You are missing my point arp33. I apologise if I didn't make it...

You are missing my point arp33. I apologise if I didn't make it clear enough. I haven't reversed any position.

The point is - while spending on Tampakan might make sense for the giant whale, Xstrata, - given the nature of the deposit and also the huge costs, it makes less sense for a minnow, like Indophil.

As an example the largest gold mine in the Philippines is on Masbate, operated by CGA, had capital costs of about $100m (just half of that Indophil is committing to Xstrata's enormous feasibility bills). CGA has had a market cap of over a billion dollars at recent highs.

Put simply, it is less likely that IRN will be able to commit to construction and development funding than Xstrata, and the $200m IRN is spending just on feasibility bills could buy a lot of action in the Philippines.

Even if all the obstacles are overcome, and the project proceeds to debt funding, the "For Sale" sign will be put up again. At what price, we don't know, but for IRN, the whole scenario does not capture the opportunity of organic growth that other minnows in the country are able to achieve.