Copper Product and Quality
The Wetar Demonstration Plant first produced copper cathode in February 2009. Cumulative production through December 2010, when the plant was decommissioned, was 2,438t. Each product shipment has been comfortably within the LME Grade A Copper specification.
Customers and Off-Take Partners
All product to date has been sold into Asian markets, principally Taiwan and Thailand, arranged by Finders' off-take partner, Tennant Metals (TM). TM has an off-take contract for 40% of the full-scale project product. Finders is paid 95% of its invoice amount on export customs clearance.
Off-take for the remaining 60% is uncommitted although it is expected that off-take will be arranged with another party as part of the financing of the full-scale plant.
Copper Pricing
Finders has achieved a weighted average premium US$70 per tonne above LME copper prices for all shipments it has made to date, partly because Asian buyers have lower shipping costs from Indonesia compared to South America and the physical availability of cathode in Asia has been tight recently.
Assuming the full-scale project is funded partially by project debt, Finders will likely be required to hedge at least part of its copper production during the term of the project loan.
Based on current forward prices the hedged price would be expected to be well ahead of any stress test copper price.