Ann: Update on Financing and Production, page-50

Paul is somewhat conspicuous by his absence since the announcement. I think he might perhaps be preoccupied oganising a hit man haha otherwise he’s probably on a flight to San Domingo with a concealed weapon.

Spec,
I think they are past trying different configurations now and have decided upon a path to take. From the figures supplied I think the sweet spot for throughput looks to be close to 70%. In my opinion there is only one reason why they would reduce throughput so drastically and my crystal ball says they have found a way to higher recoveries, lifting from 55% (my estimate of recent recovery rate) to maybe around 59%.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the consultant metallurgists have found some means of reducing the limiting effects caused by slime and/or calcium. Maybe the addition of some hydrochloric acid to the Albion reactors to reduce the calcium or the use of chlorine somewhere along the process to counter the slime (which must be comparable to algae in a swimming pool). I would think they are planning to add another process to the plant along these lines before March and that would explain why they expect production to jump from 850 oz Au equivalent to 1000, up 15%

Here’s some figures that seem to fit the current picture until March. Don't get too excited !

850 Au Eq: Au 765, Ag 6324
70% throughput
58.9% Recovery
Au Production/week 10,769 * 3.75 * 0.589/31.1 = 765 oz per week
Silver prod is x 8.27: 765 x 8.27 = 6,327 oz per week
Revenue (765 * 1283) + (6327 * 17.3) = $1.091m per week or $14m /qtr
Costs for everything, estimate $40.5m pa = $780K per week
Free Cash 1,091K - 780K = $311K per week or $US4.04m /qtr
Free Cash, say possibly towards $300k per week

Production from March is expected to be 1000 oz Au equiv which is approximately equal to Au 900 oz and Ag 7,443 oz. This is still about 20% short of recent targets of Au 58Koz pa and Ag 480Koz pa ( 1115 oz & 9230 oz per week) but could nonetheless still see us achieve a healthy free cash flow of around 450k per week.