Fair call, we are just thinking down different lines. I had been...

Fair call, we are just thinking down different lines. I had been hoping that we kept Badondo, as I believe it's going to be a monster DSO wise. DSO is where the big returns are, so it would seem to me to be short sighted to sell that deposit to fund the CAPEX of Mayoko when we could have just started with a smaller operation at Mayoko and funded the initial CAPEX through debt/equity. You then fund expansion at Mayoko through operational cashflows so you don't need to dilute the shareholder base any further, and still get to keep Badondo. If Badondo ends up having 300mt+ of 60%Fe DSO would you still be keen to see it handballed? Just plucking out some figures out of the air to show the potential of such a deposit, you could mine 10mtp/a and be clearing $60p/t after costs to return $600m a year for at least 20 years. I wouldn't want to sell something like that unless I really needed to.

For mine, the vision communicated through presentations was always to use existing infrastructure at Mayoko to be producing near term. The bigger the project becomes, the longer it's going to take (as we are now seeing with reviews of srail/port studies that were already completed) and the greater the CAPEX will be. The longer it takes to get to production, the more supply that will have come on to the market, which will effect IO prices. I was involved with other IO companies in the region that had grand plans but sat around for 4-5 years trying to organise finance that has still yet to arrive.

The downside to bringing in a cornerstone investor is obviously the dilutionary effect on other holders. I wouldn't imaginve that Exxaro will help us out with infrastructure without wanting to extract their pound of flesh in return, whether that be by way of project equity at Mayoko or a stake in the company.

An interesting 6 months is ahead to see what path management takes us down.