3 ms·

Banker pays $2M for coal mine, discovers $37B rare Earth elements

51 points by thelastgallon 3y ago

thelastgallon 3y ago
[flagged]
defrost 3y ago
Cutting to the chase: Randall W. Atkins has been active in mineral exploration, trading for some decades behind Ramaco Resources: https://www.marketscreener.com/business-leaders/Randall-Atkins-0D5NJP-E/biography/ https://www.marketscreener.com/business-leaders/Randall-Atki... Ramaco has numerous prospects, one of them paid out when testing and proving: https://ramacoresources.com/critical-minerals-rees/ https://ramacoresources.com/critical-minerals-rees/ Various outlets have reported the basics, eg: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005966/en/ https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005966/en/ and: https://www.mining-technology.com/news/ramaco-operations-brook-mine/ https://www.mining-technology.com/news/ramaco-operations-bro... and, for those that like the inside gritty details, there's a completed Technical Report: https://ramacoresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Weir-International-Brook-Mine-Assessment-05.03.23.pdf https://ramacoresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Weir-... 78 pages from May 2023 (Ten minutes reading ... if you read a bunch of these things). This is not an Economic Feasibility Study (which comes laterr) - it's a report on exploration results with estimates of amount and type of stuff in the ground. An EF Study will go on from there and determine cost of extraction against market prices and projections and estimate processing costs via various means (third party or capital investment in processing plant). These are useful resources for electrification and a renewable future .. the amount of waste by product with REE processing is pretty high and generally skated over .. it's everything you get from Coal Mining ("Do you know how much radaition from coal .. etc") and a whole bunch more.
- 55555 3y ago
  Interesting that Ramaco Resources Inc has a current market cap of $1 billion, after recently doubling.
- civilitty 3y ago
  Wyoming had uranium mining and processing facilities which used the same liquid-liquid extraction tech that REE extraction uses. They might actually have the regulations and infrastructure in place to support it (and the superfund sites to show for it).
dschofie 3y ago
This guy should try doing VC
footlose_3815 3y ago
[flagged]
tech234a 3y ago
Interesting article, but does anyone else get the impression it was at least partly AI-written?
- polartx 3y ago
  Yes. Mostly because the article strangely veered into a tangent of talking about rare earth elements instead of the story behind the title. Very little was expounded on about the banker, or the mine.
- mikekij 3y ago
  Listing some examples of rare earth metals in bullet form is classic LLM behavior.
  - tech234a 3y ago
    Yeah that was definitely something I noticed.
plorg 3y ago
Is there anyone here with relevant expertise about this valuation? I have seen a lot of claims about "rare earth elements" that suggest that rich veins of these elements are not that uncommon - in fact, that the elements themselves are not that uncommon, just difficult to mine economically and incredibly pollutive to process. Is this person's mine of a configuration that is conducive to mining? Is the Wyoming regulatory environment conducive to the mining and processing techniques necessary to exploit this vein?
- woleium 3y ago
  yes, they are not particularly rare on the planet, the rare means theres not much in the average bucket of earth.
- dleink 3y ago
  These numbers always remind of the "street value" of drugs.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
justinclift 3y ago
> At the time, he planned to make money selling coal from his mine to other plants. What an upstanding citizen. :/
- monero-xmr 3y ago
  Considering coal is still 20% of American power, and it’s still legal to mine, sell, and consume, there is nothing wrong with his business other than opinions. Democracy has not banned it. Personally I find working at Google and Meta distasteful because their revenue is generated through massive privacy violations at global scale. It’s more honorable to make money mining coal. At least people want energy.
  - huytersd 3y ago
    People also want the insane amount of value Google and its myriad of free(!) services it provides. Most people, especially in the developing world couldn’t give two shits about Google collecting their data to serve them ads in return. Coal is a necessary evil for now. It’s good its being viewed that way until it’s phased out over the next few decades.
    - monero-xmr 3y ago
      Most people don’t give two shits about children mining rare earth elements in Congo, so it’s surprising they love their electric cars but despise mining in the US.
    - at_a_remove 3y ago
      People forget that there's a type of coal upon which steel production is dependent, it isn't always energy.
