G'day Mark, Now that's another vote of confidence for ABU-welcome back
& yes although its great news for holders I believe quiet a few investors
were surprised & caught flat footed with the deferral of the R.I.
With regard to Old Pirate its interesting to consider the following.
Production time Approx. 10 months only.
Its very unfortunate that 24hr/7day operation was adopted so late- last couple
of months only- this resulted in lost revenue big time,no excuse just plain
dumb or motive ?
Low grade tonnage first couple of months whilst commissioning resulted in overall
dilution of grade recovery even though normal procedure when commissioning
imo once processing plant conformation working correctly -coyote should
have been ramped up much sooner.
ABU was caught out for approx. 3-4 weeks in wet season & had to use low
grade ore- resulting in further dilution of over-all recovered g-p/t
& lost revenue.
It was thought that High Grade ore had been mis- allocated !!!??????,
Yes that's right-dumped -Astounding !!!!!!!!!!
(would this also mean if pay dirt was dumped-waste was on sent to plant)
When B.L took over he conducted a review & it was determined by others ATT
that the pit shells -(outer walls ) should not be widened to allow for chasing the
high grade veins deeper, as waste volumes involved would be costly to remove &
as ABU's cash reserves ATT were dire-further processing would just entail
recovering what we could, so average grade p/t recovery actually reduced
even though gold recovered increased due to B.L. introducing 24hr 7 day.
( what would have resulted if high grade mined & processed )
Yet average processed tonne still returned an average gold grade of 6 gp/t
processed & it has been announced-ABU has recovered more gold & thus revenue
than projected -thus the balance sheets bottom line cash position dictated the C.R.
through a R.I.should/ could be deferred.
Further this would obviously also must mean that as tonnage through-put Coyote
in known-& as we have recovered more gold the average recovery will rise from
6g-p/t, certainly expect adjustments will have to be made to the final tally &
market is yet to be informed as to the increase in actual average grade
processed through Coyote.
That's with out the extra costs incurred when Andrew Ferguson recommended
to the incompetent ABU-BOD that they the BOD -ATT over-ride the steering
committee's decision that was-( not to lease the Tam -owned coyote
processing plant)-therefore huge haulage costs, a two million lease p/a fee,
Coyote total plant refurbishment & site works plus the realisation that we would
be running the Coyote gold processing facility at grossly under capacity yet
incur costs associated- labour, maintenance & power generation, so was it
incompetence or motive that costs were expanded & revenue reduced in such a
blatant manner???-I know what I believe!!!!
Interesting thought why would the ABU -BOD authorise the steering committee
to conduct the review (use coyote or our own onsite plant) when the BOD had
no intention of taking the steering committee's advice -astounding !!
One can only conclude the obvious that being -should the steering committee
have determined coyote was preferential the BOD would have said nothing
& had some one to blame latter when it all when mysteriously pear shaped.
Summary -when you consider all of the above-total incompetence by the BOD
at the time & lost opportunity that resulted in the destruction of ABU's & its
investors capital, one quickly realises the Gold is still there in ground &
further almost any Gold processing plant in the world would be enviable
of 6g-p/t recovery- that would, due to all of the above actually be much higher
than 6g p/t.
With Buccaneer in close proximity -5kms away its not the last we will hear of
O/P & Buccaneer-clearly the resource is there & has significant in ground
value with future optionality.
Thankfully all those responsible have since left ABU & if there was motive
it was derailed -meaning all of ABU's assets are still retained by investors
much that is exciting is on the near term horizon!
gltah-salt
ABU Price at posting:
7.2¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)