ubs appointment - why ?, page-24

The economies of scale are tough for all the juniors.

I reckon BHP is UMC's best option. UMC have the ore and it's commercial. Anyway, location is arguably the most important factor and the Railway Deposit couldn't be in a better location with respect to BHP.

So now all we need to see is Hogan in bed with Kloppers and/or Argus ( picture that! LOL ).

I am going to speculate that the talks have already started.

For UMC, I reckon a similar deal as IOH's "innovative mine-gate sales arrangement" with RIO would be the best outcome.

On the flip side this sort of arrangement wouldn't be bad PR for BHP at this point in time when there is all this talk of the BHP/RIO duopolistic ( had to look that one up in the dictionary ) production joint venture.