henriquez 3y ago
[flagged]
oh_sigh 3y ago
An important point that the article mostly glosses over: China has cornered the market on rare earths how much you have is entirely irrelevant if it isn't profitably extractable.
jeffbee 3y ago
This kind of stuff happens, right? The "One Shot" mine in California was a played out mercury mine that a dabbler bought as a side project and it turned out to have billions in gold ore.
pjscott 3y ago
I’ll give the straightforward, zero-irony reply: hooray! We have a huge amount of exploitable natural resources that we didn’t know about until recently. This is good.
- jauntywundrkind 3y ago
  And by "we have" you mean a couple already wealthy soon to be disgusting rich dudes who have ended up with incredibly valuable mineral rights that the government sells for a small pittance? (There is benefit to this being in my nation, and it's good for the world that this cache exists for us/humanity to benefit from. But a huge amount of that benefit will be captured by already very wealthy people. That makes me a bit mad and a bit sad, that something so amazing and game changing is so arbitrarily so cheaply sold off. It doesn't seem reasonable. It seems like this great nation is selling off key pieces of itself, is selling off body parts for spare change.)
- bruce511 3y ago
  I'll go one step further and offer the banker some advice. Sell. Throw an auction, set a insanely low reserve price, and walk away with spending money now. Sure, walking this through the regulatory minefield, forming a company to mine, process and exploit the resource would maximise value and make the bsnkrr stupendously rich. Or it might fail at some hurdle and consume his life. In light of this valuation 10m might sound laughable. [1] but that's life-changing money, with time enough left to enjoy it. What use is a billion when you're 80? There's a point where more money doesn't matter, but time ticks relentlessly away. Don't waste the time, take less money now. I know, I know, I'm an old man. For someone in their 20s this looks like a lovely long-term career that'll make you stupid rich. And you will get rich. But you'll work hard for it. Time is more precious than money. [1] granted he may already have this money - he dropped 2m on a coal mine - but pick a number and my point stands. Then again, there are lots of mining companies so expect some bidding way past 10m. As long as 2 are involved it's not going to be "stolen".
  - Rastonbury 3y ago
    I reckon a banker who makes 2m coal mine investments does not need advice on maximising financial value of an asset
nl 3y ago
For those unaware of the economics of physical mining: It's not uncommon for exploration companies to find large deposits (or potentially large deposits). The issue is usually that the investment required to extract these minerals is large. Depending on the cost of capital and the risks involved this may or may not happen. Since there is already an existing mine one would think it reduces the risk. But the article doesn't have enough details on the concentration or distribution to know for sure. Looking at the stock price[1] you can see the jump when the discovery was announced from ~$11 to ~$18. A great increase, but you can see this isn't exactly a sure $37B pay-off. [1] https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/METC/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/METC/
- defrost 3y ago
  > But the article doesn't have enough details on the concentration or distribution to know for sure. I linked to the Technical Report (that has exactly that infomation) 80 minutes prior to your comment, you may have missed the link: https://ramacoresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Weir-International-Brook-Mine-Assessment-05.03.23.pdf https://ramacoresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Weir-...
morninglight 3y ago
Who sold this for $2M ?
- defrost 3y ago
  You can check the Wyoming BLM records for the past history of the Brook Mine, near Sheridan, plot parcels, or you could get an account or ask for a demo on something like: https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/campaigns/metals-mining https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/campaigns/met... that archives that stuff daily and has done so for five decades & more.
rawling 3y ago
https://www.benzinga.com/general/23/12/36051788/wall-street-banker-pays-2-million-sight-unseen-for-coal-mine-then-discovers-its-filled-with-37-billi https://www.benzinga.com/general/23/12/36051788/wall-street-... FWIW, original article source rather than the Yahoo mirror.
workfromspace 3y ago
https://archive.is/tGxY6 https://archive.is/tGxY6
belter 3y ago
Me says this is a bullshit story similar to “Parallel Construction” in criminal investigations...
quickthrower2 3y ago
He won the lottery-lottery with a lottery win - sized ticket.

