Having the possibility of two plants allows us the option to increase the mining rate and truck to Coyote into a stockpile for wet season processing short term. One big issue addressed.
Once OP plant is up and operational (if thats the plan), we can mine and process all year round there at lower throughput which may mean we don't need to upgrade the plant as much. Less capex in that case.
On the risk front, we have to put through 10k tonnes as part of Coyote recommissioning. If that produces dore at a similar rate to trial mine, the output of this alone will more or less pay for the first year lease costs if we decided to go ahead.
Once Coyote is operational again, we can also get started on Buccaneer and any other porpyrys which are subsequently found. If it is economical to mine, at least we can get started without the lead time for a new plant. The previous announcement in June hinted at another porphry discovered. Maybe its a new one, maybe it connects to Buccaneer. Hopefully its mineralised. I'm sure there will be more found over the coming years.
If it turns out that Buccaneer is economical, we can then perhaps have two mining sites operational concurrently with low grade ore going to Coyote and high grade to OP plant (or a mix).
I suppose the whole operation is down to economics as usual, but I think that if nothing else, this gives us a two pronged approach to the whole operation which more or less doubles the chance of success in my mind.
(20min delay)