For interested Hot Copperites this year’s AGM was a three phase...

For interested Hot Copperites this year’s AGM was a three phase affair consisting of the site tour, the AGM itself, then the post AGM discussions.

Will do an overall report in three parts to break it up into readable segments (with this being the first, just on the site tour) - hopefully other attending posters will add to it and apply additional comments.

The site tour kicked off with the pre event meet and greet at Hoover’s Café which established that we had a very open minded and well informed bunch of shareholders attending (around 15,) many with a high level of expertise in a range of mining operations – will not name those attending as some may wish anonymity.

On arrival at Three Mile Hill we were all given a breathalyser test at the front gate before being permitted to enter the site (it is zero tolerance site, so if planning to visit at any time, keep off the turps the night before, otherwise you will not be permitted entry).

After the issue of some PPE gear we were given the mandatory safety briefing followed by an overview of mill operations by Barend Knoetze, the Resident Manager of Coolgardie Operations.

While Barend indicated that the mill is choofing along quite nicely at near name plate capacity, they are examining a number of options to improve capacity – my personal impression is that the mill, despite the refurbishment programme, is starting to show its age, and any future upgrade should incorporate a review to modernize the whole plant.

After a quick drive around the mill it was off to the top of the waste dump overlooking the tailings dam for a more informative visual overview of the mill and supporting infrastructure.

Think this top down view caused a bit of sucking of teeth from some of us, particularly the work being undertaken to raise the northern perimeter of the tailings dam and the fact that there was very little ore stockpiled on the ROM pads.

The work being undertaken on the tailings dam was illustrative that in terms of talking about a mill there seems to be a mind concentration on the machinery component with little thought being paid to that other critical component, the tailings dam – if you like you can have the best machinery available, but be totally screwed by an inadequate tailings dam (a case of think mill, think tailings at the same time).

Questioning revealed that the lack of stockpiled ore on the ROM pads was due to a series of weather events in October and early November that impacted on open pit operations and the transport of ore from underground operations, causing a run down of stockpiled ore – this also resulted in some lower grade ore stockpiled offsite that was accessible by good roads also being fed into the mill (mill operated the whole time, ore supply was the problem).

Might say that through this visual observation and questioning the tour group got some pre-emptive information regarding production that was going to be released at the AGM later that day, plus posed some potential questions for the coming open pits visit.

Mark Sampson, Open Pits Manager, hosted our visit to the open pits commencing with the newly established Big Blow pit which is just about to commence ore extraction now that the overburden has been removed, followed by Empress which has been mined for some months, then Dreadnaught (the largest of the pits, previously mined in some parts and now being expanded), concluding with a quick visit to the old Tindals Open Pit as a scale reference to depths and ore bodies.

First impression was that the Big Blow and Empress do not appear that big which raised a number of questions, the replies giving us all a bit of a reality check in terms of the costs involved in developing an open pit versus the benefits obtained, along with the fact that the oxide ores from Big Blow and Empress have to be blended at the Three Mile Hill plant at a lower ratio than the harder ore bodies from Tindals under ground and the Mount.

Overall, it appears that Big Blow and Empress are currently optimal in terms of size and cost for planned production, plus they are expandable, along with the potential for underground operations in the future.

Dreadnaught, which because it was mined in parts before and thus probably attracted a lower rating, could prove to be the big winner as it is mining at a better than anticipated grade rate.

Rain impact was fairly apparent over all sites, however seems that things are back on track now despite some of the ground still being very soft underneath

Taking into account the current Three Mile Hill blend requirements it would seem that future open pit development needs to concentrate on harder ore bodies, rather than the abundant softer oxide ore bodies around Tindals.

Interesting side comment was made that finding sterile sites for the waste dumps has been hampered in that every time a potential site is identified, gold has been discovered on it (this has been said at other times and subjects before in relation to Tindals and greater Coolgardie).

The tour concluded with a tenement briefing given by Chuck McCormick, Business Development Manager, at the public lookout (good views) on the hill just to the south of Coolgardie, which for anyone tends to be a bit mind boggling as Chuck rattles off the various discoveries – luckily, time did not permit the issue of shovels and picks so the Great Eastern Highway is still in one piece.

Bit of historical follow up work to do, as Chuck indicated that Focus has picked up a few more tenements in the area.

All up a very interesting and informative tour, even for those that have done similar tours before, so well done to Neil Le Febvre for organising it all.