The Optimisation Study at Borborema is hardly earth shattering, bear in mind the expected post AIM market cap of Crusader of A$36m
NPV of $117m (A$91m) with a AISC quite high at $908 (rarely accurate & usually comes in higher)
They have decided to go over to contract mining (to cut costs) problem is you have no control of staff, quality of work, efficiency, work time and so on.
Even using contract mining the mine cost is still close to $94m, this number usually over-runs, the project is marginal unless there is a significant increase in the gold price in my considered opinion.
One of the reasons Stratex shareholders rejected the merger was the poor economics at Borborema, high G&A, excessive director salaries and poor financial position of the Crusader company.
Worth noting director and key staff salaries over the last 2 years at CAS were an incredibly high A$4.1m with CEO Robert Smakman on an amazing A$475k a year.
I have no idea how the AIM proposed listing will go but UK investors hate excessive director remuneration and bloated G&A.
Crusader has under performed the sector by 47% this year according to Market Index, these salary levels are clearly not deserved in my view.
CAS Price at posting:
6.5¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
