitals, Canadians, Americans, South Africans, of all. And little by little we found uranium.
As a result of that, everything worked very well until March 2011, when the third event happened, which is the tragic accident in Fukushima-Daiichi. The largest nuclear power plant in Japan disappeared. The uranium before Fukushima-Daiichi went up to $135 per pound, something exceptional. Peru could export billions of dollars per month, right?, for this uranium. The prices went down. They have later dropped to $14, now we are at $22 - $23. But we have seen a new resurgence in the world of uranium. I think the uranium is going to recover little by little and we will reach other levels.
And the fourth important event, I think this could be unpleasant but not so much, it has been this, as you say, the interoceanic (highway). The interoceanic you know very well that it is the product of Odebrecht and Grana y Montero, but I prefer not to go into details. Regarding whether this cost $250 million as was the initial budget or the more than 2,000 million we know now as a result of everything that happened, I prefer not to comment. But as a result of this so deep act of corruption they have built one of the best roads in these conditions, making it possible for us to transport any type of heavy machinery from Macusani. We can enter the area, the interoceanic cuts our concessions, there is water on all sides and there is a lot of energy because San Gaban (hydroelectric power station) is very close to us, 80 km down the road, or 50 km on the right.
In this case you understand, without all these events Macusani would be nothing. It is the result of a war, two tragedies and an act of corruption that has built the largest engineering group in South America, Odebrecht, and unfortunately one of the best construction companies of you, Grana and Montero. But what can I say, we are happy. I hope you do not think we are exploiters. Only for you to understand that history always plays a very important role in everything that happens in the world. And Macusani, with uranium and most of all with lithium, because I know you may think that there is no lithium in Macusani. We are going to show that there is a lot.
Ok, what is in red is the interoceanic. Thank you very much, it was a very long story, I hope you understand much better. We are 200 km north of Lake Titicaca. There is a rhyolite platform. Rhyolites are volcanic rocks, the most acidic of them. More than 70% there is quartz, which is useless. But since this plateau of rhyolite is something that we have not found yet, I do not think it exists in another part of the world. It is possible that after this geological model we can find something similar in Argentina, in Nevada, but we will see, at least until now everything is in Peru. When finishing the eruptions of this volcano, which we can call Macusani volcano (we had never seen a volcano like this) all these elements, one of the heaviest (uranium) and one of the lightest (lithium) were concentrated together. All the chemical elements of Mendeleiev's chemical table that did not accumulate to produce minerals thus accumulated, fractionally, and are together uranium, lithium, fluorine, chlorine, cesium, rubidium. For example, we now know that this area of Falchani, let's talk about this, has the largest cesium and rubidium deposit in the world. But we hardly talk about this because there are so many new things that we prefer to share them little by little.
In the cartographic map the yellow are all the concessions that we have. The colors on the right side are the resources of uranium, more than 124 million pounds as previously said Dr. Solis. And you see a red arrow? Falchani discovery. This is the Falchani area where we have not found uranium. The above projects in these various colors are seven deposits where we have 124 million pounds of yellowcake uranium oxide. And part of this, if we are going to exploit these uranium resources, as a result of the exploitation of this mineral, there are resources of 176 thousand tons of lithium oxide, but only if we exploit the uranium in this area. IPEN has done a fantastic job. But, for example, they have discovered resources more or less than half a million pounds. With all the investments that the other companies have made, we have multiplied the resources 250 times more. This is not a percentage, as a percentage it is 25 thousand percent more than what IPEN had in the 80's before the Chernobyl accident. I can say one thing, I believe that uranium resources in the area can double, triple or with a little luck quadruple. Macusani would be one of the largest uranium deposits in the world.
Now, we have always been aware that there are lithium inside the uranium deposits. And for time, and because we were a uranium company, and because lithium, I speak of 10 years earlier, people were not so interested in lithium. Let's see, can you tell me if anyone of you spoke about lithium four years ago, it's going to be a joke, of course not. But our intention was to separate them as a result of the same metallurgical process, have a flow of lithium and a flow of uranium to have a uranium product without contamination with lithium but more importantly a lithium product without uranium contamination. This was our first objective. And we have arrived at that. But as uranium prices have only gone in one direction, to the south, falling from $25, $22, $18, $14, it was very difficult to raise funds, we are a junior. In this case we have done a lot of geochemical traces on the plate and we have seen that in the western part all the geochemical indicators showed us that there is more lithium. And in September of 2017, as a result of the work of Dr. Solis with his legal team, we have been given permission to enter to explore in this area. We have started to drill, we have found lithium, about 45 meters. But then at a depth of 80 meters, and now we know that it surfaces on all sides, we have found an 80 meter unit, a tuff so different, we had never seen anything like it before. What is that? We were wondering. A tuff, we have not seen it. And then the results of the laboratory have begun to come. And the results of laboratories all were between 3,000 (ppm) and 4,000. I think the highest content is 4,500 or something like that, with an average plus or minus 3,700 ppm of lithium. From 3,500 to 3,700 ppm of lithium means about 0.8% lithium, almost 18 kg or 1.8% lithium carbonate equivalent in this unit.
