Uru Metals Share Discussion Threads

[888icb] 09/3/2022 15:49

ZEBN moving up again this morning in Canada Up 2.7% at 0.38

[hedgehog 100] 09/3/2022 15:47

$0.40 0.03 (8.108%)


ZBNI moving up again today, now to the 40c. level.

Which leaves URU looking even more undervalued.

Canadian investors will likely have closer contact with the company than us Brits, and could perhaps have got wind of imminent news - i.e. that the long-awaited drilling results are finally to be announced.

And what a perfect moment to announce great nickel drilling results, for one of the world's largest nickel sulfide projects!

[hedgehog 100] 09/3/2022 15:31

Zeb Nickel (ZBNI):




A not uncommon pattern for small new mining stocks on the TSX-V exchange is to drift gently downwards for a few months, before suddenly taking off, as the North American investment community learns about the stock and its potential.

And ZBNI's imminent drilling results (reportedly great), combined with the surging nickel price, should provide a powerful dynamic here to help this process.

[888icb] 09/3/2022 11:53

I noticed ZEB nickel moved up 5.7% yesterday following its large rise the day before. Good to see that gain held and move higher.

[hedgehog 100] 09/3/2022 10:15

The mining sector is very cyclical, and when metals rices are depressed, a lower grade, high volume resource may not be profitable. Even the best management will struggle to move such a project forward in that environment.

But the nickel price has more than quadrupled in the last six years, which is all the difference in the world.

A rising nickel price completely transforms the economics of a project like URU's.

I could give you examples of mining stocks that have disappointed for many years, but have then gone on to hundred-bag.


Current nickel price: US$42,995.00/tonne. = US$19.5/lb.

URU's 2012 PEA reported that the Zeb Nickel Project would be nicely profitable at nickel prices of well under half that level, with a NPV of over a billion dollars:

07/06/2012 08:18 UK Regulatory (RNS & others) Preliminary Economic Assessment LSE:URU Uru Metals Limited

"URU receives positive NI 43-101-compliant Preliminary Economic Assessment of

the Zebediela Project, South African Nickel Joint Venture

Highlights

-- The Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) of the Zebediela Project projects a pre-tax and pre-royalty net present value of $1,018 million, an internal rate of return of 25.7% and a 3.8 year payback period at an 8% discount rate.

-- Indicated resources stand at 485.4 million tonnes at a grade of 0.245% Ni with additional inferred resources of 1,115.1 million tonnes at a grade of 0.248% Ni.

-- Using indicated resources only, a proposed open-pit mine is envisioned with a 25 year mine life producing 56,600,000 lbs of recoverable nickel per annum.

-- The project is projected to a lowest-quartile cost nickel producer.

-- Substantial opportunities are available to the South African Nickel Joint Venture (SAN JV) to increase the project value through resource accretion and the addition of a magnetite concentrate revenue stream.

Commenting on the nickel joint venture PEA, Paul Loudon, Non-Executive Chairman of URU Metals, said: "The PEA indicates significant value accretion from URU's investment in the SAN JV. With expenditures of approximately $4.2 million to date, the Joint Venture has defined a large low-cost open pit disseminated sulphide nickel resource at Zebediela that has excellent economic and growth potential." ...

Zebediela Nickel Project

The Zebediela Nickel Project is located in the Limpopo Province of South Africa close to the platinum mining town of Mokopane, very close to existing rail, highway, and electrical power infrastructure.

The PEA validates the Zebediela Nickel Project as a large disseminated sulphide resource with mining engineering aspects similar to typical porphyry copper deposits in terms of size and grade. The NI 43-101-compliant PEA outlined indicated resources of 485.4 million tonnes averaging 0.245% nickel, and additional inferred resources of 1,115.1 million tonnes of 0.248% nickel. The Zebediela Project also contains significant iron minerals in the form of magnetite that is also being investigated as a potential by-product. ...

The PEA projects a pre-tax and pre-royalty net present value of $1,018 million, an internal rate of return of 25.7% and a 3.8 year payback period at an 8% discount rate using a nickel price of $8.50/lb and a ZAR/USD ratio of 8.1. Annual cash flow is project to be $203 million. ..."

