what was wrong with the crusher?

I think the crusher is symptomatic of the whole problem for M&G.

Originally it was supposed to be installed by 21st December last year. Remember roh's countdown?

Then it started to become clear that WM has little control over the plant development progress at Rocklands. On 15th March he stated categorically that the handover date for the crushing circuits was scheduled for late March - less than two weeks away, and now four months later it still hasn't happened.

How could he be so wrong? How can the man on the spot not notice that the crusher wasn't being installed? Ah, but then we find out from the quarterly, six weeks later, that the crusher circuit is 12-16 weeks behind the original schedule due to modifications and upgrades by CuDeco. Excuse me, Wayne, but Dec 21st to 1st May is 130 days, or 18.5 weeks - you have a numbers problem here! And now we are a further 13 weeks over-run, making a total of over 31 weeks delayed, not "12-16".

And somehow WM didn't know that these upgrades/modifications were required on the 15th March when completion before the end of March was scheduled?

Strangely enough, the quarterly also comments on:

"Stringent Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QAQC) measures have been employed by the Company, which has included numerous visits and inspections of various manufacturing plants around the world."; and

"on schedule" for all the other development items.

So, what was/is wrong with the crusher, Wayne? Why didn't your team pick the problems up on their numerous visits and inspections? And why didn't you know about them TWO WEEKS before commissioning of the circuits was due to begin? They must have been almost complete by the 15th March.

Small wonder that M&G are getting nervous if, in spite of all the QAQC measures, relatively simple, mechanical items such as the crushing circuits are running so far behind schedule because of them needing modifications and upgrades before they've turned over once.