A few numbers that might be relevant to Jericho....AIC mined...

A few numbers that might be relevant to Jericho....

AIC mined Eloise last quarter at a cost of ~$49/t based on their 156 kt tonnes mined, kts copper produced and $/lb in the quarterly. I think Jericho starting mining at ~250 m below surface could be mined for half this, say $30/t. This could save AIC ~$15 million pa based on 750 kt mined.

AIC spent about $90/t mined on sustaining, development and project capital including TSF etc. They mined 156 kt so this came in at ~$14 million for the qrt. How much of this could be saved if development was being done 300 m rather than ~800-1200 m underground...maybe $4 million or $15 million pa.

I think AIC could save at least $30 mil pa for mining Jericho rather than Eloise. However if Jericho is mined at 1.85% Cu and Eloise at 2.2% Cu, the lower grade means ~$26 mil drop in revenue at spot prices. So the grade probably needs to be closer to Eloise's grade to justify mine development of Jericho and sharing any benefit with AIC.

A standalone operation might have very similar economics to Abra. Built to mine 1.3 mtpa 7.1% Pb pa for 13 years.....1.85% Cu @ $3.5/lb is the in ground $ as 7.1% Pb @ $0.9/lb. Abra is on track to cost ~$230 mil to build. They have modelled $100 mil EBITA based on $0.9/lb Pb and 0.67 exchange rate. Based on Abra I think a 12 Mt indicated/inferred resource at 1.8% Cu would probably be close to a bankable standalone at spot and would make a small fortune if copper was back over $4.5/lb.

Trucking to EHM...does the transport cost and EVN's cut justify saving ~$100 million on a processing plant...probably have to give them at least $20 mil pa onto top of processing cost for their trouble and truck at maybe $5-10/t or $5-10 mil per year.

I'm sure there are plenty of other options those in the know are thinking about...as a punter I'm hoping they can drill several deep 1 km plus next year to see what is down there....my gut feel is a standalone option with a new mill etc. might be the best option in a rising Cu environment...hopefully time will tell.