[hedgehog 100] 09/3/2022 09:54

Zeb Nickel's CEO, Wayne Isaacs, has an impressive track record, including taking another TSX listed African mining share from start up to a $750M.+ market cap. -

"Wayne Isaacs
CEO & DIRECTOR

Mr. Isaacs has a 30-year career on Bay Street specializing in the resource sector both as a corporate executive of resource companies and as an investment banker.

This extensive experience has allowed him to successfully seek out and engage and acquire significant resource assets and financing to support exploration, development and mining activities for his operating and investee companies. Mr. Isaacs has been involved as principal in 30 listed companies and has served as a director and / or senior officer of over 35 listed companies. He was the President and Director of Forsys Metals Corp. from 2003 to 2007, a TSX listed company with uranium properties in Namibia, Africa which he managed from start up to in excess of $750 million in market capitalization raising over $70 million to advanced its uranium property from the exploration stage to the production decision stage. Mr. Isaacs is currently a Director of AM Resources Corp. (TSX.V: AMR), a mining company engaged in the exploration of coal, hydrocarbons and gold mining sites located in Colombia. He is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and has held numerous securities certifications and licenses."




And his 'right hand man' at Zeb Nickel Corp., Greg McKenzie, is no slouch either:

"Greg McKenzie
DIRECTOR

Mr. McKenzie (JD, MBA) is a former senior investment banker with more than 20 years of experience in financing, M&A, financial advisory, valuation, and strategic advice to mid-cap companies. Mr. McKenzie has held positions with Morgan Stanley, CIBC World Markets and Haywood Securities, and has been involved in transactions valued in excess of $18 billion. ..."




If the Zeb Nickel Project was rubbish, there's no way that directors of this quality would be taking such prominent roles in it.

And consider, Terminator, why the directors of the Canadian shell Blue Rhino Capital Corporation (since renamed Zeb Nickel Corp.) chose the Zeb Nickel Project to reverse into it, on good terms for URU, out of the potentially hundreds of others they could have chosen, with their impressive range of contacts?

Could it just be that they see something pretty special here, with the CEO in particular seeing it as a chance to repeat his success with Forsys Metals Corp.

[the count of monte_cristo] 09/3/2022 09:50

Plus, having the exposure in the US where the funds are now searching for nickel stocks needs to be taken into account. Probably going to be a mania in these nickel stocks this year, so basically hold onto your hats.

The current market cap is tiny, if it was currently capped at say 15m or 20m, then we could have a discussion about it being highly prices, but even then one could also argue that it has a long way to go. Of course, nothing is sure in this game and you pays your money and takes your chances.

[hedgehog 100] 09/3/2022 09:33

Terminator,

URU should be viewed as indirect investment in Zeb Nickel Corp., which in effect it is, at a big discount.

And URU's John Zorbas is just the seventh of Zeb's listed directors on its website, let alone being the CEO or Chairman.

So John Zorbas certainly isn't at the helm of Zeb Nickel Corp.

In fact, he is the only one of the seven Zeb Nickel directors for whom the "Read More" option doesn't bring up any more info.:


It looks to me like his only reason for being a Zeb Nickel director is as the representative of its currently largest shareholder (i.e. URU).

So there's no reason to think that he will have any active executive role in the company.

And because Zeb Nickel Corp. is a new company, it won't have any toxic legacy of embittered shareholders who have lost money.


With regard to URU itself: yes, the share price has fallen a long way over the long term, but that can be a sign or tremendous inherent value, with the sums previously invested not reflected in the current value.

If you remain fixated on the rear view mirror, that can blind you to the opportunity going forward.

I note though from the long term URU chart that it has actually had periods of very good performance, when markets have been favourable:
1. From late 2008 to late 2009, URU 8-bagged.
2. From mid 2016 to early 2017, URU 10-bagged.

Timing is all-important in mining investment.

URU has multibgged before in good market conditions, despite the involvement of JZ, so why shouldn't it do so again?

[terminator101] 08/3/2022 21:46

"Screaming buy" Not while Zorbas is at the helm. Honestly mate, you need to research the companies he has ever been involved with.

[hedgehog 100] 08/3/2022 17:37

Another impressive URU performance today, closing up 80p to 275p.

