spot valuation for cloncurry , page-25

Empire07,

In one of the broker reports released late last year, they said that with the Copper price over about $3.80lb (off the top of my head), Exco would be more profitable building their own plant.

That said however, It will take about 12-18 months to build the plant, sort any bugs out & have it up & running smoothly.

Will the Copper prices still be at record prices in Jan-July 2012 ??..... maybe ??

Commodity Prices move in cycles, while they is a shortage of Copper right now, pushing the price up to record levels, a lot of mines around the world are moving as quicly as possible to take up the slack ( Exco included).
Production is expected to increase worldwide around late 2012, 2013.
The Copper price may move to a more normal level at that time.

It will cost around $200mil to build the plant, how will Exco finance this ??......debt, JV, will there be much/any dilution to shareholders ??

Personally I still favor a Take Off or Toll Treatment deal with Xstrata, as Exco could be selling ore later this year and it will only cost about $50mil (only ??) to start up the mine & White Dam can pay that off as debt in a little over a year (give or take a bit, depending on the Gold price).

I guess everyone will have their own thoughts on which direction Exco should take, wont be too long before we will find out for sure (2nd half of January to early February, I think/hope).

cheers