GJ. You say you have done heaps of research in the last few...

GJ. You say you have done heaps of research in the last few weeks but then refer to the MGB as "whatever they are". Doesn't sound like much research to me.

The Mines and Geoscience Bureau (MGB) are a bunch of well meaning but mostly clueless people. They are staffed by people who have had their jobs for 20 years with no mining industry to oversea but are now senior by default (age) and by juniors just out of university who will be the future depth of the bureau. Enter one of their offices and it is like stepping back in time; one or two computers only in an office of 40 people, files everywhere stacked to the ceiling, no organization and no one seemingly in charge. When they come out to site they make off the cuff decisions and demand changes which are contrary to the projects environmental compliance and other documents that the MGB used as the reference for giving the project permits. The decisions they are trying to make seem logical but it is a single individuals logic rather than being backed by a system of rules and procedures. When you have an individual making decisions contrary to a basic set of guiding rules and not in line with the project permitting you are into a system where a decision can be paid for or it can be manipulated by the company or a third party. That is the Philippines. I am not saying that this has happened with Siana but the whole system allows for the potential for this to happen.

As for the anti-mining sentiment being about recent mining disasters I have noticed no change to the mining sentiment in the last 10 years in this country. It will stir up again as the elections get closer, particularly with Binay being pro-mining. It is a sentiment that is controlled and manipulated. The church do it as they want to keep people reliant on a deity rather than provincial people get economic freedom. The local politicians do it as most of the revenue of mining bypasses their coffers and goes straight the to central government. NGOs do it for many reasons and often for the right reasons since there is lots of bad mining in this country ... but they are still very poorly informed and say things that are not true. The actual opposition to mining is strong at the roots but without real reason. To a great deal it is simply an anti foreigner sentiment. You mention recent fatalities; I assume you mean at Medusa's operation. That has barely raised an eyebrow in this country; deaths are so accepted here. Environmental damage is seen as far worse.

I hope that Red manage to progress the UG but I still think there is a huge underlap between that operation delivering ore and the open pit being complete. The mill is wrongly sized for a lower tonnage, higher grade operation as well. You could run it for less months of the year I guess but you could not run it continuously at lower speed. Lower grade supplementary ore seems an answer but I will be surprised if Mapawa gets that gig. It is too low grade and too far away.