Innovating a future in minerals... How to think about the challenges

Quick outline of my presentation

Projects – finding the convergence: •  Nautilus Minerals Inc. – high grade marine copper & zinc •  Direct Nickel Limited – the nickel processing revolution •  Deep Space Industries – US space utility company •  NanoCarbon – Australian graphene developer •  Fluid Minerals – ISL of sulphides

My guidelines in building enterprise for the future

Occupying a point of convergence

NOW FUTURE

If you predict this convergence point and occupy it, time is on your side… It’s a method!

Economic and technical vectors illustrate the time and position of the convergence

Teck

Gazmetall

Oceans 12 – The vectors of convergence

1)  Offers a quantum lift in discovery against widening demand and an exploding population

2)  Rapid discovery of abundant exposed deposits with fast new exploration methods

3)  No land use conflict with a growing world population – we are faced with more demand and less land

4)  ‘Unburied’ deposits – no shafts, drives or pre-strip, rapid feasibility and development

5)  Grade is king – high grade soft ores mean low opex grinding and beneficiation

6)  No pit-to-port infrastructure reduces capex and permitting

7)  Low capex mine plant and low opex because of soft ore and high grades

8)  FPSO ship leasable and not committed to a single Reserve or returns from a single ‘mine life’

9)  Commodity price responsive mine sequencing possible - target either copper or zinc

10)  Global availability of floating plant with ease of mobilising plant and ore by sea

11)  Superior investment risk profile because of mobile plant and an ability to deal with ‘failed orebodies’

12)  Environmental pluses - less waste, less energy, no AMD or erosion

The development journey

1993 1995

2006 1999

Nautilus Minerals Inc TSX: NUS AIM:NUS $235m market cap, first production 2018, its real

SMS >>> Copper + gold + zinc + silver

SMS mineralisation is soft, unburied and high grade. Macrocystalline and great for flotation.

Very positive ore character

Oceans We staked entire mineral fields ~200,000 sq km

Abundant copper and zinc for the future

Solwara 1 – world first JORC of seafloor massive sulphide

If you saw the deepwater access convergence coming in 1961 this is the 2001 potential you would have staked

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Julian Malnic

Russell Debney

Geoff Loudon

Mining Journal Pioneering Award 2005

1997 kicked off with a splash

Just 20 years ago technology was crude

Here a pinger is used to fly a ‘dumb’ camera near the seafloor

Q

The Shinkai 6500 after a 9 hour dive at Solwara 1 CSIRO’s ‘cheaper tow’ cost $12,500 and used a camera a local store

Within a decade they were obsolete

A total transformation of deep ocean access

A Canyon ROV resurfaces holding a column of sulphide

Availability of contractor services increased…

Mines of the future - topside

See full animation at www.nautilusminerals.com

Copper + nickel + cobalt + manganese

Why go to 5000m for copper when SMS offers 10 times the grade in a third the water depth?

No convergence evident with this resource

Oceans What we didn’t do… Mn nodules - a dud resource

Lockheed and the Glomar Explorer mission ~1975

The great nickel laterite convergence The first use of nitric acid in mainstream minerals processing – with recycle

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PAL facilities and ferronickel smelters - a nasty capex/risk cocktail with a tragic legacy of delay and failure

•  Cawse, WA: Cap. 9.2ktpa, actual 6.3ktpa – never profited stood down, <1%Ni •  Bulong, WA: Cap. 9200tpa; actual 6,300 – never profited stood down, <1%Ni

•  Murrin Murrin, WA Cap. 45000tpa, actual ~30,000tpa after 10 years of poor profits

•  Coral Bay, Philippines – A 10kta plant on an established site, a stand-out success •  Goro, Vale Inco, New Caledonia – forecast $1.4bn, actual $5.4bn, stood down

•  Ravensthorpe, BHPB, WA – forecast $1.4bn, actual $3.6bn, sold $360m •  Ramu, China consortium, PNG – forecast $1.3bn, actual $4.0bn

•  Ambatovy, Sherritt/Sumitomo, Madagascar – forecast $1.8bn, actual $7.0bn

•  Koniambo*, Xstrata, New Cal, FeNi - $2.7bn, actual $5.9bn

The HPAL fiasco

$25

US$ per pound of annual capacity

$12.50 DNi

$35

Opex

$2.40/lb DNi

All DNi costs independently produced by Aker Solutions (now Jacobs Engineering). Comparisons show DNi Processing to MHP, ~75% of LME

$5-8/lb other processes

$35++ HPAL, FeNi

Capex

The DNi Process nails a major cost breakthrough

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Dire

ct N

icke

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cess

Ferro-nickel smelting ore Saprolite

HPAL sulphuric leach ore Limonite

The first process to treat the entire laterite orebody

Translating science into value

The Direct Nickel ore piloting facility right here at Waterford

DNi’s Revolutionary Advantages Nitric acid based: a more efficient acid that leaches ore rapidly One flowsheet: capable of processes both limonite and saprolite Atmospheric leaching: no applied pressure, only moderate heat, lower operating intensity than FeNi or HPAL Stainless steel construction: no furnaces or titanium autoclaves High Recovery: 90-95% Ni in 1 to 4 hours residence time Nitric acid recycle: +95% reused, more efficient, cost effective, and environmentally friendly Environmental benefits: reduced process waste – suited to tropical locations Highly scalable: profitable from 5ktpa Ni upwards Saleable product: Mixed Hydroxide Product MHP (>30% nickel) or alternative product specifications (MOP / metal) Produces valuable by-products: Co(OH)2, MgO and Fe2O3 Comprehensive IP protection: DNi holds world-wide, perpetual Patent and IP protection for the DNi Process covering the nitric acid/nickel laterite space, ensuring the process is for exclusive use by DNi and its licensees

Dire

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cess

The Test Plant Program has confirmed that the DNi Process is a successful atmospheric hydrometallurgical process for treating the full laterite profile (from limonitic to saprolitic ores).

