the pulse is still thumping, page-5

The sllllowwww boat to china... haha

That is funny KiWi 67, I like your sense of humor.

And that is what we need sometime while we wait, some light hearted posts from drop in posters designed to entertain us all....thanks for the effort!

It is a slow boat indeed, since it is loaded with our manganese. The high quality, high grade ore can be very heavy you know!

And who can blame the pirates? they are known to target the most valuable Cargos, it is flattering to know that some are willing to risk their lives for our black gold.. the thing is, it is not going to be one boat, the plan is we are going to send many.. for years to come.


lol...

anyway back to serious discussions, or "pumping" as some regretful souls prefer to call it.

I noticed the drop in commodity prices in general and the manganese in particular in the last few weeks. KAB told us they will be selling at BHP prices. and I wondered how this will affect our African operation.

BHP runs two of the biggest high grade manganese mines in the world.. one in south Africa, and of course our Groote Eylandt in the northern territory, which produces nearly quarter of the world total.

The size is incomparable to anything else, but with the high cost of operation in Australia, and the fact they still can make this profitable.. then how about a simple operation in Africa where manganese is in abundance near surface you only need to blast it off and load it on trucks to port.

For Groote Eylandt ,Extremely high wages, electricians, drivers, drillers etc. who charge $2,000/week at least,engineers who will each set you back 150k/Y for non senior roles, management wages and entitlements, accommodation cost, flying workers constantly in and out, electricity/energy cost, insurance cost, equipment repair and maintenance cost, strict environmental studies/practices including expensive after mining rehabilitation, indigenous land owners compensation.. etc. etc.

Add to this the high taxes including the new mining tax, carbon tax, mining approval cost and levies, the high drilling cost and capex to expand operation. ... mind you this is all paid in the very high Australian dollar.

As if this is not enough, Groote Eylandt is an island where most of its resource is under shallow water which as adds significantly to the cost of production I can imagine. however, after all that, BHP through CEMCO finds the project very profitable, so what do we think of our small operation in Africa where wages are very low, capex is extremely cheap, very low taxes and non of the strict regulations that we have here in oz.

We haven't been provided by any concrete numbers yet, but a low cost operation will win the day when the markets cool off and commodity prices softens.

No wonder the pirates are dying to put their hands on our loot.