51 points by thelastgallon 3y ago

[flagged]

Cutting to the chase: Randall W. Atkins has been active in mineral exploration, trading for some decades behind Ramaco Resources: https://www.marketscreener.com/business-leaders/Randall-Atkins-0D5NJP-E/biography/ https://www.marketscreener.com/business-leaders/Randall-Atki... Ramaco has numerous prospects, one of them paid out when testing and proving: https://ramacoresources.com/critical-minerals-rees/ https://ramacoresources.com/critical-minerals-rees/ Various outlets have reported the basics, eg: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005966/en/ https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230503005966/en/ and: https://www.mining-technology.com/news/ramaco-operations-brook-mine/ https://www.mining-technology.com/news/ramaco-operations-bro... and, for those that like the inside gritty details, there's a completed Technical Report: https://ramacoresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Weir-International-Brook-Mine-Assessment-05.03.23.pdf https://ramacoresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Weir-... 78 pages from May 2023 (Ten minutes reading ... if you read a bunch of these things). This is not an Economic Feasibility Study (which comes laterr) - it's a report on exploration results with estimates of amount and type of stuff in the ground. An EF Study will go on from there and determine cost of extraction against market prices and projections and estimate processing costs via various means (third party or capital investment in processing plant). These are useful resources for electrification and a renewable future .. the amount of waste by product with REE processing is pretty high and generally skated over .. it's everything you get from Coal Mining ("Do you know how much radaition from coal .. etc") and a whole bunch more.

55555 3y ago
Interesting that Ramaco Resources Inc has a current market cap of $1 billion, after recently doubling.
civilitty 3y ago
Wyoming had uranium mining and processing facilities which used the same liquid-liquid extraction tech that REE extraction uses. They might actually have the regulations and infrastructure in place to support it (and the superfund sites to show for it).

dschofie 3y ago

This guy should try doing VC

footlose_3815 3y ago

[flagged]

tech234a 3y ago

Interesting article, but does anyone else get the impression it was at least partly AI-written?

polartx 3y ago
Yes. Mostly because the article strangely veered into a tangent of talking about rare earth elements instead of the story behind the title. Very little was expounded on about the banker, or the mine.
mikekij 3y ago
Listing some examples of rare earth metals in bullet form is classic LLM behavior.
- tech234a 3y ago
  Yeah that was definitely something I noticed.

plorg 3y ago

Is there anyone here with relevant expertise about this valuation? I have seen a lot of claims about "rare earth elements" that suggest that rich veins of these elements are not that uncommon - in fact, that the elements themselves are not that uncommon, just difficult to mine economically and incredibly pollutive to process. Is this person's mine of a configuration that is conducive to mining? Is the Wyoming regulatory environment conducive to the mining and processing techniques necessary to exploit this vein?

woleium 3y ago
yes, they are not particularly rare on the planet, the rare means theres not much in the average bucket of earth.
dleink 3y ago
These numbers always remind of the "street value" of drugs.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

justinclift 3y ago

> At the time, he planned to make money selling coal from his mine to other plants. What an upstanding citizen. :/

monero-xmr 3y ago
Considering coal is still 20% of American power, and it’s still legal to mine, sell, and consume, there is nothing wrong with his business other than opinions. Democracy has not banned it. Personally I find working at Google and Meta distasteful because their revenue is generated through massive privacy violations at global scale. It’s more honorable to make money mining coal. At least people want energy.
- huytersd 3y ago
  People also want the insane amount of value Google and its myriad of free(!) services it provides. Most people, especially in the developing world couldn’t give two shits about Google collecting their data to serve them ads in return. Coal is a necessary evil for now. It’s good its being viewed that way until it’s phased out over the next few decades.
  - monero-xmr 3y ago
    Most people don’t give two shits about children mining rare earth elements in Congo, so it’s surprising they love their electric cars but despise mining in the US.
  - at_a_remove 3y ago
    People forget that there's a type of coal upon which steel production is dependent, it isn't always energy.