Coincidentally, that's a rise of 41%, the same as on Friday when URU topped the top risers board.

This time though it's only enough for fourth place - perhaps a sign that markets are recovering.

Fourth place is still pretty good though, out of a couple of thousand London listed shares.

And volume was a hefty 72,584 shares traded: that's about 4.4% of the 1.65M. shares in issue.

Which is actually the highest URU volume for about five years.

[the count of monte_cristo] 08/3/2022 15:59

Yes, and many of the other nickel stocks also had excellent runs. Some of the explorers would list and go up 300% on the day they listed. Others changed from real estate investment companies to explorers, then back again a few years later when the bubble ended. It's the ones in at the start of the bubble who usually make the fortunes:)

H & H - take a look at ARG, just started to move. Could double in a day that one.

[hedgehog 100] 08/3/2022 15:33

"Poseidon bubble
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

... In early September its shares, which had been trading at $0.80, began rising on insider trading (which was not illegal at the time). On 1 October, Poseidon announced that drilling had struck 40 metres of ore averaging 3.56% nickel and the share price immediately rose until Poseidon shares were trading at $12.30. After that, very little further information came to light but the price continued to climb on speculation. At one point, a UK broker suggested a value of up to $382 a share.[4][3]

The price of Poseidon shares quickly became too high for many investors, so some turned to stocks in other companies exploring near Windarra, and eventually other nickel mining stocks in general. As the price of mining shares grew, new companies were listed by promoters hoping to cash in. From October to December 1969 the ASX All Mining index rose by 44%. Mining stocks peaked in January 1970, then immediately crashed. Poseidon shares peaked at an intraday high of $280 in February 1970, and fell rapidly thereafter.[3] ..."




Thanks for that useful reminder T.C.

So nickel mining company Poseidon 350-bagged in 6 months in the nickel boom 50 years ago, from 80c. to $280.

A timely reminder not to sell too early in the current nickel boom ... but equally not to get too greedy either if things start looking overheated.

Not always an easy balance, but at 250p the URU risk looks firmly on the upside.


P.S. Hope you don't mind me calling you T.C. ... "Providing it's with dignity"!

[the count of monte_cristo] 08/3/2022 14:20

London Metals exchange will probably be closed tomorrow and on Wednesday, mainly due to the Chinese investor and his short position. It's a mess. Will further highlight the nickel story.

[the count of monte_cristo] 08/3/2022 13:57

Thanks, most helpful.

[hedgehog 100] 08/3/2022 13:52

The Count of Monte_Cristo 8 Mar '22 - 11:07 - 2892 of 2895 0 0 0
"HH, are you also looking at HZM? ..."


Yes T.C.,

That's clearly another nickel stock performing well over the last few days.

Horizonte Minerals (HZM): current market capitalisation, at 7.4p: £281.38 million.

It's two nickel resources contained the following amount of nickel metal -
Araguaia: 1.525 million tonnes
Vermelho: 1.526 Million tonnes
= 3.051 million tonnes aggregate

I.e. less than the 3.9 million tonnes of nickel metal in URU's Zeb Nickel Project resource.

HZM's grades are higher, but its resources are nickel laterite deposits, whereas Zeb is a nickel sulfide deposit.

Nickel sulfide deposits have far lower production costs, are greener, and are also far more suitable for use in EV (electric vehicle) batteries. -

Mudd, G M, 2009, "Nickel Sulfide Versus Laterite : The Hard Sustainability Challenge Remains":
" ... sulfide ores are easier to process, through conventional mining, smelting and refining, compared to laterite ores which require intensive hydrometallurgical processing (such as high pressure acid leaching or HPAL). This means that laterite ores typically require substantially more energy and chemicals to produce than sulfide nickel. ..."


"Is it time for lower grade nickel sulphide projects to shine?
By: Matt Fernley
Posted on - 20 Dec 2021
This article first appeared in the November 2021 edition of Battery Materials Review.
... We believe that it’s time for lower grade nickel sulphide projects, historically shunned by the market, to start to shine. ...
Increasingly then, the Majors are looking to the sort of bulk tonnage, lower grade sulphide projects which have historically been shunned by investors. There’s another consideration though, and it’s going to be an important one for battery grade nickel projects.
Environmental considerations to come to the fore
We’ve already seen a number of Majors flirt unsuccessfully with low grade, bulk tonnage laterite nickel projects. ...
So, for battery raw materials, I would suggest that investors look much more closely at lower grade nickel sulphide projects ..."


