Good pick-up, MP.I keep getting mixed up between the Kaiser...

Good pick-up, MP.

I keep getting mixed up between the Kaiser Report and the Kaiser Watch. The former is run by some cartoon character and is a waste of time and space. But the Canadian who runs the Kaiser Watch (Kaiser Stuhl?) is actually very good value, in my opinion. And in this show he gives what I think is a really excellent summary and analysis of the door busting announcement by Winsome about their option to pick up the Renard mill.

One quibble I had was his assumption that Adina's maiden MRE is not commercial, at 59mt at around 1.1%. I know opex will be higher in northern Quebec than in WA but 59mt at 1.1% would be commercial in WA every day of the week. Anyway, in the RK Equity conversation Chris Evans said he was disappointed that the MRE grade came in as low as it did but seemed confident that the calculations will be reworked for the next MRE update resulting an improved grade. Also in the RK Equity chat CE said that even with just the maiden MRE Winsome is already looking at a 20 year mine. I do think John Kaiser is right that Winsome is well positioned to pick up one or more of the smaller properties along the Trieste Formation - he mentioned Comet and Loyal - but I reckon if it happens that will be from a position of strength not out of any need to get Adina over the commercial threshold.

Also he seemed to dismiss the idea of underground mining of spodumene. The Renard mine includes underground workings but I get the impression that generally speaking the Canadians are less comfortable with underground mining than are the Aussies - the likes of Bill Beament and Develop Mining even specialise in hard rock underground mining. I know a number of Australian miners have bought underground mines in Canada thinking they can do a better job than the locals but in truth the success rate there has been very low. In any case Winsome are unlikely have to bother with underground mining other than to use the existing underground mines at Renard for waste disposal.