henriquez 3y ago

[flagged]

oh_sigh 3y ago

An important point that the article mostly glosses over: China has cornered the market on rare earths how much you have is entirely irrelevant if it isn't profitably extractable.

jeffbee 3y ago

This kind of stuff happens, right? The "One Shot" mine in California was a played out mercury mine that a dabbler bought as a side project and it turned out to have billions in gold ore.

pjscott 3y ago

I’ll give the straightforward, zero-irony reply: hooray! We have a huge amount of exploitable natural resources that we didn’t know about until recently. This is good.

jauntywundrkind 3y ago
And by "we have" you mean a couple already wealthy soon to be disgusting rich dudes who have ended up with incredibly valuable mineral rights that the government sells for a small pittance? (There is benefit to this being in my nation, and it's good for the world that this cache exists for us/humanity to benefit from. But a huge amount of that benefit will be captured by already very wealthy people. That makes me a bit mad and a bit sad, that something so amazing and game changing is so arbitrarily so cheaply sold off. It doesn't seem reasonable. It seems like this great nation is selling off key pieces of itself, is selling off body parts for spare change.)
bruce511 3y ago
I'll go one step further and offer the banker some advice. Sell. Throw an auction, set a insanely low reserve price, and walk away with spending money now. Sure, walking this through the regulatory minefield, forming a company to mine, process and exploit the resource would maximise value and make the bsnkrr stupendously rich. Or it might fail at some hurdle and consume his life. In light of this valuation 10m might sound laughable. [1] but that's life-changing money, with time enough left to enjoy it. What use is a billion when you're 80? There's a point where more money doesn't matter, but time ticks relentlessly away. Don't waste the time, take less money now. I know, I know, I'm an old man. For someone in their 20s this looks like a lovely long-term career that'll make you stupid rich. And you will get rich. But you'll work hard for it. Time is more precious than money. [1] granted he may already have this money - he dropped 2m on a coal mine - but pick a number and my point stands. Then again, there are lots of mining companies so expect some bidding way past 10m. As long as 2 are involved it's not going to be "stolen".
- Rastonbury 3y ago
  I reckon a banker who makes 2m coal mine investments does not need advice on maximising financial value of an asset

nl 3y ago

For those unaware of the economics of physical mining: It's not uncommon for exploration companies to find large deposits (or potentially large deposits). The issue is usually that the investment required to extract these minerals is large. Depending on the cost of capital and the risks involved this may or may not happen. Since there is already an existing mine one would think it reduces the risk. But the article doesn't have enough details on the concentration or distribution to know for sure. Looking at the stock price[1] you can see the jump when the discovery was announced from ~$11 to ~$18. A great increase, but you can see this isn't exactly a sure $37B pay-off. [1] https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/METC/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/METC/

defrost 3y ago
> But the article doesn't have enough details on the concentration or distribution to know for sure. I linked to the Technical Report (that has exactly that infomation) 80 minutes prior to your comment, you may have missed the link: https://ramacoresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Weir-International-Brook-Mine-Assessment-05.03.23.pdf https://ramacoresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Weir-...

morninglight 3y ago

Who sold this for $2M ?

defrost 3y ago
You can check the Wyoming BLM records for the past history of the Brook Mine, near Sheridan, plot parcels, or you could get an account or ask for a demo on something like: https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/campaigns/metals-mining https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/campaigns/met... that archives that stuff daily and has done so for five decades & more.

rawling 3y ago

https://www.benzinga.com/general/23/12/36051788/wall-street-banker-pays-2-million-sight-unseen-for-coal-mine-then-discovers-its-filled-with-37-billi https://www.benzinga.com/general/23/12/36051788/wall-street-... FWIW, original article source rather than the Yahoo mirror.

workfromspace 3y ago

https://archive.is/tGxY6 https://archive.is/tGxY6

belter 3y ago

Me says this is a bullshit story similar to “Parallel Construction” in criminal investigations...

quickthrower2 3y ago

He won the lottery-lottery with a lottery win - sized ticket.