Not sure about your "fundamental inconsistency"...
The addition of dilution does not result in a reduction of metal in inventory unless the grade of the diluted material falls below its cut-off. In a generally high-grade resource one wouldn't expect too much diluted material to miss cut-off.
The dilution which makes it into inventory can only contribute metal.
Mining recovery, generally applied to diluted tonnes, does result in a reduction of metal in inventory.
Long-hole open stoping appeared at the time of the scoping study to be a reasonable method to use in this orebody. Whether or not this was confirmed by the ensuing geotech work remains to be seen. The dilution allowed in the scoping study is not necessarily a measure of the rock quality - 25% dilution may well be conservative.
Given some of the orebody widths indicated by drilling, it may be that there areas of the orebody which will be mined transversely rather than on retreat as indicated in the scoping study.
NWC Price at posting:
5.0¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
