kempfield dfs & strategy?

There was no mention of the Kempfield DFS in the quarterly activities report. Previously the plan was to spend $1.1M on the DFS in order to obtain a decision to mine by March 2011. And the previous quarterly said that work had commenced on the DFS.

However the latest quarterly report says with the increase in POS, the scoping study is to be revisited. There does not appear to have been any significant cash spent on the DFS. Also notably absent is any mention of DFS status nor progress in native title discussions for Kempfield. So I am a little unclear on the strategy for Kempfield.

Observations:

1. Given the current cash position is $2.2M, there is not enough money to complete the DFS without another CR, or until Bullant is providing cashflow.
2. The purpose of the DFS was to attract project financing. With Bullant coming online, maybe ARD will not require as much project financing, or perhaps none at all if Kempfield is postponed a little and Bullant meets/exceeds expectations...
3. The updated scoping study will factor in the increase in POS & improve the Kempfield bottom line by around $100M, also the analysis of increased throughput rates will be positive.

The stated purpose of the scoping review is to assess the deposit's sensitivity to POS & throughput rates. But surely it will also help the company profile and lift the sp.

At the same time there very promising drill results in the quarterly that indicate the true depth and length of Kempfield mineralisation is likely to be substantial. But these are preliminary and won't be included in the revised scoping study,

So I am guessing the strategy here is to keep Kempfield ticking along, but first see how Bullant goes before determining any project financing strategy for Kempfield. That would explain the DFS dropping off the radar.

November will see the revised scoping study released, probably followed by a boardroom radio interview, which should include an update on the Kempfield strategy.