Interesting info Ryan, thanks.
My prediction is this:
1. Sales of scalped NCu will start to be "officially" made to the Isa Smelter (a whisper from a local told me that a number of consignments of NCu have already been sold to Isa directly - I haven't seen this in the quarterly cash-flow statements, so perhaps payment has been accounted for in some non-traditional way.
2. Sales of high-grade chalcopyrite ore to EHM will become regular.
3. The mixed NCu, oxide and transitional sulphide"DSO" will be stockpiled until it can be processed on-site into something that is actually saleable, or can be shipped from site on something cheaper than a road train... like a train.
The port and rail is a huge issue for the current execution model, and with risk and infrastructure cost of the MURLF split between three player previously, whilst challenging from a organisational perspective, was at least doable from a capital perspective. Loading the entire capital costs onto CDU for this facility must surely be real kick in the teeth for the NPV.
So, my left-field predication is that CDU are looking at a low-cap development option where they act effectively as contract miners for Glencore, selling copper ore to the Glencore concentrators and NCu to the smelter. All the plans to bulk mine iron ore and produce Co-Sulphur concentrate are shelved, and capital costs of building those circuits are saved. The NCu gravity jig gets commissioned as a priority, followed possibly, but not necessarily by a chalcopyrite float plant, depending how successful/profitable selling unprocessed ore to EHM is.
I'm not sure if selling ore gets them around the off-take agreement with OW (which I think specified concentrate sales), and that could be a major sticking point in generating early cash-flow, but I reckon that they just need to get in there and rape and pillage, and sell what they can, as fast as they can.
Good luck to all the holders, there is certainly lots of money to be made out of this deposit.
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