"How efficiently they handle (or god forbid rehandle) overburden and in pit tailings will determine Strandline's fate."... how can handling overburden not be well organised at the ramp-up stage at least I don;t know. Same with pit tailings outside of ground water surprise which is a de-watering fix I guess. Maybe I've been out so long I've forgotten how stupid engines and pit supers can be, but surely in this day and age mine-planning a sand pit should be children's work? Unless the DMU's are too big and unwieldy to move around and those smartest guys in the room didn;t plan enough room on the pit floor
Honestly, if STA's woes come down to simple mine planning and implementation issues then someone's head should roll (or did it just already?). a few mechanical faults can absolutely stuff up production levels. Reading up on Kenmare's Moma mine commissioning issues ~2007 and it was exactly that, many small equipment/design/install issues. Sounds uncomfortably familiar to STA today, as does the Chairman's early guidance that it was only "Teething Issues"
That's not to say the problems aren;t also poor mine design, OB, tailings etc... might be everything all at once.
I'm reminded of that famous Leo Tolstoy , Anna Karenina opening line... “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." All happy mines are alike in that everything went to plan, all troubled mines are in troubled in their own way. I do need to look deeper into opex, though they simply aren't breaking it down for us yet, being all mixed up with "developement" and "non-current assets"
(20min delay)