what's going on?, page-6

What's going on? (Reading between the lines and my theories)

in my opinion, Golden Age will be a starter - close to existing workings and away from deeper reserves (and seismically active areas due to the crazy depths). Apex have got a few jumbos up there including a single boom jumbo, so only thing needed is to get an operator to get amongst it. This will give more operational flexibility (another ore zone to mine) putting less pressure on the deeper ore zones.

Wiluna's BIOX mill (70tph) never had the dirt from underground to feed it fully historically. As such, I'd reckon they would be looking at 3rd parties to fill the rest of the mill and/or looking at old waste dumps or tails (feeding 'mineralised waste' from way back when 1 or 2g/t dirt was uneconomic). I've no idea what or if old waste dumps/tailings dams they've got, but had a win with 3rd parties...

The only company I could find within cooee of Wiluna with open pit dirt ready to go was GWR - they mentioned '3 potential toll-treating mills within trucking distance' being Wiluna, Jundee, and NAV's Bronzewing mill. GWR's planned pits are 20 ish km's from Wiluna and are planned to start up later this year. In regards to milling, NAV would have their hands full with getting the Bronzewing mill sorted, but 3.5g/t dirt would look pretty good amongst their 1-2g/t dirt. At a rough guess, this would be a ~150-200km trip which wouldn't be that feasible given the grades (IMHO). Jundee is 50km north of Wiluna so there would be a 70 odd km trip to haul, and Apex is naturally 20 odd km. Apex is in a decent place ('location, location, location'!!).

Personally I think the next 3-6 months will be ugly - once they get the stoping panels online in GA, Wilson's and maybe East Lode North they can start killing the pig. But until they've developed to the stopes, it won't be pretty for ore tonnes to the mill (unless they can mine GA straight away - a map/plan would be nice Apex!!)

Look at Apex's success in finding ore - think back 2/3 years ago when they bought Wiluna off Oxiana, plan was to put Wiluna on C&M for 2 years and mine it later. They found the ore straightaway (Mainly through the Bulletin decline system) and raced in without having a think. They've made mistakes and now have thought about it and are putting things in place to rectify those expensive faults. This includes having multiple ore bodies including Golden Age which is off the existing Golden Age decline - I don't see why they couldn't access development ore in there over the next 3 months. Again, get amongst it boys. Any miners/mining people out there, have a think of your regular UG decline - there aren't many declines which have multiple orebodies (+5) running off it.

They are burning cash, don't get me wrong... but future exploration success is an almost given their previous successes. My personal opinion would be to find their own pit or two, but a 3rd party pit and/or the UG infrastructure is there and they are finding the orebodies to mine.

Apex seem to have a lot of investors and investor companies with the belief that it will get better and Apex will (and are slowly) turning Wiluna around. This is MA's job, to keep the investors believing that Wiluna is turning around and will make a buck. Then again, how much money can you keep throwing at a company to keep it afloat? IF (again, IF) they do have to go back to the market and ask for more $$$, I'd pretty much bet my house the market would say no, and hence Wiluna would close. The next company (or Apex if they can keep it going) would have the benefit of developed ore ready to go in multiple ore sources and kill the pig.

This is just my opinion, have a read, have a think, as I keep saying the next 3 months to 6 months will be ugly as they develop to the orebodies (thats the nature of UG mining). Once they get amongst it, the good news should start rolling.

Good luck to all and DYOR