the $1m vale payment, page-34

If you were the operations manager at Kinross, a very large miner, would you leave your job security and prospects if you didn't believe that you would have a better outcome at your next post? The information you would have to make that decision, would, I believe be far greater than any of us have.

A fair extrapolation would be that Wayne Philips liked what he was getting involved with.

I also agree with Amulet that although historically TP has stated something along the lines of Vale payment being needed to advance to stage 1 mining, that it is no longer true. Though I was disappointed that there has not YET been an announcement re smelter or funding I am sure that they are "... in 2013 expects to aggressively pursue the Company’s production agenda. Further and substantial resource growth is also anticipated." (from Dec Qtly.)