West aussie,It is my personal impression that everything that...

West aussie,

It is my personal impression that everything that THX and Lionore has is still at exploration phase. In the THX announcement late last week I was struggling to find an economic intercept..... so excellent exploration potential but a mine?..... they are still looking in my view.... these are my personal views drawn only from the announcement... Down plunge copper knickers looks very interesting but needs to open up in strike and become much larger to become economic???

600kt from a decline is not an issue. mines can produce up to a million tpa from a decline. the issue is the tonnes of ore per vertical metre. You can only develop a decline at a set rate so you cannot mine the deposit faster than the time to develop the decline and establish the cross cuts. The SMY deposit is not a large deposit but its geometry is very kind to high production rates..... I cannot say whether there is an issue there or not..

If SMY and PLA can engineer the SMY plant to take PGE ore then THX will be waiting a long time for access to the SMY plant. Particularly now their is a personal divide between the MD's...

So THX better hope they can find their own deposit big enough to justify a plant of their own......

Buying SMY or THX is not really a good question IMO. One is an established producer the other is not. Horses for courses....

acturtle