Just for the record and to answer my own question here, it looks...

Just for the record and to answer my own question here, it looks as if the scoping study envisages a blended mix of ores both from the shallow open pit and underground mining for years 1-4, presumably to get a steady grade of above 2 g/t being fed into the mill. A few more years of that grade of ore would make a big difference to the NPV.

They seemed to have previously worked out a metallurgical solution for the copper and cobalt so maybe the capex was prohibitive but the omission of those by products is baffling and we are left guessing as to why. Not good.

Looking at our BoD, we have three techies, and two lawyers with only one finance person, the CFO who presumably has a busy day job. Looks to me like they need a senior finance non exec with mining industry experience to give him some support.