Yes racoondog - you have essentially asked the most important question about the performance of the operation under the previous mining contractor and now under the new mining contractor.
The main question was whether the production problems were a lack of ore tonnes to the surface (stopes not available, development behind schedule, equipment downtime or insufficient staff which if true would be Pybar problems) or alternatively a problem with the grade of the tonnes that were being mined (usually a grade control/dilution/stope performance issue and more in WPG's control).
Remenber the mining contractors have a fair bit of latitude as to what people and machines they put where and may have a say in schedules but at the end of the day it will be the WPG survey, geology and mine engineers whom tell them where to develop and mine the stopes. Its always a team effort across the disclipines between the mining contractor and owner operator that will deliver the best results.
Now presumably we have a new and different contractor with some new and different machinery, people and a different contract with probably mostly the same WPG site management, so the proof will be in the pudding once we see a few months production..
WPG Price at posting:
1.7¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
