IMO the pour took place two weeks ago as planned, but was that disappointing they decided as Jimone suggested, to roll May and June production together. I'm a little concerned with this - the weeks of production in May should have provided a good indicator of progress. Are the grades lower than the 6.4gt rubbish (development/tails) ore they put through in March? Simply can't be. We either have a gold thief on site (Unlikely) or the 3 weeks leading to the strike was blotted with more stops and starts due to bugs in the mill.
It's great that bid.rod was able to visit Cascavel and take some short video - but how much ore is being processed, and just how many productive hours are we getting? Jim, I think it's great we are actually producing gold, and to be fair it's a relief to see the mill in action, but I've a feeling that the current set-up has a long way to go before we are cashflow positive now. If we were running at capacity 25tph for the hammer mill already, Richard would have mentioned it - I'll be surprised if are better than half of that.
That said, the exploration programme is soon to hit its straps so it's going to be an exciting few months. Antenna/XUPE results must be close, as with Eliseo, then Cascavel and Sertao later in the third quarter - opportunities to prove up quick bulk high grade tonnage. Could we see some traction with the proposed JV next quarter. They're still talking so let's hope OGX can sweeten the story and bring home a better split and a juicy upfront before year's end.
OGX Price at posting:
5.7¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
