General discussion, page-3308

Production on track for 100-120k ounces.

Are we defining 100-120k of reserves per year from exploration to replace the depletion? I think we've not defined much lately, so exploration cost has to rise. I remember 2k ounces near to A pit, and some holes not too far outside the fence, but did the reserves statement show any rise due to exploration?

How you describe it, we can't know what the NPAT will be, since we don't know how much exploration they'll incur. Sure it's an expense, but it's also possible to underfund it (if all focus was on buy-backs).

Anyway, no point disagreeing about it. I trust management to manage it reasonably. Exploration seems low, but likely because net cash is currently low, and maybe because the government has not approved properly flexible licenses to reduce risk enough to go full steam ahead. Once we start accumulating some cash, they'll pay down the short term debt, and start more exploration before Quartz depletes too much. If nothing is found (or approved by the government), the company will have some years of positive cashflow to return capital - unless they take the acquisition path.