For mere mortals like myself here are some key messages from company's official announcement
1) Company believes that they are on track for 35mtpa by Sep quarter. (i.e inline with half yearly report and 3 months late than original plan)
2) According to the company's official announcement it seems the main issue is at the surface where the impact of natural elements and heavy truck movement has resulted in cracks/damage and subsequently led to water ingress into the layers beneath the surface. Its not clear in this announcement if those layers beneath the surface need repair as well or just the outer layer. Cement stabilization would indicate some repair is being done below the outer surface. Which is good I suppose.
3) Work is ongoing to repair and strengthen the surface to avoid future damage. Company seems confident these works will enable them to reach nameplate capacity.
4) Importantly, I don't see anything in this report that is suggestive of a problem with the subgrade (see below picture) that will be more expensive to fix.
Overall, unless the company is lying or hiding anything from shareholders I don't see any cause for concern in this section of todays announcement.
There is a mention of
stockpiling of clay in the other section. I can imagine we will have several experts on this topic once AFR/Others have an article on this subject but in the meantime if anyone here knows about what they are talking about and why this has been called out?? Much appreciate any insights from
anyone with a background in metallurgy??
(20min delay)