Bit late to this thread, haven't read the lot yet.
Here's a comparison of the 51 days of FFX ownership vs the averaged 92 days of Barrick + FFX, in opex and production. Tailings treatment never stopped AFAIK.
| | 51 days | 92 days | |
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1 | oz produced | 7,625 | 10,940 | |
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2 | tons processed | 904,186 | 1,577,136 | |
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3 | oz/day | 150 | 119 | 20.46% |
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4 | t/day | 17,729 | 17,143 | 3.31% |
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5 | refining cost | $49,672 | $97,976 | |
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6 | p/oz | $6.51 | $8.96 | -37.48% |
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7 | admin | $1,981,001 | $4,089,129 | |
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8 | admin p/day | $38,843.16 | $44,447.05 | -14.43% |
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9 | process cost | $5,303,272 | $9,629,002 | |
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10 | p/ton | $5.87 | $6.11 | -4.09% |
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11 | p/oz | $695.51 | $880.16 | -26.55% |
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12 | total opex | $7,322,025 | $13,755,881 | |
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13 | opex/oz | $960.27 | $1,257.39 | -30.94% |
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Many improvements: slightly better recoveries help improve oz per day, admin costs down, processing costs down.
This is hidden under the capex added to AISC.
A true comparison FFX vs Barrick isn't possible from this data, as FFX's improvements are averaged into the previous owner's period. This means the March quarter will compare very well to the December whole quarter.
Now imagine the head grade going from 0.45 g/t to 1g/t, and recoveries increasing too...