its a trap!

The recent acquisition of Manica seems too good to be true. Well, you know what they say about things that a too good to be true.

Simply, the ore is low-grade refractory (a real mongrel to process). There is some nice ore but there is only 54,000oz in that category.

Not surprisingly, TNX play down the refractory nature of the ore by calling it "sulphide" in the recent preso.

But here is Pan Africa's opinion .....

"At Manica in Mozambique, the resource at Fairbride was defined. A preliminary pre-feasibility study of this operation showed the deposit to be marginal, mainly due to the refractory nature of the orebody. The decision has been taken to endeavour to consolidate the Fairbride orebody with others in the area, as large monthly tonnages are needed to be mined and treated to make operating in this area more economically robust.
[Pan African AR 2009]

Work planned for the coming year will focus on regional consolidation of oxide resources with the objective to define significant non-refractory ore that can be mined from surface, requiring less capital and fast tracking potential production.
[Pan African AR 2009]

The Company will initiate Phase 1 of the mining operation, based on a 20ktpm plant, extracting the oxide cap of the ore-body for a period of four years. A total of 964,000t of ore will be mined at a strip ratio of 1.95:1. It is estimated that Phase 1 will produce 54,000oz in the first four years.
[Pan African AR 2010]