Mc117, I think the reality is that Glencore stuffed it up...

Mc117, I think the reality is that Glencore stuffed it up through greed and BTR had no where to go. When Glencore came to the rescue of Perkoa, it was a pure underground zinc project. No sooner had Glencore finished underground development, it found some shallow silver & lead and it decided to expand the plant and project to produce a second concentrate - hence the need for all that extra capital. BTR wisely paid for its share with a portion of its project equity. There was less silver and lead than anticipated which added to plant upgrade delays has resulted in the current predictament - a zinc only underground mine coming on stream at the right time but with an additional $100m cost added due to Glencore's folly. It will be a long time before a return on investment will be made even at much higher zinc prices. And now Glencore tells us that there is less Zinc underground than was previously thought. Glencore maybe be able to afford to write it off but a minnow like BTR just gets rogered!
Like you, I bought for the copper.

Go Cats!