direct comments from the md

Extracts from HotCopper 'briefing' by the Managing Director of PLV 10/06/2009 :

"If the hematite results come out anywhaere near as positive, and there is no reason why they shouldn't, then Irvine is going to be a large scale, long life, project IMO.".....

"I would say, after today's announced results, that we are already close to being commercial as a project, if we arn't there already.

We have a JORC inferred resource of 13mt (100%), the beneficiation results will increase this because a lot of material was not included in the inferred resource until it was proved beneficiation would work. This may add up to another 20mt (100%) without further cost.

We are targetting a further 60mt - 100mt at Hardstaff and up to 30mt at the Isthmus from the second phase of drilling.

This does not target all the known mineralisation by any means, as this remains open to the north and west after the second phase of drilling.

It is a little early to guess what the final available tonnes will be, however we are confident it will be much larger than what the second phase of drilling with prove up.

So if things work out (as above) there may be somewhere like:

13+20+100+30+? = a large project in 100% terms.".....


"The obvious is location and logistics. We are on a island closer to Asian markets with a deep water channel (30 metres deep at low tide) lierally on our doorstep.

No need for rail, no need to negotiate access to rail.

Also while a lot of the tonnes will need beneficiation (although there is also DSO on the island), importantly apart from silica the nasty impurities like sulphur, phos and alumina are very low.

Yes, we will be doing a round of briefings soon now that we know what Irvine can deliver." .....

"We have a conceptual study currently being put together by a third party. We will release the results of this study once known.

The beneficiation capital/ operating costs may be lower because of the coarseness of the iron and silica grains. It does not look like we will need to fine grind which is the most expensive part of the process.".....

"Being on an island with a deep water channel (the same channel used by Cockatoo and Koolan), and no need for rail infrastructure will mean a much cheaper development in capital costs."

"We have a conceptual study already in process. A prefeasibilty study would commence after the next round of drilling.

Sell out to Portman(Cliffs)? Pluton would consider any offers made for Irvine because that is the right thing to do for shareholders. If someone wants to pay more than we think it is worth at that point in time we would recommend that to shareholders.

Otherwise we eventually come a producer." .....

"At this stage we would lean towards doing the beneficiation on Irvine, although there are distinct advantages in off island processing. In particular environment issues and the time taken to go through the EPA process. It is something we are considering however we don't need to make a decision yet. We will talk to interested Asian producers before any decision would be made.
I would expect a PFS will occur after the 2nd round of drilling. The 2nd phase is targetting 60mt - 100mt at Hardstaff and up to 30mt at the Isthmus. If we get anywhere near this amount we would go straight to PFS. Mineralisation remains open outside the 2nd phase target.".....