Impressive Results from Manganese Concentrate Scoping Study at Oakover

Firebird Metals Limited (ASX: FRB, “Firebird” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce a significant milestone, with the Company delivering an impressive Scoping Study to produce manganese concentrate at its flagship Oakover Project.

Highlights

• Scoping Study confirms manganese concentrate production underpins Firebird’s strategy to develop a manganese hub at Oakover, including high-purity manganese sulphate production
• Robust financials using conservative assumptions to achieve:
  • NPV of approximately A$329M at a discount rate of 8% ⁴
  • Exceptional IRR of 47%, based on CIF US$5.27 CIF per dmtu for 30% manganese lump concentrate
  • Average EBITDA of approximately $72.7 M per annum, with EBITDA increasing to approximately $125M ⁵ per annum based on recent pricing (March / April)
  • Payback in less than 3years and within forecast production from Indicated Resource
• Mining & production profile
  
  • Low mine strip ratio of 0.9:1
  • Envisages processing plant throughput of ~4 Mt annually, to produce ~900 kt of 30%
    Manganese (Mn) concentrate annually
  • 10 year Life of Mine
    
    • Based on Mineral Resource Estimate at Sixty Sixer, with approximately first 6.5 years of production based on 30.5Mt Indicated Resource and following years based on 11.9Mt Inferred Resource
• Potential near-term upside to NPV
  
  • Potential to significantly extend LoM through conversion of inferred to indicated at Jay-Eye and Karen, which combined, host 62.9Mt of Inferred Resources ¹
  • Infill drilling at Jay-Eye and Karen to be completed through remainder of 2022
  • Company has a high level of confidence of increasing Indicated Resources, following strong success of the 2021 infill drilling program, which converted 96% of Sixty Sixer inferred Resource to Indicated Resource ^{1 & 6}
• CAPEX estimated at a modest A$143.8M including $14.3M contingency
  
  • A$73.4M for plant
  • A$70.4M for renewable power plant, road upgrades and other infrastructure
• Strong ESG credentials, with proposed renewable energy package delivering significantly lower processing costs and a long-term sustainable footprint
  

Firebird Managing Director Mr Peter Allen commented: “The excellent results from the scoping study have confirmed the outstanding potential of our flagship Oakover project and the exciting opportunity to establish a significant, long-term WA manganese operation that will deliver significant value to all our stakeholders.

“The sizeable MRE upgrade at Oakover from our successful maiden drill program enabled the opportunity for Firebird to consider large-scale production over a long life of mine. We believe Oakover has all the necessary requirements and characteristics which include resource size, near-surface, gently dipping geology and multiple processing options, provide a suitable production pathway, which If successfully executed and developed, will ultimately deliver superior long-term value and position Firebird as key supplier of high-quality manganese to a growing market.

“I am very proud of the effort from our team to deliver the Scoping Study and furthermore, the performance and progression of the Company since we listed a little over a year ago. We are dedicated and focused on executing our growth strategy at Oakover and importantly, continue to tick the boxes required to progress towards the development stage. The future is very exciting for Firebird and we look forward to updating the market as we achieve further milestones in the busy months ahead.”

Forward-looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements which are identified by words such as ‘may’, ‘could’, ‘believes’, ‘estimates’, ‘targets’, ‘expects’, or ‘intends’ and other similar words that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on an assessment of present economic and operating conditions, and on a number of assumptions regarding future events and actions that, as at the date of this announcement, are considered reasonable. Such forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other important factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, the Directors and the management. The Directors cannot and do not give any assurance that the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement will actually occur and investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The Directors have no intention to update or revise forward looking statements, or to publish prospective financial information in the future, regardless of whether new information, future events or any other factors affect the information contained in this announcement, except where required by law or the ASX listing rules.

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