It only makes sense if your regular product is caught in a price war -and a JV beneficiation plant wilt take some time,even without Mr Murphy
meanwhile the demand for organic fertilizers is growing
from my sticky post:
From the Apr 13,2012 PR
Other noteworthy news: the Company has contracted PowerScreen of California to build a heavy-duty 8ft x 30ft x 0.05mm cylindrical Trommel screening plant capable of screening out the small iron chips accumulated since the project went into production in November 2010. This equipment should be on-site and ready to begin processing a shipload of sinter fines within the next couple weeks. The balance of iron minerals less than 0.05mm in size shall be sold into the organic mineral fertilizer industry.
The June 25,2012 PR also mentioned this
As CWRN posted sometime ago Bob had estimated 35-40% of the 200k tons of 0-1mm to be processed by trommel was iron chips-which would be ca 75k tons (37.5%).
I had posted an independent article a long time ago which indicated sinter fines brought a price ca 85% of the larger iron product.
The 0-1mm have already been through the regular magnetic separator to remove dirt etc, but go again thru a magnetic separator as we have seen here apparently to remove small particles of dirt missed by the regular separator or which was ensconced in the chips etc.
I dont know how much dirt is left for this separator to remove but if 2.5% of the 75k tons iron chips that would still leave 73,125 tons iron chips times current spot price posted by iggy (135/ton)[at that time] times 85% ,which is $8,391,000 for the sinter fines.
The fertilizer product as per peoples dd and info posted by CWRN, goes for 90 /ton as is for the lowest junk on the yellow page websites by sometimes desperate off the book operators to up to 550/ton if processed further by an onsite processing plant- as mentioned by CWRN in March 2012- havent heard anything further on that-
[I've posted recent websites in 2015 selling fert for 1000-1850/ton though higher stuff is chelated and those are selling prices -not price CWRN would receive from the processor/middleman]
last 2 PR's just say fertilizer is sold into the organic fertilizer market. If fertilizer is 62.5% of the 200k tons (100-37.5%), then would be 125k tons fertilizer less any dirt removed from the fertilizer-but dont know if any remaining dirt would be removed from the fert- unlike the sinter fines some residual dirt wouldnt likely matter-so if they just sold as is for the lowest general price of 90/ton that would be 11.25 million for the fertilizer plus 8.391 mill for the sinter fines iron chips for a total of 19.641 million dollars for this initial tranche of waste product.
but bingo said -see his 9-08-12 post that fert was worth 3 times the regular iron -
which had a record recent low of 87/ton inSept 2012 so that would be 261/ton-if we average the 2 to be conservative that would give us 175 ton times 125k tons or ca 22 million by now,so ca 30 million total for the waste byproducts
So I would agree the trommel- acquired May 19,2012 to separate the sinter fines and fert is a money maker.
naturally as soon as they were expecting to send a shipload of fert to probably Portland Oregon Aug 2012 the July 1,2012 Mexican Pres elections were contested in court- ala the Bush-Gore election- freezing the permit process followed by a lameduck govt-if u know how the Mex economy works that often stops things much more than a lameduck USA govt-they had discovered they needed an iron export permit for the fert also since iron was the predominant element
so regular ore was blocked by port games and fert was blocked by contested election
the fert companies my quick research exposed are sometimes not specialized in iron fert but OMRI- an independent private organic fert certification organization - has ''yellow pages'' where buyers processors and sellers are listed or can get in touch
meanwhile the demand for organic fertilizers is growing
from my sticky post:
From the Apr 13,2012 PR
Other noteworthy news: the Company has contracted PowerScreen of California to build a heavy-duty 8ft x 30ft x 0.05mm cylindrical Trommel screening plant capable of screening out the small iron chips accumulated since the project went into production in November 2010. This equipment should be on-site and ready to begin processing a shipload of sinter fines within the next couple weeks. The balance of iron minerals less than 0.05mm in size shall be sold into the organic mineral fertilizer industry.
The June 25,2012 PR also mentioned this
As CWRN posted sometime ago Bob had estimated 35-40% of the 200k tons of 0-1mm to be processed by trommel was iron chips-which would be ca 75k tons (37.5%).
I had posted an independent article a long time ago which indicated sinter fines brought a price ca 85% of the larger iron product.
The 0-1mm have already been through the regular magnetic separator to remove dirt etc, but go again thru a magnetic separator as we have seen here apparently to remove small particles of dirt missed by the regular separator or which was ensconced in the chips etc.
I dont know how much dirt is left for this separator to remove but if 2.5% of the 75k tons iron chips that would still leave 73,125 tons iron chips times current spot price posted by iggy (135/ton)[at that time] times 85% ,which is $8,391,000 for the sinter fines.
The fertilizer product as per peoples dd and info posted by CWRN, goes for 90 /ton as is for the lowest junk on the yellow page websites by sometimes desperate off the book operators to up to 550/ton if processed further by an onsite processing plant- as mentioned by CWRN in March 2012- havent heard anything further on that-
[I've posted recent websites in 2015 selling fert for 1000-1850/ton though higher stuff is chelated and those are selling prices -not price CWRN would receive from the processor/middleman]
last 2 PR's just say fertilizer is sold into the organic fertilizer market. If fertilizer is 62.5% of the 200k tons (100-37.5%), then would be 125k tons fertilizer less any dirt removed from the fertilizer-but dont know if any remaining dirt would be removed from the fert- unlike the sinter fines some residual dirt wouldnt likely matter-so if they just sold as is for the lowest general price of 90/ton that would be 11.25 million for the fertilizer plus 8.391 mill for the sinter fines iron chips for a total of 19.641 million dollars for this initial tranche of waste product.
but bingo said -see his 9-08-12 post that fert was worth 3 times the regular iron -
which had a record recent low of 87/ton inSept 2012 so that would be 261/ton-if we average the 2 to be conservative that would give us 175 ton times 125k tons or ca 22 million by now,so ca 30 million total for the waste byproducts
So I would agree the trommel- acquired May 19,2012 to separate the sinter fines and fert is a money maker.
naturally as soon as they were expecting to send a shipload of fert to probably Portland Oregon Aug 2012 the July 1,2012 Mexican Pres elections were contested in court- ala the Bush-Gore election- freezing the permit process followed by a lameduck govt-if u know how the Mex economy works that often stops things much more than a lameduck USA govt-they had discovered they needed an iron export permit for the fert also since iron was the predominant element
so regular ore was blocked by port games and fert was blocked by contested election
the fert companies my quick research exposed are sometimes not specialized in iron fert but OMRI- an independent private organic fert certification organization - has ''yellow pages'' where buyers processors and sellers are listed or can get in touch
