I only have a couple of points to add, the timeframes here:
Toll Treatment scenario:-
Jan 2027: Statutory permitting and approvals in place; -
Jul 2027: Ore mining commences; and -
Oct 2029: Production ceases.
Stand-Alone Processing scenario:-
Apr 2027: Statutory permitting and approvals in place; -
Apr 2028: Ore mining commences; and -
Jul 2032: Production ceases.
It seems a bit optimistic in some places and pessimistic in others, whichever option is chosen the permitting and approvals will need to happen, but a full plant on-site with a mill brings about additional things that require more regulatory approval and work to get that approval. A toll treat mine is just an open pit, waste rock dumps, haul roads and temporary offices, workshops, crib rooms and maybe a camp (all can be transportable) but a Mill option on site brings in the addition of a tailings storage facility, larger power requirements to run the plant, more water required so dedicated bore fields, chemicals storage, a larger footprint so more creeks to study etc etc and all of this takes longer to get approvals for plus the capital cost of the materials for the mill (long lead items like ball mills, crushers etc etc) and then the execution construction risk of doing a mill construction on a greenfields site with a wet season stopping you for about 2 months out of every year on average. Those timelines also ignore other left field land-owner or native title disputes, lazy governments/public servants, changes in governments or legal snafus that can massively delay the permitting steps
The idea of constructing a small gold plant and then using it as a processing base for any huge potential high tonnage but low-grade porphyry is not really sensible - as other have said their processing capacity and upfront capital costs are often orders of magnitude different to smaller gold plnts due to their large capacity. Finding another Steam Engine or another few of them or finding a camp of Steam Engines orebodies in the area would justify the construction of a modest size plant somewhere near Greenvale or Steam Engine. Having the only mill in hundreds of kilometres does give the owner of that mill some leverage, and makes all exploration of that area more attractive for SPQ and even for other mineral explorers as they can justify their exploration as having a mill nearby. As seen in the plan for future drilling at Steam Engine the plan clearly concentrates on proving up as many ounces at or near Steam Engine as soon as possible. Which is something many have been calling for because with the proven ounces in the ground, you then at least have numbers to run different options about finance/JV/sales process/self dilution 'go it alone' options as well as options to treat onsite or take to the nearest toll mill.
The other thing to consider is how far away the "closest" operating mill is, 320km is a long haul for modest gold grades and the other interesting thing is that North QLD is littered with many small mineral processing plants in the hands of administrators at the moment with Thalanga being handed back to the State Government but others further north all currently shut down due to lower base metal commodity prices, inept execution and bad management plus some Covid disruptions and operating cost inflation. A third option of acquiring an existing mill that is either closer or relocating it to somewhere near Steam Engine is also worth a look if the price of labour and moving it is more economic than the inflated construction costs of a new mill.
They will need to either push the button on a small toll treat only quicker pathway to production or push the button on a self-construct their own mill plan and the sooner they do that the sooner they can round up the permitting bureaucrats, which is like herding cats, and get approvals on the way\, and get the hydrological/geotechnical/enviro studies underway.
The area is still under-explored from piecemeal exploration holdings and has been hostage to booms and busts in nickel and base metal prices with the current boom being in gold, I know that Kagara for instance had a lot of interesting gold targets that they never had the chance or funds to test and I would bet that the area would have numerous small under-explored gold prospects that haven't been looked at with modern exploration techniques or drilling. The last time proper gold exploration happened in this region was the time of Plutonic/Normandy/Sons of Gwalia and Ross Mining etc and that was in a different gold price environment.
Also to consider is the tendency for companies that do go from exploration to mining (either toll treating or construction of their own mill) to have cost-overruns and execution hiccups which can impede the plan to continue exploring while the mine is being brought into production, management often become focussed on daily "fire-fighting" or survival/reactive stuff and forget to continue to add tonnes and ounces to future resources. I have seen this many times before where things get tight and the exploration rig is put away and then either the company fails, or if it succeeds and survives they are forever chasing their tail building up future resources so end up living hand to mouth.
I don't think Steam Engine is quite big enough to attract a major yet but a JV might be possible with another mid-size or developer. As long as they don't use Macquarie Bank and/or stupid hedging arrangements or financers who pull the rug at the first sign of surprise, they will be right. There is no shortage of learning opportunities for the many failed mine project restarts and new constructions that have fallen over in the WA gold industry due to cost inflation/budget blowouts and other more technical/grade control risks. And WA has more qualified skilled people and a better simpler permitting pathway than QLD has and they can still screw it up over there so no reason to think that it cannot happen in North QLD.
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