Good question loganboy and one I have spent some time contemplating.
Rox has a 'shovel ready' high grade gold project with a very well proven JORC of substantial size and quite likely 1m oz au high grade.
The Deeps has been drilled not just to verify the resource but with mining in mind.
It has has been the subject of an approval to mine application.
Even the fine detail of the Deeps mining has been worked out right down to accommodating the workers to mine safety detail.
Here is Eastmet's engineering design for the Deeps
Rox's mining plan is not new, it follows in the footsteps of others. Here is Eastmet's/
Grace was a great start but like the nickel resource just needed to be a bit bigger?
There has been a lengthy and expensive exploration campaign that chased extensions of Grace.
Grace was thought to run across to the Peru Shaft but it didn't.
Then it was believed to run north in the Youanmi granite?
It did but at very low grade, even lower than the Plant Zone and unlike the Plant Zone less consistently so expensive to mine.
Chasing the Grace JORC is a reasonable plan even though Grace is not a highly structural target and the geology of Grace North is far from compelling.
Did target fascination on Grace have a cost?
It seems that way imo.
Rox is currently in a bind because the path it has embarked on is difficult to change.
Link and Junction are highly structural targets and could provide the breakthrough Rox needs.
Already there are good hits at Link.
The Deeps is a excellent asset but high capex compared with everything Rox has done so far.
What is the capacity of Rox to raise cash now?
I think that if Rox announced they were going to get into production with the Deeps and explored further with good results and upped the JORC the money would come
The AISC on this deep gold will be higher than Grace and the processing of partly refractory ore is more expensive.IMO the AISC would be about $900 oz au which is higher than Grace but still very profitable.With gold at around $2,400 oz the Deeps could be worth around $ 887m. The combined MCs of Rox and Venus are around $110m.
Draining the main pit (6 months and $1m) would facilitate further exploration and a likely increase in the Deeps JORC.
IMO the future direction of the company now rests with the Link and Junction targets.
If these are good then the original mining plan has legs.
If they fail then Rox need to pivot to the Deeps.
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