Wrt "The capital raising will be nice, and could potentially allow the OC operation at Cook North to start early in CY19"
This assumption seems to ignore the required APPROVALS to allow for open cut mining - all good if they ALREADY HAVE THESE but an issue if not. From a licensing point of view there would be significant delay in obtaining open cut mining approvals in regard to (i) groundwater (both Federal Water Trigger and State Associated Water License), (ii) major environmental authority amendment (e.g. cultural heritage, biodiversity offsets, dust and noise, surface water and management) and (iii) rehabilitation / closure plans under the pending State PRCP requirements about to be introduced into legislation in 2020. Taking just the Federal water trigger issue, they would likely require a minimum of 2.5 - 3.0 years to obtain approval based on the assessment technical authority (IESC) requirement of a groundwater model calibrated on minimum 2 years of piezometer level and quality data. Assuming the minimum 2.5 years for approval and considering the studies progression (noting that they will not commit to the box cut unless the whole study including the underground component shows positive results), tender and contractor mobilisation etc, personally I couldn't see a box cut commencing until 2022 earliest. In any case, the most logical game to aim for wrt Cook North IMO is underground equipment production continuity after the current mining area is completed in order to minimise underground equipment capital costs.
