What does Dampier Salt results say about BCI's VALUE?

DampierSalt Limited (DSL), located in Western Australia, has2solar salt operations – Dampier and Port Hedland, andis the world’s largest exporter of seaborne salt,harvesting about8.5 milliontonnes each year. DSL focuses on sustainable, premium salt solaproduction.

DSLis joint venture between Rio Tinto (68% ownership and operator),Marubeni Corporation (22%) and Sojitz (10%). Between the 2operations there are 53 ponds across 20,000 hectares, operated by a99% residential workforce.

Eachof the joint venture partners sells its equity proportion of theproduct. Rio reports annual sale data ( for year ended 31 December)for its share. It also reports sale tonnes, EBITDA, depreciation andunderlying earnings, all in USD.

Theproduct is exactly the same as that which BCI intends to produce. Apremium quality Solar Salt. There is a strong demand beyondcurrent world production for this product.
DSL state that they arecommitted to providing customers with premium grade salt that meetsexternal standards, including Halal, Kosher and ISO9001certifications.

Investorsin BCI who are interested in the potential value should have a hardlook at recent Dampier Salt metrics.

For the year ended 31December 2024 Rio sold 5823 tonnes for USD 412 Million. Giving anaverage price of USD 70.753. The EBITDA/ tonne was USD 20.09. Thedifference is the production cost per tonne of $50.66 (includes seafreight). Depreciation and amortisation was $3.95/tonne.

These values are similar tothose for the previous year.

The metrics proposed by BCIfor its future salt operation are based on a lower sales price and amuch lower operating cost.

If BCI can achieve asimilar sales price to Rio, and achieve its predicted cost per tonne(A$ 22.2 /t FOB), BCI is grossly undervalued by the share market.

For those interested inreviewing the Rio data, open the annual report and look at page 158(definition of Segmental revenue), page 266 (Financial information bybusiness unit), page 267 (Additional financial information) and page276 (Metals and minerals production). There is also detailedinformation on the DSL operation, salt uses, and customer industries.