Atlas won't need to shutdown, they have scaled back exploration...

Atlas won't need to shutdown, they have scaled back exploration to conserve money and have sold one shipment and are moving rapidly towards selling the next. These shipments are on the spot market so they occur regardless of what the benchmark price is and future negoitiations of this benchmark price. WIth the $100 mill in the bank Atlas can continue to operate for at least 12 months and this is their plan. It is only if the spot price that they are getting is lower than the operating costs at Pardoo (from recent announcements/brokewr research this is about $38/tonne) so as long as its above this they wont stop mining. Also remember that as the oil price and $A decrease they are making more money so it is very difficult to claculate what they are making etc. It has more to do than a simple benchmark pricing arrangement.