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MRG in defining chapter of its life

RG Metals Ltd is in a make-or-break I think we’ve struggled since then to get any
Mmoment for the remainder of this leverage,” Van Der Zwan said.
year to prove its heavy mineral sands “What we want to do now is move up the
project in Mozambique. curve on ilmenite, both on base total heavy
When the company reported a 1.4bt maiden minerals grade and the components of the
resource estimate last year from Corridor Cen- sand.”
trals’ Koko Mesava tenement, it pinged the ra- MRG seeks to achieve this through drilling
dars of shareholders and spruiked its market two new targets and revisiting its resource by
cap considerably. But the bullish sentiment for mixing airborn surveys with hand auger drill-
MRG has since settled and managing director ing to identify targets at “cents by the tonne”.
Andrew Van Der Zwan is desperate to make Then, it hopes it will have increased its
others see the same potential he does. base tonnage up to 7%, which could add
“We’re in a great space in terms of a com- $3/t, and also increase pure ilmenite to at
pany that’s a micro company,” Van Der Zwan least 50%.
told Paydirt. “From that, we’ll take the best dirt or the
“Unfortunately, from a share price point of best sands that we’ve got and feed it into a
view, the market hasn’t really recognised us scoping study,” Van Der Zwan said.
as anything than a blundering junior resource “So, we could improve the inground value
company floundering away in Africa. of our resource by $3-4/t. That’s absolutely
“The next six months is really going to be massive and I don’t think the market com-
‘is MRG’s Mozambique heavy mineral sands prehends that. It is frustrating.” Andrew Van Der Zwan
project going to make it or not?” At time of print, the company identified a
Where the disconnect in share price comes new target at its Marao project, north of Cor-
from, Van Der Zwan believes, is the misunder- ridor Central, showing a highest auger sam- could dramatically improve our operating
standing of how MRG’s resources should be ple of 13.5m @ 6.7%. costs.”
read, given it has a mixture of both pure and Increasing foreign investment from China Another piece of infrastructure being built
trapped ilmenite. into Africa is another thing Van Der Zwan is a rail line that will run through Zimbabwe,
“The market said ‘you’ve got a lot of tonnage, is optimistic about, given a gas pipeline is Tanzania and parts of South Africa. This isn’t
it’s 5.2%, that sounds fantastic. But oh, crikey, being pitched for the oil fields near MRG’s particularly important for MRG as the com-
you’ve only got 43% ilmenite and we won’t give project. pany plans to haul by truck but represents
you any credit for titanomagnetite’,” he said. “If the gas pipeline project proceeds, it a growing industrial zone in Van Der Zwan’s
Compared to other explorers who have runs just south of our property,” he said. eyes.
higher pure ilmenite grades, MRG feels mis- “We’ve already been in preliminary dis- “At the proposed industrial park adjacent
read. cussions over potential offtake energy to the planned port, not us, but somebody
“The market [got confused] in a way and agreements. That would be enormous and might build a smelter there, especially be-
cause of Chinese investment,” he said.
“As a junior exploration company, it’s pret-
ty rare to actually be potentially in the mid-
dle of massive infrastructure that can reduce
your cost, so that’s a really favourable thing
for us.”
Infrastructure aside, the company is fo-
cused on redefining itself to the market
through the remainder of 2021.
“We’re going to move in the next six
months to not the decision to mine, but cer-
tainly a decision to move forward based on
what will have to be exceptionally good eco-
nomics. We are confident they will be,” Van
Der Zwan said.
“We have a method of exploring for this re-
source very, very cost effectively, and there’s
still a lot of dirt to explore, so there is still ex-
ploration upside. That’s the opportunity for
investors.
“Everything we said we will do, we’re do-
ing. I think we need to get the market to the
point where it actually believes this. If we fail,
we won’t fail without trying, that’s for sure.”
– Fraser Palamara

MRG acquired the heavy mineral sands project from Sofala Resources in 2018

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT aUgUST 2021 Page 77