"Electric Vehicles: The Dirty Nickel Problem
... Published September 27, 2020
By Cliff Rice

... Nickel is mined from two types of deposits — sulphide and laterite. Sulphide nickel occurs in hard rock that has formed from crystallization of magma with the proper conditions and chemistry. Laterite nickel is a product of the weathering of ultrabasic bedrock under proper conditions of rainfall, drainage, temperature, and slope in the tropics.

Nearly all nickel currently used in batteries comes from sulphide nickel. This is because batteries require nickel of high purity, which is usually obtained from sulphide nickel. Also, sulphide nickel can be mined, smelted, and refined with less environmental impact than laterite nickel. So, when Mr. Musk or other electric vehicle manufacturers indicate they want nickel which is efficient and environmentally friendly, they mean sulphide-sourced “clean” nickel.

The problem part of the “dirty nickel problem” is that sulphide nickel sources are limited. Most known locations with sulphide nickel are already being mined and cannot be readily expanded. Some of these mines are on the surface, but many are subsurface mines, sometimes with the nickel ore being brought up from thousands of feet below ground. Greatly increasing the output from such mines is problematic. Furthermore, recent discoveries of new locations with sulphide nickel have been small and finding them has been costly. So, we should not expect new discoveries to have much effect on sulphide nickel ore supplies.

This leaves us with laterite nickel, the dirty part of the “dirty nickel problem.” Laterite nickel is not just dirty, it is simultaneously dirty in four different ways. First, because laterite nickel ore has lower and variable concentrations of nickel, it takes a lot of energy to smelt it — in fact, many times as much as smelting sulphide ore. This energy is almost exclusively provided by burning coal. Typically, it takes 25 to 30 tons of coal to produce a single ton of nickel. When all the CO2 emissions are counted, smelting and refining laterite nickel releases nearly 90 tons of CO2 for every ton of nickel produced. That means an average electric vehicle with a 50 kg battery, 4 tons of CO2 were released during its production. Depending on the type of power used to charge that battery, that means one would have to drive that car for 4 years to break even on the CO2 footprint based on the manufacture of the battery alone.

Instead of smelting, laterite nickel can also be handled by a lovely-sounding process called high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL). The CO2 produced by HPAL is about one third that of laterite smelting, but still several times as much as even the more carbon-intensive variants of sulphide processing. Not only that, but HPAL produces large amounts of waste — unstable and hazardous tailings, acid slurry, and magnesium sulphate effluent. The difficulty in storing these products in areas of high rainfall (as laterite nickel producing regions are) and earthquake-prone locations has led to the proposal that they should be discharged into the deep sea. This is not an environmentally friendly option. For all these reasons, HPAL is the second way laterite nickel is dirty.

The third way laterite nickel is dirty is through the destruction of tropical rainforest — and not just any rainforest. Because of accidents of climate and geology, laterite nickel deposits are most extensive in Indonesia and the Philippines. These two countries account for 75% of laterite-nickel production. They are also considered biodiversity hotspots in that they are exceptional in the number and uniqueness of species that occur there. Therefore, effective conservation of their biological resources is a high priority.

Because laterite nickel deposits are widespread, low grade, and shallow, strip mining is the only realistic method of obtaining this ore. The first step in strip mining is, naturally, to remove everything growing on the surface. I estimated that over 40% of the nickel mines on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia stripped intact rainforest to get to the nickel ore. Recent assessments by the United Nations and others have highlighted the accelerating rate of species loss on our planet. Strip-mining for laterite nickel is a threat to efforts to arrest and reverse these trends.

Importantly, due to the geochemistry involved, laterite nickel deposits often form along ridges and hilltops. A moment’s thought is all it takes to predict what will happen when heavy tropical rain falls on ridges and hilltops from which all vegetation has been removed. The rains will wash away any loose dirt, sand, or grit that has been exposed. Indonesia and the Philippines are island nations, and none of the islands with laterite nickel are very large. As a result, sediment washed off of nickel mines is, in short order, carried out to sea. In the tropics, “out to sea” means onto coral reefs. This is the fourth way laterite nickel is dirty nickel. Coral reefs around the world are already in crisis due to rising temperatures, pollution, and exploitation. Sediment settling out of discharge from streams and rivers severely exacerbates these issues. Coral reefs are the rainforests of the sea, and are also important in supporting local livelihoods through fishing and tourism.

