It's the multi million dollar question, isn't it! A bit of a...

It's the multi million dollar question, isn't it! A bit of a 'join the dots' exercise, but PGO is looking at commencing mining in Q4 2017 at Coolgardie. From their presentation it is clear that they are the(or one of) the entities that FML are looking to have toll treat through 3 Mile Hill. For me there are three questions:

1. Are PGO ounces going to be used as ramp up ore for 3MH?
2. Is PGO ore going to be used before or with FML ore?
3. Is 3MH going to be expanded?

PGO would not want a huge amount of time between mining and milling due to limited finances. As such I would expect 3MH to be up and running in Q4 or Q1 at a stretch (if that is chosen as the facility).

If PGO ore is to be milled prior to FML ore we could be waiting for 2 years +. However, the statements around the PFS relate to reducing FML costs, which implies co-milling.

PGO presentation talks about refurbishment at 3MH, but unless it needs a new liner (which I'm sure they 'just' did), it should be ready to go. That hints at possible expansion to accommodate PGO and FML ore - which would vastly change the economics going forward - i.e make the 1 g/t rubbish potentially viable.

Everything points toward a Q1 2018 start up to me, as that is the start of a new financial year for us and allows time to get mining and other contracts in place.

All just guesses at this point, but I feel that once the toll treating conversations are out of the way that we'll have very rapid news flow. You can see that drilling activity at Coolgardie has dropped markedly over the last quarter, which I'm taking as a good sign of 'we've got what we need'.

Brilliant resource update, PGO deal, PFS, mining announcement all hopefully within a fortnight.