ASX-listed manganese producer in waiting, Element 25 has nailed a binding take-or-pay offtake agreement with OM Materials covering the first five years of projected manganese ore production at Element’s developing Butcherbird mine about 130 kilometres south of Newman in WA’s southern Pilbara.
OM Materials is a wholly owned subsidiary of ASX-listed, Singapore-based integrated manganese and silicon group, OM Holdings, or “OMH”.
Commercial take-or-pay offtake terms were finalised under the binding agreement signed on Wednesday that now covers the supply of 100 per cent of the manganese ore to be produced from the planned “stage one” mining and beneficiation operations at Element 25’s Butcherbird project.
OM Materials’ contract offtake volume equates to locking in approximately 365,000 tonnes of manganese ore per annum for an initial five-year period. The agreement also contains a conditional provision to extend the offtake tie-up by a further five years.
Key terms of the deal include a manganese ore pricing mechanism based on a discount against the London-based Fastmarkets’ published 44 per cent manganese ore benchmark price adjusted for FOB delivery terms.
Both parties have shaken hands on the specification and pricing formulas for delivered manganese ore averaging grades of between 28 per cent and 35 per cent.
Element 25 Managing Director, Justin Brown said: “This is a landmark moment for Element 25 as it advances the construction of the first stage of development of the world-class Butcherbird project. The arrangements with OMH underpin the early-stage project financials.”
In tandem with bedding down the offtake agreement, Perth-based Element 25 has boots on the ground beavering away on the main construction phase of stage one of the new Butcherbird mining and beneficiation operation, which has an incredibly low pre-production CAPEX estimate of $17 million.
Capital works include roads, a processing plant, tailings storage facility and associated infrastructure as the company targets production commissioning in the current quarter.
Element 25 completed an updated pre-feasibility study, or “PFS” on the planned Butcherbird mine late last year.
The PFS mark II showed the first five years of anticipated Butcherbird manganese ore production spitting out forecast base-case operating cash flows of $39.6 million per annum before tax.
It also placed a net present value and an internal rate of return on the Butcherbird asset of $583 million and 387 per cent before tax, respectively.
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By Matt Birney
