Sheesh, lots to unpack in the update, as it's not just about exploration and is definitely price sensitive!
The market will obviously focus on the operational news over the exploration program.
Q4 FY24 is going to beat the last quarter, though by how much is still very unclear (but I will take that as a win no matter what, as a step backwards in this Quarter would have been a major disappointment).
Scotia ahead of schedule is doubly pleasing as that is where the real bulk of the profitability is going to come from in the next few years. Very nice pic!
Guidance is basically a repeat of previous updates, so not really much to take from that yet (plus... past guidance has not been particularly accurate), more important is what they can achieve in the Sept Q with only a small amount of ore from Scotia U/G... if close to 25k ounces, then they are more likely to beat guidance etc.
Agree about the dozens of development opportunities and... the key is to indeed developing them as quickly and as successfully as possible.
If they can get the average grade above 3g/t (every extra gram is 35,000 extra ounces per annum at 1.2mtpa), then Norseman will finally hit it's straps.
Interesting about the plant throughput, a 20% increase gets them to just over 1.4mtpa, perhaps this can indeed be achieved without major capex?
I do note they have reduced the amount of stockpiles from the current open pits down to 400kt by the time they finish mining Scotia open pit, with the focus then going to Princess Royal (they need to provide more clarity on the pit MRE etc) They obviously feel very confident about Scotia and Ok being able to provide 600-800kt p.a in the near to bridge the gap until the next open pit is accessed (which makes sense, as the stockpile will be at 400k by years end with open pit ore still providing the bulk of the ore until Scotia ramps up).
The exploration details.... very exciting. $25m is a huge.... budget. Need more time to think through all the info.
