Ann: Mineral Resource Upgrade, page-298

Tran, It takes so much more than "Compelling Economics'" to get a mine up and running. To be clear to all, I sold my holding of HIO on the announcement of the BFS due to the up grading to 20mtpa. Ihope that HIO can pull it off and one day actually go mining but with my experience I see it as being highly unlikely.
I also feel too many people invest is explorers like HIO without really understanding the realities of starting a greenfield mine.

Consider this, Yandi is Australia's biggest iron ore mine (Hematite). Last year Yandi exported 80 million tonnes, they dug up 80 million tonnes of ore, crushed it and shipped it.... Easy!!
HIO wants to ship 20mtpa, to do this with a dtr of 12.5ish%. To do this the mine must dig up and process 160,000,000 tonnes of ore per annum. Think about that, twice the size of Australia's largest producing iron ore mine.... At what cost, how big will the finance package need to be??

Here's another example, Karara is a Magnetite mine in W.A. that produces 7mtpa. They pump their water from 100kms away and use rail for approximately 120km to port. The mine opened around 2012 (not 100% sure of the date) at a cost of $4,000,000,000. HIO want to mine nearly three times as much and pump the 20mtpa through a slurry pipe measuring around 400 to 450kms.... So what do you think the real cost of starting this mine will be??? 8 to 10 billion would be a fair guess??

Again, I hope that HIO can pull this off and one day go mining but I have been around long enough to see many juniors with "Compelling Economics" never turn a shovel's worth of dirt.

Why am I backing MGT? Massive ore body (much bigger than HIO's), 200kms closer to port and low startup cost of $500 - $650 million for 3mtpa mine. Much more likely to happen... And can continue to grow as the money flows.