When will people accept the fact that Morning Star, RoD et al are high grade NARROW VEIN mines that are comprised of shoots/splays/makes that vary from flat laying to sub vertical resulting in large variations in mining costs. I have emphasised in the past the effects of dilution on recoveries. More to the point is that the shoots, whilst of reasonable grade, are of limited volume. Whilst there might be short periods where a mining profit can be achieved by high grading it is highly improbable that sufficient material of economic grade will ever be available to service the financial and shareholder requirements of the company as currently structured.
It has been demonstrated that the Star has potential at depth - bottom level and below- but that is another story requiring many, many millions of $ to prove.
The RoD results were underwhelming but expected as the shoots, whilst easily mined due to their apparent sub vertical orientation and overhand stoping ability are narrow resulting in high dilution. Head grade, mill grade, whatever, at 4 - 5 g/t will not cut it.
AUL Price at posting:
0.4¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held