Ann: Boda-Kaiser Scoping Study, page-44

While I agree numbers are not great I also think they are not as bad as many think. And could have been lot better if ALK drilled couple of extra holes per quarter into other NMPP projects over the years. Yes, ALK balance sheet would have been $2-$3m weaker but in the big scheme of things this is nothing. Changes nothing from financial point of view but could have changed a lot if ALK did made another discovery. There was zero forward thinking from ALK on this front.
now most agree it would be nice if ALK found another orebody around - preferably with bit higher grades. It's amazing how ALK could not see this as an important part of strengthening the project's fundamentals aka an insurance policy.
But when I was proposing that, there were few people very aggressively arguing the opposite and used personal attacks to silence me. Interesting they all went into silent mode - especially since CAI investment looks like will be written off 100%.

regarding prices used in the SS...

This project will be producing in about 10 years from now. Considering what western govs and most of the rest are doing (which is printing without any consideration to slow down let alone to stop), price of all commodities will be higher and price of gold will be significantly higher than now.
Yes, these prices fluctuate but if one looks at long-timeline charts, one will notice the trajectory is up.

And considering private debt is also at record highs while interest rates are high enough, there is a good chance we will see deflation (even though higher inflation is just as possible) and rate cuts.

Based on the above, I don't think ALK used too optimistic numbers and I am not shy to criticise them when I see fit. All of you know I am not spruiker and I blame both the MD and the BoDs for how low the SP is - yes sentiment plays decent role here but the MD and the BoDs caused 50% of the problem.

Good part is ALK does not need another Boda or Kaiser to make this project super attractive. ALK only needs to find around 1.5Moz epithermal deposit at around 2g/t and NMPP will look very sxy. Something that will make payback period even shorter and counter the "high" prices used in the estimates. And I think the ground is good enough to produce such orebody - it's just ALK who needs to show some initiative and make real effort.

If Govs continue to push for all-electrification, then copper prices will settle at around $15k - based on current and future demand. I think most Govs will come to their senses and will slow down this insanity but even in this case copper prices will settle at around $12k. Even ICE cars use more and more electronics.
Ukraine war shows drones changed war strategies forever and single use drones (can't recycle these babies) will now be made in millions per year - how much copper in those? This just adds more pressure on the price of copper. EW devices will also be in high demand and those need even more copper.

Worst case scenario payback period changes to 7 years and there is 10 years to milk profits - assuming there will be no further UG mining to extract rest of the resources. Is this that bad? Yes and No - depending on what they do with the profits.
And this is the worst case scenario.
There are few other scenarios that are lot rosier than the one above and are more likely to play out.