Hi Plough,
thanks for the link!
Regarding Mike and the 15k, he mentions recovered, so... a bit of leeway perhaps? with another 2000 having been mined/processed but not recovered?
I am glad you tore into my numbers, they are terrible! sigh. I was a little rushed and it shows.
You rightly point out that at 1250 per week, they are no-where near 100k p.a.
The update they provided was on the 17th of Sept was what I initially worked of, so if I am being really critical, then they had produced 10,050 ounces as of that date. Then, they stated in today's presentation, that they have produced 12,700 ounces for the quarter, so, a further increase of 2650 ounces in 13 days, or, 1427 ounces per 7 days, or, 6136 per month, or 18,407 ounces per month. Which I think would be enough to declare commercial production as it is, although, they rightly state that the first two years of production will have higher AISC because of the high strip ratio, which will halve by year 3, but then of course, the production rate will be a bit lower. So much of a muchness I suppose. \
Its interesting to see that in the presentation (with the accompanying video), it states they had processed 435k, yet 13 days later, they had processed 535, or over 100k in less than weeks, which is very close to hitting their target of 750k per quarter, or 250k per 30 days.
It does give me confidence that the ramp up is indeed actually now going according to plan, plus the grade must also be increasing which has enabled them to get much closer to commercial production that when they first turned the plant on. Even July/August were clearly a disappointment as more equipment etc was needed, plus the blasting issues. You also mention a higher grade, yep, that is part of the plan, Golden wings is around 1.6-1.7 g/t for the next 12-18 months which helps enable them to hit a run rate above 100k. Of course, Sly Fox will also add to this, plus in time, Plymouth will do it again. I think GCY has a guaranteed 3 years of 100k+ locked in, albeit with a bit more infill drilling to ensure the boxes are ticked etc.
Out of interest, do you feel that Mike is ok with stating that 8+ years of mine life is very achievable considering they have so many hits to date on separate discoveries within just 3.5km of the main pits?
I wonder if perhaps they should split their exploration focus, 50% on infill and proving up the current discoveries, with the other 50% going towards greenfield exploration?
I did like that he specifically states that Dalgaranga needs to provide the cashflow to drill out Glenburgh (he seems extremely keen on Glenburgh and its potential to say the least). I really hope this occurs, as its basically valued at nothing right now.
To end on a negative, without doubt the ramp up has been the major issue and while we will never know the exact person to blame, I really do hope you are correct about NRW doing all it can to ensure that it was a one off.
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