Ann: Quarterly Activities Report, page-67

Whether or not ion exchange works or doesn't work for the recovery of copper is irrelevant. Ion exchange doesn't remove the copper it recovers it. The key is to remove the copper to reduce the reagent costs and increase gold recoveries. This is done by repulping the tailings in the acidic water left in the open pit. The acid leaches th copper into solution and then the remaining tails (devoid of soluable copper) is then treated by conventional CIL technology which is used by the majority of gold plants around the world.

If Carbine wishes to recover the copper out of the solution then it used ion exchange to load the copper onto the resin beads. This has the benefit of additional revenue from copper sulphate production but the $8m worth of revenue from these sales does definitely not make or break the project. I'm sure Pat with his cleanteq background in water treatment and ion exchange is more than ahead the 8 ball when it comes to these issues.