Buyers building up., page-429

The CEO of BHP has given the media the heads up. Some (afr) are even talking about this being a much better fit to BHPs modern modular strategy than Olympic Dam which struggles to meet nameplate production year in year out - The reason for this must be the grades which are looking like being much much better than anything out there. Plus the potential synergies with Olympic Dam which has spare processing capacity should not be overlooked.

It also sounds like Oak Dam West is almost a dead cert to pass BHPs capital allocation framework from recent comments. Which moves it above Olympic Dam in the queue for capital by a long way.

From all this chatter I'm also thinking the release of results for the 10 holes can't be too far away.

So the question for CHK has to be who wouldn't want a part of this. OZ, FMG and BHP would all surely be all over this and the game has to be how to get the best possible deal for CHK shareholders to unlock value (early drilling), remove the need for dilutive capital and retain a big slice of the pie.

Ironically BHP may not want to offer all of these (early drilling) as they have their own prospect to prove up first. But if they were interested you would think negotiations would be well advanced if they are about to 'drop the beast' on the market.

Interesting times indeed.