Hey Brian,
good to have you aboard and I appreciate the critical eye being run over CAI.
Regarding the AISC, I was also initially a little hesitant with their figure, but... after watching David Reeves presentation last year, all my questions were basically answered (i.e. the gold is outcropping, so stripping is lower than at, for example, Mt Magnet. Plus, RMS truck their ore, in some cases 200kms).
Anyway, I really found this presentation useful. Plus, I rate management very highly.
Precious Metals Summit Beaver Creek, Sept. 11-13, 2019(just scroll down)
Regarding the financing, its a really tricky situation, as in, I also don't like debt, but.... its so damn cheap!
Plus, with a mix of debt, buying put options (no stupid hedging like RRL or others for that matter), and perhaps even forward selling a small amount of gold, for say the first 3 years of production (say 4,000 ounces per year - 12,000 x 2650 - AUD$31.8m). Add on a further $15-20m in a small raising, and $80m in debt, and there you have it, project fully funded.
With the huge rise in the price of gold in AUD, I feel there are some very sensible ways to fund small projects like CAIs.