From an outsider looking in these days its been a sobering experience watching how quickly things can change. Instead of two mines operating and heading for a third its now half of one mine getting close to the end of its produtive life with another taking over from it at some point. Thats a rather precarious position and only another mining issue away from some serious problems given our cash situation which will almost certainly be reduced now.
As I see it is RVR is more dependent on commodity prices ,the exchange rate and inflationary pressures than its ever been . The Company has always lived on the edge as a specialist in extracting small operations from the nackers yard but they were in the nackers yard for a reason.
For whatever reason RVR was unable to secure an offtake for ANTIMONY and a mining contractor at terms that worked at Hillgrove, if that couldn't be done at current ANTIMONY and GOLD prices in AUD's with access tunels in place, then its unlikely it ever will be in its current configuration . The option it seems is a bigger operation based largely around GOLD, but that involves a lot of money and if it does eventually happen its a long way down the track and probably as a junior partner.
As it stands Hillgrove is costing money to keep in C and M and will do for a long time unless sold IMO.
That leaves Far West producing at half rate with an unknown ramp up situation and no certainty the abandoned stopes will be revisited or at what cost if they do.They still await permits for Liontown and at best it may have some overlap with Far West but basically filling the mill isn't going to happen unless they change the mine plan at Liontown.
The bottom line is at best some point next year RVR will be a one mine operation with throughput in the region of 4-500,000 tpa for the foreseeable future IMO, exposed as always to commodity prices in AUD's , on a risk reward basis is not a comfortable place to be unfortunately, mind you its always been that way. Its been a strange journey.
I continue to follow RVR as I enjoy the little battler and hope it can revive its fortunes ,it certainly hasn't played out as I had hoped but this is the mining sector and they often don't.
Cheers Whisky
RVR Price at posting:
9.9¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Not Held
