It should have been. As I understand it*, that's all part of the grade control drilling and associated met testing which would normally be done and would/should have informed the mining plan prior to restarting, including obtaining the relevant inputs to feed into an appropriately constructed BFS.
That said, and in fairness, there's merit in understanding that mining can be complex -- esp. when (in MCR's case) different ore is pulled from different ore bodies across a portfolio of different mines.
For me, it's not so much the presence of As that is of concern, but the fact that they have been unable to blend it across their current mining production profile to get it down to a level that's within spec of the offtake agreement.
The question is why: Is it a transient issue relating to ramping-up teething problems? Is it reflective of more pervasive ore body profile(s) issues that are only coming to light now? If so, why? Just how much investigation was performed prior to the accelerated restart?? These two sets of questions are only the tip of the iceberg, but I think you get the gist.
Although those are important questions to get answers to, they don't actually deal with the more immediate and possibly more important question of what effect this is going to have on near/mid-term FCF moving forward and what impact it's gonna have on cash holdings.
There was precious little detail provided in the announcement. Just enough to create a vacuum. Imagine the SP action without the *current* Wyloo backstop (I wouldn't be taking it granted if I was hot money, but that's just me). Hopefully there's a much more candid discussion around what's going on when the Target's Statement is released on Tuesday.
If memory serves me correctly I seem to recall watching what looked (to me) like a bit smug DS (previous CEO) presenting at Diggers(?) a coupla years ago, patting himself on the back for the speed at which they were restarting (i.e. BEFORE the restart BFS was finalised). In light of Thursday's announcement I find myself wondering just how much, if any, connection there was between the approach taken and the outcomes currently being observed. I might be being a bit hard here, but its a natural question to ask in light of current circumstances.
I'm watching this agnostically (dispassionately) from the sidelines. Hopefully my comments don't trigger anyone. I just call it as I see it, without resorting to sledging.
(*Disclosure: I'm not a Geo, Metallurgist, or Mining Engineer. I am, however, a heavily invested private investor (elsewhere in this space) that reads heavily around my investments who has picked up enough over the years to feel confident commenting on the basics. That said, as always, all the usual warnings around dyor apply.)
