Ahh yes, Jeff Ion. With my mind on Coolgardie I forgot about...

Ahh yes, Jeff Ion. With my mind on Coolgardie I forgot about him. I'll take your word for the quality of the resource geo, but with respect I can't imagine they're playing much of a role right now.

In terms of Chinese companies, Hanking seems the best bet to me. It is probably still cashed up after its Primary Gold takeover and the Coolgardie assets it got out of the Primary deal seem a natural fit with Focus' mill (assuming it ever reaches production). Before the takeover, Primary's management disclosed that they were talking with mill owners around the same time that Focus said they were talking to third parties. If they are talking seriously with Hanking, I wonder why it i staking so long (delays at Hankings end because of the PGO takeover, perhaps?) and how much would it really change the Coolgardie economics (a lot, I suppose, if mill capex gets shared by Hanking)?

Other prominent Chinese companies don't seem to fit:
Minjar's parent in China looks to be in a world of pain and the local team is trying to bed down Southern Cross, so I guess they are out.
Zijin doesn't have obvious synergies and they and Shandong would likely be reluctant to cooperate since they're the big dogs in China. Then again, if Big Daddy Xi says jump, I guess asking "how high" is a better outcome than disappearing for the crime of whatever-the-heck, so who knows with the State Owned corporations?

Despite Jeff's efforts in Laverton, minimal progress seems to be being made there (perhaps mainly due to lack of physical work). I don't see a game changer on the horizon but that's where the elephants are.

I guess that's a long winded way of agreeing that nothing will change, with a sprinkling of hope that Hanking and Shandong are working on something.