Mole, I have mentioned on here before that the engineers are unlikely to be at fault, otherwise they would have been sued already. From experience and reading through everything GBG have ever published my thoughts were that they just didn't do enough drilling to classify the ore and give a broad enough sample to the designers. Statements since operational commencement on hardness of the ore and extra stripping required and the ore actually breaking the plant verify this.
I think enough drilling was done to classify the size of the ore body and resource, but no where near enough to classify a 2.5 BT ore body for processing through a relatively complex (complex for IO) circuit. You do not commission a circuit and then have to go a do major retrofits and add in extra unit operations when you have designed the circuit correctly, in all likelihood it was designed correctly but for not the exactly right type of ore.
Good thoughts on gold or other resources, will be good for them to explore another opportunity instead of simply running down their reserves. KML is simply bidding time until it is put out of its misery. Cost reduction simply isn't anywhere near as achievable as the other miners because they're stripping more than most of miners and having to mine 3 times the amount of ore to get the same tonne. Their capital and operational costs will also be significantly higher due a much more complex ore processing operation. Added bonus is that they're achieving practically no premium for premium ore. RIO received $60/ton for FOB basis, only $5 less per ton but with all shipping, handling royalties etc paid already. FMG received roughly $64 a ton on CFR basis for 58% ore. All that money invested to mine and process something they're not even receiving a noticeable premium for.
GBG Price at posting:
1.8¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
