@CounterVin I've always said the capex for this was in the order of $700m - $1.5B. But that is total capex and I've also said those numbers dont scare me. It takes money to make money. Maybe $350m for the POX but by the time you allow for 12-24 months of proper drill programs to get to Reserve status, studies, pre-strips, construction of the main plant etc... you're guaranteed to be in that ballpark. A UFG would be cheaper and may be preferable once they start doing a bit of work on met testing rather than the preliminary stuff done so far. It would not make more than a hundred million or so difference though. Size of the POX plant doesnt make much difference either. 10 times the size might cost 50-100% extra.
Good comments all. Keep it up Wack. There are none so blind as those who will not see.
DEG wont take this to production. Anyone prepared to lend them the money would have to be morons if they tried. They need a JV partner or a buyer. DGO probably wont let them either - as their website says, they are unashamedly money miners, not dirt miners, and I'm hoping are aware of their limitations.
All good points. This thing is going to need at least another dozen programs of met testing. Oyu Tolgoi they did over 200. Most decent sized mobs would be expecting at least a dozen on something like this.
Also good points. Nullagine up the road only averaged 52% back in the day. When you consider that this plant is likely to process $15-30 billion worth of in-situ value over a 10-20 year project life even only 2-5% increase in recovery is worth spending a large amount of extra capital. 30% and the justification is a lay down misere. The numbers get very big very quickly in a project like this. Before the recent announcement on the met testing I had only 80-85% in my head, even with a float and refractory treatment system, so 90-95% is an excellent result.
Plant is bugger-all. Maybe 50-100 hectares including crusher and ore bins. Sterilising the thousands of hectares for mullock dumps and tails dams and low-grade stockpiles and dams for water and so on is going to be the tricky bit. I'm estimating in the order of 25km^2 cleared footprint for the project, maybe double that depending on what else is discovered, regional topography and native title restrictions on height of landmarks.
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