I believe that the scoping study was completed based on 100MT...

I believe that the scoping study was completed based on 100MT and only explored FMG rail spur as a possibility (in their initial announcement about the scoping study and in the presentation you refer to there was no mention of MGS).

Now with the breakthrough MGS between RIO and IOH, they have probably put off the release of the scoping study to include the possibility of a MGS with one or both majors. This is the right course of action IMO as an MGS MIGHT impact very favourably on the scoping study in terms of both margins and certainly time to production.

In the latest presentation dated 7 July 08, page 23 specifically refers to MGS with RIO or BHP as a factor to be evaluated in the scoping study AND that the scoping study would be completed after initial JORC.

For this to happen they have to approach the majors for negotiations to get ballpark figures which takes a little time and they couldn't approach them before JORC was released. Obviously you need to make sure you have a resource before negotiating a MGS. JORC was only released 28 July so it's been less than a month. Give them a little time.

In addition, they probably need to tweak the numbers as JORC came up slightly different from 100MT.