What kills alot of developments from progressing to becoming actual mines is......The finance.... Tadahhhh
The Payback period based on when the MF FS was produced, WAS WAY TOO LONG. There was no way in hell anyone would have financed the project, especially in that jurisdiction. The risk is insane.
That is why Jason S mentioned in an interview he did that if they wanted to push MF into small scale production, they needed to increase the grades. Hence, why, change of strategy, Plan B.
Hell, GOR and their mega capital cost for their plant at around $500Mil has a quicker payback period in their FS than the MF one.
IMO, the work done on the MF FS is now mostly sunk cost, not all wasted, but, it now needs to be revised as part of the new broader strategy. I don't want to speculate on what that is going to look like. But, in summary and broadly, their needs to be alot of easy stuff they can mine from surface (small starter pits) and hope that there is enough $$ juice upfront to offer a quick capex payback before transitioning to Underground.
Outside of Tier 1 Jurisdictions, it's much hard to obtain finance unless you can demonstrate a highly de-risked BFS with a quick payback period, IMO Less than 18 months.
It is a fact that Underground mines are upfront capex intensive. That they take almost twice as long to develop. That they are much higher risk.
That is the beauty with the Ternera Deposit, the High Grade Central zone CC350-CC600, low strip ratio, bulk tonnage, high recoveries, this is what you can easily take into production.
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8H GLTH.
