had a tour of browns

some observations

It's damn hot up there, and the early wet seems to have fizzled out.

All power supply infrastructure IS in place but is NOT hooked up - they do not need it untill commissioning. New transmission line, all sub stations and transformers are in place however was told the biggest problem is the scarcity of electrical contract staff to perform the cabling work - maybe a job for you Cableguy.

On site management seem very experienced and capable.They are confident March 12 target will be met.
The tradesmen I grogged on with at the Bachelor pub are not so sure, they complain about poor design drawings and changes, - however they did say it's not as bad as earlier on.

Processing plant is impressive but still a lot of work to be done in piping, pump installations and cabling.

Don't know whether the cost/time blowout was that, or rather poor judgement in the first place - someone saying we've got 83 mill to spend so thats our estimate.
There was a fair bit of crap laying around in a junk area though.

The Mine is completely stripped and the ore body fully exposed with some of the ore already stockpiled.
The O/burden was used in the tailings dam wall which is a huge earthworks project, with still a lot to be done. The floor of the dam to be excavated to provide additional fill for ramps and walls.

The Mine Manager's job is made even more difficult because they also need to exavate 600T
of the Sulphide ore for HNC testing. The pit from this test site will become the Oxide Mines sump for the wet season.
All this work needs to be finished before the wet hits - a big job.

The test sulphide goes by refrigerated truck to Perth for testing - all at HNC expense.

The commissioning can take from 6 weeks to 9 months depending on whatever problems get thrown up, so full production could still be over 12 months away.

HNC visit the site weekly but appear more focused on the sulphides and don't even indicate whether they'll keep their share of Oxide product or onsell it.
Our 50 per cent gets trucked to a wharehouse in Darwin and buyers are lining up for it.

I hope we meet our targets as the share price needs it, but I beleive we are a long term hold with the real money being in the Sulphides and the Oxides are just a stepping stone to unleash the value.
As was pointed out not many Sulphide projects are open pit, let alone open pit with Oxide ore as overburden.

Now everyone get back to the oars and start rowing like shite.