Christopher Ecclestone: Antimony and the move for production outside of China

Asian Metal: Good morning Christopher, thank you very much for agreeing to partake in this interview.
First of all, could you please give a brief back ground of yourself and what lead to you to being appointed the CEO of Geodex?

CE: I have been a mining strategist, with a focus on specialty metals, for many years now. Being Australian, mining to some extent is "in the blood". My interest in antimony stretches back to the start of the decade. I was formerly the CEO of Mediterranean Resources, where I perceived an opportunity to bolt on firstly producing antimony properties in Turkey and then went in pursuit of past producing antimony assets in Spain and the Balkans. Mediterranean Resources unfortunately did not have enough spare cash to advance these projects. As I far prefer Antimony to gold at this point, I switched over to running Geodex, which had decided that it wanted to refocus onto metals with a more unique niche such as Antimony and Tin.

Asian Metal: Geodex has been primarily known for its operations within the tungsten, copper, tin and molybdenum markets. Could you tell us a little bit more about the company and its decision to refocus itself on the production of antimony?

CE: Geodex was very successful in having found the Sisson Tungsten deposit and then having on-sold it to Northcliff, a member of the Hunter-Dickinson stable of miners. With the sale of such a leading deposit it’s hard to repeat the same feat again by just searching in the relative confines of New Brunswick. Also the mood has changed to explorers and project generators. The board at Geodex resolved that Antimony and Tin were looking more prospective. Moreover the capital expenditure entry requirements for a small producing Antimony asset and/or alluvial tin deposit are massively lower than for a Tungsten deposit. So there was a "meeting of the minds" with myself on these themes and we have teamed up. This brings together the respective skill-sets on Turkey, Spain and the Maritime provinces of Canada. Other areas of potential interest are Queensland or Victoria in Australia and potentially the Balkans.

Asian Metal: In regards to the company's involvement in antimony, could you elaborate a bit more on your current operations and capabilities?

CE: We have spent years kicking the tyres on interesting past-producing mines and the moment seems right to implement a "right-sized" antimony production push, aggregating small antimony mines 1-2,000 tonnes per annum . With a few of those under the belt one could actually become the largest non-Chinese producer if one considers that production, at best , from either Consolidated Murchison or Costerfield is 4,000-5,000 tonnes per annum.

Asian Metal: Could you give us an indication of the company’s plans for the future?

CE: Obtain control of 4-5 past-producing and producing antimony deposits bringing them to market sequentially. Hopefully we shall soon get the economies of scale to put up a small roaster at a port location somewhere around the Mediterranean to which we can ship concentrates from the individual mines and eventually produced a finished Antimony Trioxide product for the European market that will be sourced in closer proximity than China for example.

Asian Metal: What are the biggest obstacles facing Geodex moving forward?

CE: Finance is the biggest challenge as always for miners. At least with Antimony we can look beyond mere portfolio investors (the traditional sources in gold mining for instance). With antimony there are "interested parties" such as traders and off-takers who really feel an imperative to source away from China, either wholly or in part, for security of supply reasons. We want to get one of those groups in as a keystone investor with maybe a 15-20% stake. Finding past producing mines is no problem. There are plenty of mines that were killed stone-dead in the early 1980s when China swamped the global market. None of them are that large though to ruin the price in the marketplace.

Asian Metal: What is your outlook on the antimony market moving forward?

CE: I see an end to the trend towards replacement of antimony in fire retardant combinations as end-users have probably gone as far as they can go without compromising the effectiveness of the product. Beyond that, I suspect that the opening of Burma to the world will reduce the prevalence of clandestine "conflict antimony" sales by rebel tribes over the border into China. Then there is the big issue of gradual run-off at Twinkling Star. What is a drag for Chinese production is going to be a tailwind for those parties coming on-stream outside China like ourselves and Hillsgrove. Thus I expect Antimony to trend gradually back up to between $11,000 and $12,000 per tonne over the next two years.

Asian Metal: Thank you very much Christopher, we wish you all the best in your new venture.

CE: Thank you very much.