The extent of the fall in throughput IMO would be due to more than just the weather. I doubt management are lying when they say that they are approaching nameplate output so the lower than forecast production could likely be due to machine breakdowns as well resulting in the tailings plant not being in operation 100% of the time.
As I have stated before, the tailings operation results have been disappointing but its primary purpose which is the processing of slurry when the hard rock operations are up and running have returned very positive results and this will add to the cost savings in the not too distant future when hard rock mining commences.
The tailings operation was undertaken mainly as an R&D exercise to improve the economics of the Hard Rock project and to me, the processing of tailings, the secondary purpose, was always just a bonus. Hard Rock is the main game changer and that is still progressing very well. We still need the tungsten concentrate price to turn around but things are definitely not as bad as some on here would like us to believe.
CNQ Price at posting:
9.0¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
