Q & A with BaltasarG

In another forum on Hotcopper yesterday, in the context of a discussion about “constant explorers” who never develop anything, BaltasarG / Alex wrote:

”if a company hasn't made it in the first 5 to 6 years then unlikely ever will.” BaltasarG

To me, this comment suggests BaltasarG does not have relevant experience in the mining production space. According to a detailed study by Minex consulting, the average delay between discovery and development is 12 years, and getting longer. The timelines put out by the World Gold Council are even longer.

But since 6 years is BaltasarG’s standard, let’s look at how Barton is doing for comparison:

1. The only real asset Barton has left is Tunkillia - that was discovered in the 1990s - THIRTY YEARS AGO - and since then not a single company has figured out a way to make it work. Never mind 6 years - absolutely nothing in 30 years.

2. In that 30 years, every company that touched Tunkillia including experienced companies like Helix, Minotaur and Mungana, has failed to make it work, or even come up with a plan to make it work. WPG was the last owner and they ended up in bankruptcy.

3. Since then, the substantive change Barton has done after bleeding millions on Tunkillia is to somehow manage to LOWER the average grade from 1.6 g/t to a measly 0.9 g/t, which is going backwards, particularly given the huge mass of overburden. If it failed to be commercial at 1.6 gt, it’s a dead cert fail at 0.9gt.

If we apply BaltasarG’s own measure to Barton’s projects - it’s obviously not going to work by his own argument. My suggestion to BaltasarG / Alex / Barton is that we take the money just raised, start again, and try buy a new project.