what I'd expect from here, page-6

Thanks for your post and your point of view working in the industry/construction/infrastructure part of it. I would say though that your post glossed over the corporate delays and more importantly the political delays of getting Oyu Tolgai into production. The delays brought about by JV/Tax and Government disputes cannot be overstated as being a major factor in that project taking so long to execute in Mongolia.

Although most of your points operations and mine planning are correct in the broad scale in this case talking about mine planning is possibly a little premature given that - as you said - this is really more of a geological story at the moment as to what has been done in the past, what can be done in the future and what sort of potential orebodies could pop out down the track after a few years of drilling. As you say - in the hands of geologists and drill rigs first, to work out exactly what if any mineral potential is there. Successful discovery is often a gradual iterative process where the discovery shareholders can make the big capital gains if there is bona fide success and/or a step change in the size or grade of deposits. In this environment with a shortened field seasons this can still often be a multi-year proposition from original investment to capital return.

If nothing significant pops out in the way of grade and/or tonnes then the project will never get over the large logistical and capex hurdles that are in front of it. Discovered in the 1970s potential investors are still looking forward to a proccess of planning and permiting 350+km of all-weather roads, a new port facility and all the supporting infrastructure that isn't there yet such as power, roads, water, telecommunications, construction camps, possibly airfield upgrades, and mine construction, and all before that, there will be negotiations with local stakeholders about enviromental permits and approvals. To get over all these hurdles, there is going to have to be an overwhelming economic case to justify the capital cost, and motivate Canadian federal and provincial and local groups to permit all of this. And probably some co-operation between mining companies to open the entire belt up, and probably some major companies prepared to stomach the huge up-front capital costs.

This isn't the "can do" Sub-arctic Canada with its expertise in the 1960s and 1970s where they were able to be nimble and had much less permitting and impediments in their way to execute a project quickly. That expertise, speed and ability is now history, because of higher permitting hurdles and longer licencing timespans that can be measured in decades now, not months.