Bill is clearly a core asset to the business - he's built a...

Bill is clearly a core asset to the business - he's built a solid reputation in that part of the world - the comments coming back from the Zambian Union are evidence. He also has a knack for finding top notch deposits. I'd have preferred if we'd found Kulumaziba first - potential for long term revenues without too many variables that can burn you in Africa such as collapsing contractors. What the business probably needs is some financial clout (finance relations) and the 'behind the scenes' depth of technical expertise that you have with the big miners. I looked at the photo of the Dik pit on the website (I think it was back in feb '04) the interim cutbacks weren't very far progressed. Having three partially complete cutbacks wasn't going to give them fresh ore in a months time - about as long as the centre of the pit was going to last. Not convinced that the 'backlog' was purely contractor related. I know we're all clever with 20:20 hindsight but have a look at the pic yourself. I'd like to know what the average strip ratio is looking like for the rest of the mine life. Narrow vertical orebody in the tropics - highly leveraged to wall angle changes. Hope we're into good fresh rock.
Kulumaziba is going to hurt initially because of the capital requirements but will provide solid revenue. Its a great 'orebody' though - loved the pictures - how easy could it get? Great opportunity to set up and performance tune an operation that will sit 'steady state' churning out the cash. With the high water table I wonder if they're going to set up dredges similar to the NZ west coast river gold operations. Could easily set up a half dozen floating 20 tonne excavators digging it out 24 hrs a day. Use the cheap local electricity to pump the ore to the plant. It should be able to fund a decent U/G op at Dik - Hmmm, my investment timeframe is expanding.....