Yes, BT. My take on this paragraph of todays release and the resource delay etc is:
In the real world ore bodies are rarely uniform and they have likely encountered larger variations in the raw ore from 7.5 to 33.6% than the uniform cut off grades anticipated. But no matter, they have certainly enough ore of high enough high grade to satisfy lenders and get the ball rolling.
I'm guessing there could now be different grades of finished product ranging from 65-70% instead of all 70%, otherwise they will be forced to pick the eyes out of just the high grade pockets then come back for lower grades later. HIO could be being advised that may be more economical to mine it all then seperate it into slugs of grades after concentrating for pipeline transport or blending to say a uniform 67%. I
suspect they are trying to stick to the original narritive of the implied uniform ore type rather than break the news of a wider grade variation than expected until things become clearer as the final mine design and optimal processing plant design takes shape. But with anything from a targeted 850 to a mind boggling 3 billion tons of said finished 65-70% concentrated ore possible, its slightly inconvenient but hardly bad news, for there is scope for an eventual future 50 - 150Mt per year low cost mine achieving premiums for what is the greenest of ores.
EV car makers for instance want the greenest of supply chains and iron laden LFP batteries are now emerging as the best value technology , its a relatively small iron ore market even as it charges to 50 million vehicles consuming say a ton of 70% each however the likes of Supergrade could command a premium and reputation as the ore of choice as the likes of Ford, Tesla and BYD switch over to it, thus avoiding the sky high cost of nickel:
https://news.google.com/articles/CBMiWmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm1pbmluZy5jb20vd2ViL2ZvcmRzLWZsdXJyeS1vZi1zdXBwbHktZGVhbHMtZ2l2ZXMtaXJvbi1hLXN0YXJyaW5nLXJvbGUtaW4tZXZzL9IBAA?hl=en-AU&gl=AU&ceid=AU%3Aen
