ANTON - I had a quick look at that mining contractor that Dacian...

ANTON - I had a quick look at that mining contractor that Dacian and St Barbara uses and whilst its followers on hc seem to indicate all the metrics look good I did notice that its revenue fell last year. Maybe their management is attempting to address the revenue drop-off by chasing revenue but at the expense of their margins. With labour costs rising maybe they are now finding it difficult to deliver what they contracted for at the price they offered (??).

For a miner like Ramelius which has an AISC margin of about 42% they can likely absorb increased labour costs from their mining contractor. But Dacian is not currently in that position. That is one reason why I reckon Leigh Junk is desperate for a short-term sugar-hit.

As an aside, I reckon it is lazy thinking to bring in foreigners to drive trucks at mines on the cheap. Either offer more money to locals - plenty of east coast cockies willing to swap driving harvesters to dump trucks - or move sooner to autonomous technology.