One of our favourite issues is ALMOST in bed and asleep...

One of our favourite issues is ALMOST in bed and asleep DK

"Construction work continues to make good progress, with the box cut repair nearing completion.
The ramp, sump and stabilisation works are also progressing and THE MILESTONE OF COMMENCING
THE UNDERGROUND DECLINE BEFORE 1 May 2008, has been achieved."

Once they are into the decline there should be a better perception of progress.

Now that they have committed to advancing with the project in physical terms there will have to be some solid comittment to the completion of financing.Imho this still very much favours the all equity route given the lack of time they now have to complete the raising and also taking into account that some of the prep work would have been done in terms of the TSX listing.

Just which way they go will depend on

*availability of debt at a reasonable price

*just how far NS will push for the rest to be debt

In one regard its a clever corporate political move to push on as quickly as possible as it also commits holders to backing the project if they want maximum returns in the shortest time.Btw no annmnt on the NS legal front has to firm the chance that its continuing the later we go without an annmnt as any decision to cancell the hearing would have been anncd quickly one would have thought.One has to wonder re the motivation of all parties in this,however IF it is an MF chase then NS may be quite prepared to push for the look at the books given they might be able to push for individual action against the only person still holding their performance rights.

The availability of debt is a two edged sword atm.On the one hand there's no doubt cash is more costly but on the other there will be those looking for projects that WILL give a solid return.As long as zinc remains $1+ this project will continue to be a good choice for the latter and its hard to see the company continuing to pursue the project if they didnt think they would be a good chance to raise the rest of the project finance.There is some big money backing this at much higher prices so we may just get some quick action on the debt side of things given that a couple of backers would have good motivation to push any associated lenders to supply that debt.

d.