West Cobar Metals Limited (ASX: WC1) - The Salazar Story - Scandium

Coffee with Samso Episode 196 is with Matt Szwedzicki, Managing Director of West Cobar Metals Limited (ASX: WC1)

In my first conversation in June 2023 with West Cobar Metals Limited, I noticed the amphibolite basement for the Salazar project and asked how this could affect the mineralogy of the project. With nearly 12 months of work since that time, the benefits of the Newmont deposit are now coming to light.

In this episode of Coffee with Samso, Matt Szwedzicki shares with us the potential multi-commodity aspect of the Newmont deposit. The company has come a long way in substantiating its view on the new strategy in bringing light to the Titanium and Scandium part of the flow chart.

This is an unfolding story and credit goes to the management for looking at the alternative value of the Newmont project. The increasing tenure of the project means that the protection of the potential value adding process is now in safekeeping.

The potential extension of the amphibolite is now for West Cobar Metals to discover and if the Scandium and Titanium strategy holds ground, the shareholder value will be very interesting. Time will tell, but at least it is up to the company to find it.

Samso's Conclusion

I have been fascinated with the West Cobar story as it is the only Rare Earth project that I have come across that has a amphibolite basement, or rather, one that has a non-granitic basement. This stands out even more when you know that the Esperance region does not appear to have an equivalent.

When I first talked to the company, I posed the question to management, what is the significance of the amphibolite? Does it come with other commodities (at that time they had a HPA resource sitting on top of the Newmont project)?

There is now a pathway for the company and it will be interesting where this leads to in terms of shareholder value. The scandium story is very interesting as I have had some experience of that sector nearly a decade ago.

If you watch the video and listen to Matt when he talks about the Scandium pricing mechanism, it is a revelation. For once, we have a market that is priced so high that it needs new supply to bring the pricing down so that it can create more supply and more use. It is not a matter of lack of demand, but that the sector needs supply.

When you think about what the implication will mean, the opportunity for shareholder value adding is enormous.

Chapters:

00:00 Start

00:20 Introduction

01:23 Update from Matt

01:43 More ground for Salazar

01:56 An updated exploration target

02:22 Realisation that Newmont is different

02:40 The Titanium Factor

02:59 Titanium Exploration Target

03:06 Presence of HPA

03:30 Flow Sheet

04:52 Titanium Mineral Study

06:05 What about this Scandium in Salazar?

07:32 Is Newmont more of a Critical Minerals project as opposed to a Rare Earth project?

09:02 Is there enough volume for the other commodities to be economical?

10:47 What triggers should investors look for to take a position in companies like WC1?

12:55 All about Scandium

14:40 Why is Scandium exciting?

15:43 The high pricing of Scandium.

16:41 Supply bottleneck may be changing

17:50 US Defense Department looking out for Scandium

18:24 Solid oxide fuel cell use of Scandium - green fuel transition

19:13 Where will the new mines come from - reasons why Newmont is the front runner

19:46 Newmont may have a potential positive metallurgical pathway

21:17 High grade vs. normal grade of Scandium

22:48 News Flow

24:43 A Natural pivot for WC1

25:49 Last words from Matt

26:57 Conclusion