The existing decline will need to be refurbished, the current decline only goes down to the 1220RL the rest will be paid for by FCF. See below from PFS.
I used to think DRM was awesome, but over the years they really struggled because they didn't have the scale to hide hiccups that happen along the way (mill break down, extra dilution in a stope, etc). All I was saying is that the FCF isn't big enough to make good money from this. If your mining 4.5g/t Au you need to be mining a lot of it.
I don't know why approval would be held up to the south unless there was some environmental or heritage issue there? EGA needed those ounces in the mine plan to increase to annual production to earn more FCF to pay for above and get closer to the more attractive 100koz/pa producer. They just won't have the critical mass.
Anyway thats enough from me, happy to be proven wrong.
EGA Price at posting:
22.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held