This is how it appears in a section. The first drills in the third platform, as you see, none has gone down. This pink level, here, these are the Tobas of Falchani. For example, it has something more than 1 km, I have a little exaggerated. This has up to 120 m, the deepest. This was the first platform. And you're going to ask me, why haven’t you gone deeper? Because we did not know what we had found. We were looking for uranium and we have seen a very interesting white rock. We knew there was lithium. Because I want to say one thing. In all this platform of Macusani that measures more or less than 80 km from east to west and 40 km from north to south, there is much more lithium in these rocks with a content of around 500 ppm of lithium, more than in the brines from Argentina, Chile and Bolivia together. While the lithium contents of the brines, the richest, are 500-600 ppm in Chile and the lowest 100-200 ppm, we have an average that never drops below 350 ppm. And in exceptional areas like Falchani, where it is transformed into a tuff, they go up to 4,500 ppm or 18 kg of lithium carbonate equivalent.
I do not know if you can see the colors, but for example the red platforms are the areas where we have drilled. We now Know the yellow dots on the left are lithium outcrops. We had not seen it. And not only us. IPEN had not seen it. INGEMMET (Geological, Mining and Metallurgical Institute) had not seen them. Why? I prefer not to comment. But it is like this. Some have more luck than others. And the most interesting part is that these points, I do not know if you can see from this distance, they are all 3,000-4,000 ppm. Because this is not the sample number, it is the lithium content on the surface. In this case, what is very important to say about these tuffs of Falchani, which are volcanic tuffs, is the homogeneity of the lithium content. You have 80 meters, or the thickest of 120 meters and the content never drops below 3,000 ppm. It is something incredible.
We are in the process of evaluating resources. The highest grades are the hot colors, and in the upper and lower zone, this is very interesting, we have talked about cesium and rubidium. It's like a sandwich. Inside there is lithium, 80 meters of lithium, and in the upper and the lower parts there are very high contents of cesium and rubidium. I think Macusani has the second highest cesium content in the world and in terms of rubidium the volumetric calculations are somewhat impressive. There is more rubidium in Macusani than in all other deposits in the world.
These are the types of resources, inferred. This is a horizontal section that allows us to see that the calculations are roughly 1.3 km from north to south and 400 meters from east to west. But this is the most interesting part. The area in red is the area where we have outcrops or where we know that there are tuffs. The yellow zone is the area that we have drilled up to now. I do not want to go into details, I can not do it because we have a listing not only in Toronto Dr. Solis but also in France, who are winners of the World Cup (laughs), in Germany and in the United States, because we are going to need a lot of funds to develop everything. But you can see that we have worked only in about 20% or 25% of the areas with lithium outcrops. I can not give you data, but I can say one thing. If they are 2, 3, 4 or 5 million, these are just as they say in English Maiden Resources, the first calculation of resources. But I can say one thing. This first phase is going to be published soon, in a couple of weeks. These are the non-brine deposits, not brines, rocks. The largest is Bacanora in Mexico. The second is Lithium Americas in Nevada. I believe that we will have resources to be the fifth or the sixth largest in the world. For now. The first calculation of resources. Please do not forget that what we have found has been in October and we have published the first data in November. In less than seven months we have found the fifth largest lithium deposit, but this is only the first step. Because I'm sure that in two more years of drilling Macusani would be bigger than Bacanora. I have no doubt, because our geologists every day come with new data from the field.
This is the most important part. We have lithium, we know that it exists, it can be processed. Let's go back to this first slide, which you have already seen, to this white powder. But we have already arrived and we have used the services of several Peruvian technicians, they have supported us a lot. Because, I can not say it twice more, but in Peru there are not many people who know about uranium and lithium. Peru is known in the world for its precious metals, its polymetallic, tin, a little oil, now it has gas, right? But uranium and lithium are totally different things. This ANSTO is Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization. Why have we used them? We have done all the work in Peru, but they are more professional. Not in the sense that Peru does not have professionals, but they know many more about lithium than others. Why? Australia is the largest lithium rock producer in the world. They produce more lithium than Argentina and Chile, but it comes from spodumene and chlorite, which are other lithium minerals.
