My discussions with Richard at the Noosa Mining Conference a...

My discussions with Richard at the Noosa Mining Conference a couple of years ago indicated that in the 2nd year of operations they would recover the iron from the tailings stream at the back of the plant before it gets to the dam. It's another operation that can be brought online 12 months after the copper is in production. It's a sideline. the initial dam tailings with the iron in it will be heavier and more dense and it is probably a structural asset adjacent to the wall.

My thinking is that there may wind up being sufficient material export volume between copper concentrate and iron ore that they put in their own loading jetty and load ships close by the mine and avoid a lot of trucking .... which is a greenhouse footprint and traffic issue. It can also be built from cashflow not borrowings. It would make sense if the mine is going to be there for 25 years or more.