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Acturtle, your post gives a fairly accurate lay person view of Sally Malay predicament on the information given by SMY.

Your estimate of 4 – 5 weeks shut down of the plant is the big question that I have been trying to work out. From information given by Peter Harold in the open briefing report on the 16 Dec 2005 the period of shut down could be a longer period. He said :-

“We’re on track with the transition from open pit to underground mining. We expect to complete open pit mining in February and underground operations are currently ramping up so there should be a smooth transition near the end of the March quarter 2006.”

So on this information it could be 12 to 13 weeks before underground mining commences, less the 2 -3 weeks of ore on the ground brings it back to perhaps a 10 week period of non production. With SMY heavy debt commitments it maybe touch and go.

As previously posted by me, there is also the different opinions floating around that SMY will find it very hard to bring out 600,000 tonnes of ore per annum from underground using only one decline.

It will be interesting to see how the share price performs as this set back is scrutinised by the big holders.