So, an environmentally conscious person looking to minimize their personal impact and still meet their transportation needs might view sulphide nickel mining as a kind of necessary evil — necessary for the battery component of an electric vehicle. Laterite nickel, however, can only be viewed as a net loss environmentally and an ugly one at that. Certainly, electric vehicle manufactures cannot live up to their professed good intentions of using “environmentally friendly” nickel if that nickel comes from laterite deposits. ..."

[the count of monte_cristo] 08/3/2022 13:29

Thanks for the HH, I should have moved on this earlier. Bought in this afternoon. But, bearing in mind the market and price moves of nickel this has a long way to go. Reminds me of the 1970s Aussie nickel boom, some of those stocks went up 10,000%. I was born in 1979 but am a student of mining history:)

[gardenboy] 08/3/2022 12:07

Mk cap here around 6m now . Bought at 235 this morning. Just a tiny trade to see what might happen !!!!

[milliecusto] 08/3/2022 12:00

Totally agree, a screaming buy

[hedgehog 100] 08/3/2022 11:54

Zeb Nickel Corp.
$0.35 0.14
(66.667%) V:35.72K




The Count,

URU's current market capitalisation, at 335p, is still only £5.52 million.

URU owns 74.82% of Zeb Nickel Corp. (ZBNI), which rose strongly on the Toronto Stock Exchange yesterday evening U.K. time.

It closed at 35c., market cap. CA$19.209M., which equates to about £11.5M.

Which values URU's stake in ZBNI at £8.6M.

But ZBNI has only just started to move, and it looks like it could be the start of a breakout which could go much higher.

Especially with results of Zeb's drilling in the Q4 2021 expected to be announced imminently - and apparently they are great.

[the count of monte_cristo] 08/3/2022 11:07

HH, are you also looking at HZM?

What is the market cap here?

[hedgehog 100] 07/3/2022 18:32

Recent Share Trades for Uru Metals (URU)
Date Time Trade Prc Volume Buy/Sell Bid Ask Value
07-Mar-22 16:28:55 250.00 3,300 Unknown* 190.00 200.00 8,250 O
07-Mar-22 15:50:10 200.00 5,210 Unknown* 190.00 200.00 10.42k O

Interesting couple of late reported URU trades, the second one for well over the official offer price at the time.

It looks like the last of the 200p or less stock has now well gone, though 250p could soon start looking cheap.


P.S. You're welcome Kemche.

[kemche] 07/3/2022 10:50

Another great call - thanks HH for the relevant graphs. They all look wonderfully parabolic. I am wading in nads deep.

GLA LTH'ers!

[hedgehog 100] 07/3/2022 10:22

A great recent example of the potential of nickel sulphide projects is Chalice Mining.

ASX-listed Chalice Mining (CHN) 100-bagged, and has a current market cap. of AU$2.7 billion.

"THE OPPORTUNITY

The Julimar Project was stacked in early 2018 as part of Chalice's global search for high-potential nickel sulphide exploration opportunities.

Chalice discovered the Gonneville deposit in the very first drill hole at the project in March 2020, intersecting shallow high-grade PGE-nickel-copper-cobalt-gold sulphide mineralisation. Gonneville is located on private farmland at the southern end of the interpreted >26km long Julimar Complex.

The significant Gonneville discovery has defined the new West Yilgarn Ni-Cu-PGE Province, an almost entirely unexplored mineral province which is interpreted to extend for ~1,200km along the western margin of the Yilgarn Craton. Chalice holds an unrivalled >8,000km2 land position in this exciting new area and is leveraging its competitive ‘first mover’ advantage."



Chalice Mining (CHN):

[kingharold] 07/3/2022 08:09

Hedgehog. My mistake (2881). I quoted 49% spread for the wrong company (Atrica on nasdaq). I now see that uru spread was shown as 22.7%