All this flow that you see here is a normal flow that consists of first leaching, neutralization, the first phase of crystallization, it is purified, we must evaporate it, then we must remove all the impurities, the last step is refining, and as we have said we have arrived (I have put it that way, in red) at 99.74% purity of lithium carbonate without refining. It's something incredible.
Well, I do not want to talk much about lithium, whether it's necessary or not. You know better than me, well, the issue is that we are going to use, we have the engines with oil and with diesel, the Otto engine, which has served us a lot in the development of humanity for more than 130 years. Now let's think that, in fact countries in the Middle East, like Saudi Arabia and other countries are the richest countries in the world. If now the future is electric vehicles, and lithium is not only important for electric vehicles, but most of all for the storage of energy. The issue is that we know how to produce energy, we know how to transport it, we know how to use it, but nobody knows how it can be stored. Lithium is used a lot for electric vehicles. Tesla produces more or less 5 (?) vehicles per year. That's why all the big companies now, VMW, Mercedes, Toyota, are interested in this. We have talked in Germany with Volkswagen, who are very interested in having lithium. Let's see what happens with that. But most important are these large lithium batteries that will store energy. Because at this moment we only produce and use it at the same time. Large lithium batteries will allow us to store energy. That this will be the future, where we are going, I do not know. But I'm very happy that Peru is part of this process.
We can talk a little about uranium. We have a project that, as I have already said, is currently the fifth largest uranium project in the world. At a price of $50 per pound of uranium we can produce more or less 5.6, almost 6, in the first years 6 million pounds per year for at least 10 years, but I think for sure more than 20. The most interesting part are not resources but the cost of producing. Because, as we have said, since uranium (in Macusani) is a product of water precipitation, it is very simple to process it, to get a product of pure uranium, a yellowcake of very high purity at $17 per pound, which is not the lowest but it is the second lowest in the world. As you can see, comparable projects only have Urano One who is in Kazakhstan; we can not compete with them because everything there is rich recovery (?) and this is something else, and also the Russians at the time of communism built all the infrastructure for Kazakhstan. Russia does not have uranium resources, very little, they have a little in Siberia. Most of all it comes from Kazakhstan. Now Kazakhstan is an independent country, Russians very smartly have private companies working in Kazakhstan. Very good for them, but it was theirs and they have developed everything. We can not compete with them because everything has been developed by the State, they produce for less than $10 per pound, but you will produce for $17 which is a little cheaper than Cameco, which is the largest producer of uranium in the world.
And for uranium, if you think that clean energy is going to be needed, we are going to need uranium. If you think we are going to continue burning coal and gas and other things, I prefer not to go into that because here I like to believe that the people in this room are because they think we need a cleaner world, where we should not burn things. For example you have all this nice gas from Camisea, we have built power plants, we burn gas, I’m sure we can give you more intelligent uses to develop a petrochemical industry, not just burn it to produce energy.
When this company was only one uranium project our intention was that in 2018 we started the feasibility study and entered into production after 2020. The thing has changed a bit because this lithium has changed everything, and most of all because we want the price of uranium to grow. I prefer to increase a little more uranium resources, duplicate it for example, and wait to go into production (specifically speaking of uranium) when the price of uranium is a little above $25 or $30 per pound. But lithium is another thing. Lithium is another thing. Lithium is sold these days between $12,000 and $20,000 per ton of lithium carbonate, it depends a lot on the purity. We have made our calculations for only $8,000 and I think that just because we have Falchani we can produce lithium for many, many years.
A bit about the corporate part, but you can see this also on the web site. The interoceanic you can see, it is one of the best roads you have here in the country, thanks to our Odebrecht brothers, many thanks to the Brazilians. And we've talked about uranium to see how it is, just as they see it yellow it's like it appears in the field. And in the end this is, this product, this white powder of high purity, very fine, crystallized, it’s lithium carbonate, and I hope you have one of the largest lithium deposits in the world, which will allow Peru to be part of this club that at the moment is a bit esoteric, right? I do not think we're going to move Saudi Arabia to Peru, but I think we're going to move closer to them. Thank you so much for everything.