WMC (ASX) Ann: Record Quarter of Gold Production for Blackham

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Originally posted by nihilism ↑

You can't use the AISC graph because the scale of operation has changed, I thought you of all people would recognise that.

Not only does scale present significant process savings, but even more so mining savings because the fleet size is bigger in truck size yet the biggest cost (labour) is significantly reduced (bigger trucks but same amount of them).

It is hard to take it as a level playing field when you're constantly downgrading numbers from one side... from the Expansion PFS of Wiluna (http://blackhamresources.com.au/wp-...08/20170830-BLK-PFS-Expansion-Study-Final.pdf) and Gruyere DFS (http://goldroad.com.au/media/580756d5b4a3f403297265.pdf)

Wiluna/Matilda OP: (1/(2.7*0.86))*11.7 = 5.03 (first 9 years production as per report)
Gruyere OP: (1/(1.2*0.91))*2.8 = 2.56

This shows Wiluna will be more expensive, which the company STATES that it will be. There is no where Blackham is stating it would be cheaper. You also cannot take JUST wiluna (which has 13:1 strip ratio and 2.8g/t grade) while not considering other feed sources just to make BLK numbers look worse in comparison. That isn't apples for apples are we aren't looking at just one sub-section of Gruyere either.

Also just as an FYI - GOR market cap is 700 million and considered a tier 1 resource. Blackham is ~100million barely and I never said it was tier 1. The fact that you're using it as a comparison seems strange, even if you're just looking at cut-off grades, which aren't used the way you're implying (to suggest that equal cutoff grades are equal economic footing).

Cutoff grades are often just standard or if the company is cheeky they can lower the cut-off to make their resource look bigger, but they sacrifice operating costs LOM because the overall recovery costs more, or some companies increase it to make their operating costs look lower. It is all about mine optimisation, comparing cut-off grades isn't as simple as less economic = different cutoff.

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The genesis of the whole conversation was about how economic Wiluna ore is, which makes up ~75% of the resource. I was comparing the only component that is viable to do so which is OP vs Gruyere. The purpose of which is to determine whether the PFS is truly feasible or rubbery. Anyway I have my opinion so i'll leave you to yours. Let me know if you want to discuss something that is definitively feasible such as the Matilda project. I tried to have a conversation earlier, but you've conveniently skipped that. https://hotcopper.com.au/threads/go...32121/page-2806?post_id=32442691#.WtVTPohuaUk