Latest news with #Stava
Observer
24-05-2025
- Business
- Observer
UK firm plans Oman's first nickel pilot plant
MUSCAT, MAY 23 UK-based mining company Knights Bay says it plans to establish a pilot nickel production facility in Oman, marking the initial phase of a major integrated mining project in the Middle East. The pilot plant, which will process 10,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of nickel, is designed to scale into full production modules capable of producing up to 100,000 tpa. The facility will be based on mineral resources extracted from Knights Bay's 1,444 km² concession in the Wilayat of Ibra, Al Sharqiyah North Governorate. The project also includes significant deposits of iron ore, cobalt, chrome and silica. 'Knights Bay (KB) is revolutionising the Middle East's mining sector with the development of the first fully integrated Nickel and Iron Ore mining project," said Chris Stava, Senior Executive, in a recent post. According to Stava, the company is seeking a strategic partner to support the staged development of the project. Key milestones include securing a mining license, mobilising drilling operations, refining engineering and processing for carbon-neutral production; and enhancing corporate governance with the recruitment of independent board members. Backed by a Royal Decree, the concession offers substantial long-term potential. Stava noted that historical and contemporary studies conducted between 2000 and 2025 estimate over 37 million tonnes of resources and reserves, with an exploration target of more than 1.5 billion tonnes. Geological exploration has so far focused on approximately 300 km² of the concession, revealing average nickel grades between 1.05% and 1.2% and iron ore grades between 60% and 66%. At full production, the facility is expected to produce up to 112,000 tpa of nickel, 120,000 tpa of iron ore and 5,100 tpa of cobalt. Knights Bay has already completed drilling for its initial batch of exploration holes in the concession. 'This project holds the potential to play a pivotal role in industries transitioning to clean energy and providing alternative sourcing options for western markets,' Stava said. The geology team recently concluded Phase 1 of its scout drilling campaign, reporting consistent mineral values across the laterite zones. 'Excitingly, new zones of nickel and cobalt laterites, up to 35 metres thick, have been discovered and sampled, with more details to follow,' added Stava. Current findings indicate over 95 million tonnes of measured, indicated and inferred resources with average grades of 1.06% nickel, 560 ppm cobalt, 35% iron and 4% chromite. Laterite thicknesses in target zones average 25 metres. Initial feedstock for the pilot plant will come from 400,000 tonnes of existing mined material with nickel grades between 1.0% and 1.3%; and cobalt levels of around 500 ppm. The project has also uncovered potential new opportunities, including a borehole with elevated lithium values and a 40-metre laterite sequence capped by a 1.5-metre thick pyrite layer — suggesting possible massive sulphide formation. Over 3 million tonnes of iron laterite have already been extracted, which opens up the potential for shallow surface mining operations to support future growth. The company also sees potential in supplying iron and nickel products to steelmakers in the Gulf region. HIGHLIGHTS The facility will be based on mineral resources extracted from Knights Bay's 1,444 km² concession
Los Angeles Times
04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
After 15 years of rejection, Costa Mesa author earns nationwide acclaim with her thriller ‘Count My Lies'
Costa Mesa-based author Sophie Stava beamed under bright lights and the gaze of a national television audience as she fielded questions about her first published novel, 'Count My Lies,' on its release day, Tuesday March 4. The domestic thriller about a compulsive liar who becomes a nanny for a family with secrets of their own was featured as the book of the month by 'Good Morning America.' 'It was another fantasy come true, something you secretly wish for yourself but you don't say out loud because how crazy does that sound?' Stava told the Daily Pilot before knocking on a wooden table in the Newport Beach Public Library to ward off bad luck during an interview Tuesday. 'There've just been so many 'pinch me' moments.' Multiple publishers showed interest in 'Count My Lies' before she inked a deal with Simon & Schuster last year on Valentine's Day. She said seeing it promoted alongside Stephen King's latest title and compared to one of her own favorite novels — Gillian Flynn's 'Gone Girl' — has been nothing short of surreal. She'll dive into the path that led to her novel's critically lauded debut, her inspirations and more during a meet-and-greet Tuesday evening, April 8 in Newport Beach. That event will be held at the Central Library on Avocado Avenue, where earlier this week 29 people were on a waiting list to check out the dozen or so copies on loan there. Her recent success comes after well over a decade of rejection, soul searching and perseverance. 'Having 15 years of 'no' or 'not now' and 'not yet, but your close,' I had a lot of time to fantasize about an editor saying 'I want to work with you; I see something special here,'' Stava said. Stava studied literature at UC Santa Barbara before going into the field of marketing after college. That paid the bills, but never felt like the right fit for her. Things came to a head when a company that provides SAT training hired her to do direct marketing. But they wound up having her cold-calling potential customers instead. 'Needless to say I wasn't great at it,' Stava said. 'I was let go, and I said to my husband, who I was dating at the time, 'I'm never going back to the corporate world.'' She responded to a vague Craigslist post seeking a ghost writer around 2012, as hype was growing over the erotic romance title '50 Shades of Grey.' Her client gave her a rough outline of a love story and paid her $6,000 to flesh out its characters and narrative. Stava tried to follow that up by self-publishing a romance novel in her own name, but that effort failed to turn a profit. She managed to maintain confidence in her talent thanks to the support of close family and friends, and eventually decided she needed to focus solely on writing. 'So much about selling is about timing, about what the market is looking for, what they think editors are looking for,' Stava said. 'It's sort of like timing the stock market.' She hired an agent to make up for her shortcomings as a marketer. And instead of trying to cash in on a waning trend of erotic fiction, Stava turned inward to her personal favorite genre of literature: thrillers. Stava poured herself into creating her first mystery novel, refining it over numerous revisions. But after two years had passed, she was still unable to convince an editor to pick up the title. 'It was devastating,' Stava said. 'I thought with every revision I was gonna hear, 'It's ready. We're going to send it to editors.' The writer said she wasn't sure if it was conviction or 'delusion' that drove her to start over on her third book. But, unlike her previous efforts, the drafts that eventually became 'Count My Lies' immediately caught the attention of publishers and editors. Stava thinks the strength of her novel lies in it's page-turning plot. She also believes the issues of identity, public perception and authenticity its characters navigate are deeply relatable to audiences in the era of social media. 'At it's core, 'Count My Lies' is about the desperation for connection, to be seen, to be accepted,' Stava said. 'I think that really resonates with people, especially after the pandemic when a lot of us were really isolated and lonely, and we missed a lot of those connections.' Stava said she considers herself a reader first and a writer second, so she's honored by the knowledge other bookworms are getting lost in a fantasy born of her imagination. It would never have come to life without her parents, who inspired her love of reading and served as her earliest critics, and the constant encouragement of her husband. 'He said, 'It won't happen if you stop writing; it can only happen if you keep writing,'' Stava recalled. She's not resting on her breakthrough success and is already hard at work on the second draft of her next book. She described it as a domestic psychological thriller about a woman who moves to the East Coast with her family and 'falls into a group of women who seem to be up to no good.' 'My mind is spinning,' Stava said. 'Words are coming.'
