I was cold called a couple of weeks ago by a Project Manager acquaintance and the conversation went something like this:
Bob: Does F1F9 have a STANDARD FAST Mining Valuation model?
Me: What commodity are you looking at?
Bob: Coal
Me: What is the status of the project?
Bob: We have completed exploration and scoping studies and are moving into pre-feasibility
Me: Where is the opportunity?
Bob: Southern Africa, I can’t be more specific at this stage
Me: What product or products are you planning to produce?
Bob: Power station coal and high quality low ash coal
Me: Who are you potentially going to sell to?
Bob: The power station coal will be sold to the national utility company and low ash coal to domestic and export customers
Me: How do you plan to get the product to customers?
Bob: Either road or rail or a combination, sea for export
Me: Will you be mining open pit or underground?
Bob: Initially open pit but possibly underground in the future
Me: How do you plan to finance the project?
Bob: We are in a Joint Venture with the power utility, the state has a carried interest of…..
This continued until we determined that there is no:
“Standard FAST Open Pit Coal Mine and Beneficiation Plant Pre-Feasibility Valuation Model Producing Two Products for Sale to Domestic Power Producer an Private Customers and International through Road, Rail and Sea with revenue Dollar Denominated and Local Costs in High Inflation Environment funded by two JV partners, with possible debt funding and free governmental carry…”
There are, fortunately MODELLING STANDARDS, such as FAST, which provide a solid modelling framework, and STANDARD STRUCTURES (such as corkscrew modules which can be used to model many critical areas from stockpiles to working capital requirements) which can be efficiently employed to create a FAST STANDARD COMPLIANT MODEL encapsulating all the critical technical and commercial elements for the particular project being evaluated.
