... best I start copying the questions before I answer them so...

... best I start copying the questions before I answer them so people can follow what I am replying to...

Statesman said:

"As an additional note, can I also refer to the comment by Ravensgate on p27 (section 4.1) that "The mining costs are very high and OREOLOGY concurs with Pluton's approach to revise these costs by approaching third party mining cotractors for additional pricing". Can we get a bit of a run down of the costs for mining the ore? What exactly is high here?

Reading between the lines, it looks like HWE/Leighton have provided a quote to PLV to continue Mining the ore but are trying there luck with their quote seeing as they are already deployed and have a bit of an advantage in that regard.

Are we basically relying on a cheaper quote from a mining contractor to improve the NPV figure?"
-----------------------------------------------------------

My reply:

It is the mining costs that are high. Refer my previous answer about small tionnages with high fixed costs and small equipment etc....

Leightons/HWE didn't provide these numbers. We ran an estimate and then added a fair amout of additional costs to be conservative.

I can't talk about contractors at the moment as we are in negotiations at the moment.

A cheaper mining quote would of course imporove the NPV but I think you will find HWE would not cost much differntly than most other contractors in this situation, and also as I have said we expect lower costs and will know what they are when we have finalised our negotiations with contractors.


Cheers, Tony.