Delivering the innovation – a $40m job

The DNi Process – robust, elegant & new

Mixed Hydroxide Product (MHP) produced with the DNi Process

200 tonne pilot – Indo and Brazil ores

Graphene is a "wonder material”, American Physical Society, “A million times thinner than paper, stronger than diamond, more conductive than copper."

•  Building production capacity •  Patented surfactant free graphene

production •  Several specific applications – geotextiles •  Warwick Grigor has just joined a chairman •  Australian sector leader •  Filling a $2m bridge round •  Likely ASX listing

Technology Commercialisation Road-Map

© NanoCarbon Pty Limited 2014 Confidential

Now 2015 2016 2017 2018

Recyclable

Sensor / RFID (Passive Content Monitoring)

Carbon Additive (EDLC, Li-Ion, Pb-acid)

Gas Separation (H2)

High Value Barrier Films for Food & Pharma

Security

Energy Storage & Generation

Advanced Composites

Water Quality & Gas Separation

Active Structural Composites (Resistive Heating)

Plastic Solar Cell

RFID Enabled (Passive)

Filled Plastics

Active Material (EDLC, Li-Ion)

Security Finger-Printed (passive)

Active RFID (Energy Harvesting)

Water Filtration

Passive Structural Composites

Fabrics Conducting Fabrics (electrical & resistive heating)

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Deep Space Industries

NASA awarded DSI four contracts for development of asteroid resources

Dunvegan Space Systems awarded DSI contract to built constellation of Bitcoin satellites

Space Act Agreement in process with NASA Ames Research Center for no-cost launches into Earth orbit for joint DSI-NASA propulsion tests

We will be the gas station of the future…

Existing markets: Refueling commsats for extended life Water costs $1m a tonne at the Space Station Planetary defence

‘Firefly’ Cubesat spacecraft 300mm long – survey

Conceptual production spacecraft docked with asteroid in geostationary orbit

‘Dragonfly’ spacecraft for grabbling resources

NASA has cut its internal programs

Buzz explaining how to get to Mars – (Aldrin not Lightyear)

Asteroids must also be legally staked – we will have the best resources

Rosetta Landing

We wrote the book…

Beverley safely ISL leaches a hazardous material within an aquifer

FLUID MINERALS

Mining is an increasingly grinding business…

•  The grade of global mineral resources is declining sharply

•  Easy and high-grade discoveries are increasingly few

•  Industry is responding by moving more waste rock and grinding more ore

•  Energy costs are ratcheting upwards

•  Surface and environmental impacts are increasing

•  Exploration discoveries are in increasingly ‘frontier’ nations

•  Conventional miners have no economic response

•  Enter Fluid Minerals to unlock an array of low-price resources – without exploration risk

FLUID MINERALS

FLUID MINERALS

Copper grades are in decline meaning more tonnes must be shifted as waste and in lower grade ore for processing

The Sustainability of Mining in Australia : Key Production Trends and Their Environmental Implications for the Future Dr Gavin M Mudd, Monash University 2009

FLUID MINERALS

Lower gold head grades mean more waste must be moved and more ore ground for process – the result is a blow out in energy and processing costs in mature fields

OZ Minerals Prominent Hill IOCG mine under in South Australia

Porphyry copper, IOCG deposits and Zambian-style stratabound deposits are the base load suppliers of copper – the efficient ISL leach of chalcopyrite is the main ‘holy grail’.

More deep mines in hard rock

FLUID MINERALS

•  Strong precursor IP – we believe we can leach chalcopyrite

•  Drafting plans to demonstrate the method we have

•  Building IP strategy •  Assembling a crack team •  Assessing technical partners •  Vision to become a major low

cost commodity producer •  Working with Ian Lawrence and

Christian Turner

Under construction… FLUID MINERALS

FLUID MINERALS

Fluid Minerals will also target the existing soluble minerals like Lithium and Potash

FLUID MINERALS

•  A fully permitted in situ leach operation demonstrating total control over lixiviant and products within an aquifer

•  Clean, profitable and sustainable

•  An important precedent for Fluid Minerals which will target less hazardous materials

ISL is producing 47% of the global uranium supply

FLUID MINERALS

‘Fluid Minerals is the owner of exclusive IP covering a detailed and well-developed method that has been demonstrated to efficiently recover copper from chalcopyrite in a trial where the process was verified by the sinking of a shaft and the measurement and reconciliation of the inputs against outputs.’

In the workshop… FLUID MINERALS

One to watch – Lockheed Martin’s fusion power

Occupying a point of convergence

NOW FUTURE

If you predict this convergence point and occupy it, time is on your side… It’s a method!

Economic and technical vectors illustrate the time and position of the convergence

A credible commercial science proposition

Start with…

Common error - confusing risk with unkowns

Understand…

Membership in the adventure - take others with you

Building an enterprise with science

… a balance of many factors

Building a play, rules of thumb…

•  Avoid binary outcomes – people find a way •  Design it so time is on your side •  Look for the convergences and occupy the

convergence point •  Get the right number of zeros $x,000,000,000 •  Choose the best people – of course •  Test everything you do against a single vision •  Take all stakeholders with you •  Don’t licence out technologies •  Promote with your ears pinned back •  Don’t imagine you have peers

And because I am still a geologist here is my sunset pic to finish : ) Have a great future!