Banter and general comments, page-38732

Core's cost structure so far has been horrible. Core mined and stockpiled ~120kt of ore (~0.044 bcm) through to Jun23. Across Jul-Dec they processed and added to ROM ~600kt of ore (~0.221M bcm) so they have so far recovered about ~0.265M bcm of ore. They have shifted about 10.8M bcm of waste rock so the project to date strip ratio (inc pre-strip capex) is around 40.8:1 which is an unbelievably high strip ratio. The bottom green line on the profile above had the Grants project at 0.250M bcm of ore and 10.6M bcm of waste for a strip ratio to that point of 42.5:1 that then progressively transitions back to the overall project strip ratio of 16.6:1. This high costs to date remain consistent with implementing a project with a higher but not impossibly high strip ratio. Core appears to have made minor changes to the DFS meaning less waste rock movement is planned and slightly less open pit ore will be recovered.

Vertical wall Zara and others would have you believe that Core is unviable because the cost structure seen when mining the ~40:1 strip ratio material will continue as Core mines the deeper levels of Grants pit. Effectively Zara is forecasting that Core will change its strategy to being possibly the only mining company in the world ever to try mining a sizeable open pit with vertical walls. Vertical wall Zara thinks that costs will remain at current levels which is why Core isn't viable.

Vertical wall Zara will inevitably call this all hypothetical.