higher grades reached, page-19

"After being in the markets for more then a decade I have to say that you are a smart investor"

Okay, sorry about my last post, that above comment certainly doesn't apply to me ha ha.

pooh, your objective opinion makes the thread more interesting I guess.

Here is my uninformed take on it:

"In the past 3 weeks, grades have trended to 1.4% Cu and higher, and an average grade of 1.3% Cu – 1.4% Cu is expected to be maintained from this point onwards."

"production for June is above the long term Punitaqui
Total Resource grade of 1.30% Cu"

In response to this comment pooh:

"Some, more cynical than I, would say that the announcement is merely a sweetener, to rebolster flagging hearts, before the quarterly results are announced."

the month of June is 1/3 of the reported period, and as such would be more than a "sweetener" IMO. 33% is a sizable percentage and is therefore bound to have a significant impact on the quarterly.

They can't do more than tell us what has occurred. They have had a solid month where grades are significantly higher than recent trends. Of course there are no guarantees but what exactly would you expect them to do, pooh, inform the market or not? Would you have preferred not to be told? There is no negative in announcing this IMO, and if they did do it as a mere "sweetener", well, hopefully they can arrange a lot more sweeteners to come if it means good results for 1/3 of 1/4.

In saying this, yes this quarterly may not be that good, but they have been producing at 1.4 for 3 weeks. My concern is the long term wellbeing of the company as opposed to a single quarterly report.

"A considerable amount of optimization work lies ahead and is an ongoing process in an
environment which is not conducive to cost reduction, although Punitaqui unit costs are
reducing on the impact of higher volumes, significantly improved copper grade, and
improving copper recoveries. Based on current power and water costs, and assuming
that the US$:Chilean peso rate remains constant, unit costs of US$1.80/lb are targeted by
early 2009."

Looks like costs may not improve so much however due to "optimization"... I would have thought the costs would be less than 1.80 target by '09, let's hope an increased copper price offsets this.

Anyway, IMO, TMR are back on track. GL everyone.