GZ, Have been around a few pits over the years. This one scares the xxx out of me. Why?
1. Very hard with no clean friable cut between the quartz lode and the hard dolerite/basalt host. I.e. no alteration halo. If most of the gold is on the contact (which it generally is within antitaxial veins) then you run the risk of excess dilution or missing most of the gold.
2. The control/s on the au mineralisation was not simple. Having bashed around down there for a while it was not apparent what was controlling the higher grades.
3. Angle of the ore body is 45 degrees. A miners nightmare (especially in OP) meaning excess dilution up to 100% (do the trig)
4. Very difficult, if not impossible, to be able to blast ore and waste separately = more dilution. Also small pits = large heave. Are they planning pre-splits? If so extra cost.
5. There are old workings and knowing the old boys they took the best bits. Unfortunately the records are never good and you never know when you will come across an old ballroom which has taken the honey. I very much doubt these have been (or could have been) accounted for in the modeling. Void = to probe drilling = extra cost.
6. Very hard drill and blast + hard wear and tear on the gear (especially on the digger) = extra cost.
7. Small pit means if you do double shift you will be mining ore on night shift (which I would NEVER allow). No double shift = extra cost.
8. Small pit = small gear/small team means high cost/bcm. Day costs add up pretty quickly too. Gear standing idle still costs!
There is no way IMO that you can mine this without suffering excess dilution and ore loss and cost blow outs.
The biggest costs to NME are the haul and treat. If you are hauling as far as they are and the dirt turns out to be heavily diluted the grade a lot less than expected they will do their dough. How are they going to establish the grade before they haul? Dump sampling is notoriously inaccurate. If the choose to crush before they haul that is an extra cost.
Why haul at all if the gravity recovery is high anyway and you are planning to heap leach. Gravity circuits are pretty cheap to set up cf the cost of hauling 200+km and toll treating.
All the above as stated is MHO and I do not wish to be seen as negative. Frankly I actually take pleasure in being proven wrong. All I’m stating is this stock is not at present for me and I see it the possibility of picking up the remains further on down the track as some parts of the project are pretty attractive.
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