"The cyclone has caused structural damage to the wharf"! Oh,...

"The cyclone has caused structural damage to the wharf"! Oh, doesn't sound too bad. "Temporarily suspended operations" because we care about the safety of the community and employees!? And the announcement isn't price sensitive. Nothing major, I'm sure. And South32 has made statements denying rumours of a possible permanent closure of the site....to ABC Darwin.

Surely this is classic British under-statement. An attempt at deadpan humour, maybe. The pictures posted look like something from Pearl Harbour in December 1941. I am no structural engineer and have no knowledge on this topic.

It reminds me of that massive Antanov plane (largest in the world) which was left at Kiev airport as the Russians invaded (not simply flown away) and then destroyed in a firefight with the invading Russian paratroopers. A similar level of incompetence on someone's part to this ship being left on the wharf.

Many sincere thanks to the contributors here -- many of whom I haven't seen posting before -- who actually live(d) and work(ed) on the island, and have made a genuine contribution to the information we have about this operation.

The real situation seems to be that far from storm/cyclone damage, a massive ship has struck the jetty -- multiple times -- and has taken-out part of it. The site may be closed for months and cost tens (or hundreds) of millions of dollars in lost revenue and repairs. I'm not trying to be alarmist, as I have no idea what is happening there. However, my knowledge on the topic has been increased, not from South32's misleading statement, but from local residents and the media. It's not good enough.

I'm a huge South32 fan, and as always, there is obviously a lot more to this (maybe it's nowhere near as bad as it looks) and perhaps too early to speculate. However, this annoys me: "A spokesperson for South32 said...we are aware of some commentary and rumours regarding GEMCO's future, and stress that any suggestion that GEMCO will not reopen is false". I want to see this in an ASX announcement, not in commentary on-the-run via the press.

South32 has plenty to say about the Voice, gender representation, climate change and other fashionable topics. Not much to say about this, unfortunately.

I wonder if we have insurance against this type of thing? Does anyone here know if coverage against natural disaster damage is a thing for miners?

I remember last year IGO or 29M, I think, had a mine which flooded and out-of-action for months. They received some type of insurance settlement.

If the situation actually turns out to be worse than reported in the ASX release, and the price falls, I will absolutely use the opportunity to buy more. This is not a down-ramp at all. My gripe is solely about the lack of reliable communication out of South32 on this issue.