Banjo, the last time I visited the MS Mott Ryan was still in charge. He estimated the stockpile then at around 1800t. I could never get my head around the non performance of the plant as representative ore had been sent for testing and the recoveries, gravity only, were exceptional. This having to send away a concentrate just doesn't make sense. One can never accuse Nick of not trying his guts out but I think he was lead down the garden path with some of the appointments that were recommended to him by industry 'experts'. Maxwells was at one stage estimated at 20000t so when I read they were mining remnant pillars with minimal actual tonnage mined, well what does that say about the geos and the like? Burns was just to thin to mine economically( dilution) and it turned out 8g/t was break even with the wages and associated costs at Woods Point. The only real criticism I have was the apparently unfocused exploration. The priorities changed regularly and at various times the following were spoken of as the main target- Waverley and Tinga, Wallaby, All nations, Reliance,Hunts, The Rose of Denmark, and I could go on. Other than the RoD none of these targets underwent a concentrated exploration effort. Many were only mined to shallow depths whereas the MS was 2km deep. I hope like hell that somehow Nick pulls the proverbial rabbit out, he deserves a break and all you guys deserve reward for perseverance and loyalty. It was a romantic and compelling story in so many ways and deserves a fairytale end but this is the ASX and a fairytale like SIR is a rare beast. I admit to being very arsey and to have received some very sage advice that let me get out with a good profit but I strangely feel a bit guilty.
MCO Price at posting:
11.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
