I haven't been catching up with the latest breathtaking HIO news for a couple of weeks due house moving to QLD , but FWIW my contact in town here involved in heavy truck maintenance was telling me about 10 days ago that the drilling on site is much slower than anticipated due to the drill rig they were required to use for environmental and various OH&S "requirements --( think "must be dust free , quiet, not disturb the delicate rare fauna around (none) etc etc) --Im being facetious,but you get the idea.
A manager was sent by HIO few months ago to source this mythical "environmentally friendly drillig rig" and eventually got one from somewhere (maybe Tassie?) --any way the rig has proven a nightmare maintenance wise--constanly blowing hoses etc--so that "when thay should have done 20 holes-they had done less than 10" type thing--again you get the idea.
I'm guessing that HIO didnt want to publish anything seemingly negative about the drilling for fear of sinking the ship even further..--anyway I dont know how much it has affected the schedule, but it sounded like quite an overrun when I heard about it. Time will tell I guess..
Again FWIW -this headline appeared in an email from "MiningNews.net"--I didnt feel like paying $226.00 per month to read a nice Magnetite story--if anyone knows how to open it feel free to post for us LLLLTHopers...
