Great article. Not sure about the "missing gold". The gold has...

Great article. Not sure about the "missing gold". The gold has always been there. Just corporate decisions have refocused the operations of SBM, SAR and now RED on transporting high ore to remote processing plants, Gwalia for SBM, Thunderbox for SAR, and now Darlot for RED. The price of gold back in 2006 could not support operations at Tarmoola's 3.2 Mtpa mill. The decision was made then to transport high grade ore to Gwalia for processing. The fate of the Tarmoola plant was sealed and it was never restarted so the low grade gold was left in the ground.
Back in the March 2006 Q report SBM released a mineral resource for Tarmoola of 58 million tonnes grading 1.1 g/tonne (cutoff of 0.5 g/tonne) for 2.1 million oz of gold. Later in the June 2006 Q report they give a in pit resource of 35 million tonnes at 1.2 g/t for 1.2 million oz of gold. Although the price gold increased from A$550 to A$850 in this year it was not enough to deem the Tarmoola plant viable at these grades. The decision was made at the end of 2006 to mine the high grade veins and transport this to Gwalia.
If you have a look at the latest video of the "damage zone" on Reds website (well worth looking at) you will see that one thing that has been done to the max is drilling at Tarmoola/King of the Hills. (same with Siana, they have drilled the resource with precision). There is no ambiguity as to the amount of gold in the ground. Its just how best to unlock the 2 million odd low grade oz now we don't have a processing plant on site
So no "lost gold". Just lost the ability to process the gold. If you have time go back an have a look at the SBM Q reports from 2005. Makes very compelling reading if you are a serious investor in RED 5.