Ann: September 2022 Quarterly Reports, page-32

6 months ago, I went to KV to see what they were up to. I was really lucky to speak to the exploration manager for about an hour. I know he was due to fly out that afternoon, but he still afforded me an hour of his time. Thanks Jamie.

As a miner, I am used to dealing with tech services people (Engineers, Geos, Surveyors) This guy puts them in the shade and it is good to see the quality of people working for our company.

He showed me mine plans, anticipated site layouts and exploration plans. Most of that stuff was already in the previous announcements, but it was nice to put it in perspective.

This latest announcement shows the updated mine design. It shows the underground decline progressing directly to the higher grade orebodies. The infill drilling which they were doing over the last 5 months would have helped with the overall mine plan. I notice also pits 1 and 2 are a long way from the start of underground high grade stopes. It will be a long time before the underground development extends out to underneath those pits. Pits 1 and 2 look like they will provide the initial mill feed and will probably get blended with the higher grade underground ores, (when they come on line).

The scope of underground development is in the hundreds of kilometres. In the first instance, there will only be one Jumbo operating underground. After it gets to the orebodies, more will be introduced quickly. These machines are capable of advancing 10 to 15 metres per day (with multiple headings). I am told they are expecting no real issues for underground ground control.
I wouldn't be surprised to hear of 10 or more Jumbos operating per shift. In the ore, I would expect them to take 5m high by 5m wide by 3.5m advance. Each cut producing around 300T of high grade ore. Once they have done all the development for the first stoping blocks, they will drill and blast 40m stoping blocks. They will only be limited then to how quickly they can extract it.
All the big underground contractors will be falling all over themselves to get this contract.