looking across at all the capex increases in the mining sector...

looking across at all the capex increases in the mining sector in australia (HIO basically abandoned their project, TNG announced they don't know how much extra their mine/plant is going to cost) and labour shortages (SBM shocker recently) the optimisation study costs look really undercooked now. as a reminder the dubbo optimisation study headline amounts:
Capital cost estimate of AUD 1,678 million consisting of direct capital of AUD 1,307 million, indirect capital of AUD 208 million, and a contingency of AUD 163 million

it's been almost one year since the study was released and we have seen pretty significant labour and materials supply cost increases without any similar increases in RE pricing on the revenue side. we are really in need of some hefty government intervention to get this ball rolling. the company needs to be really marketing the 'strategic' nature of the project to draw some attention away from how bad the financials are.