Hi @binwood I think you need to do far more careful evaluation...

Hi @binwood

I think you need to do far more careful evaluation before trying to equate grades, ozs, tonnes and the AISCs of gold and basemetal deposits.

See my post regarding Net Smelter Return.

https://hotcopper.com.au/threads/an...resentation.4320808/page-322?post_id=35877938

With Zn and Pb, depending on the smelting characteristics of the ore you are only getting paid for about 55% of the metal in one tonne of ore. The I article I have linked in the link above suggests possibly even less. With a gold mine all the processing and most of the refining is done on site and your “recoveries”, ie the metal content of the ore per tonne for which you are actually being paid can be over 90%.

Then you also have issues around potential contaminates which have the potential to reduce prices paid even further for basemetal concentrates and in extreme cases smelters might refuse to take the concentrate altogether if contaminant levels of things like cadmium are too high.

If you haven’t factored this into your thinking, you most definitely should. Gold mines and polymetalic basemetal mines are oranges and apples.

Not saying I don’t like the project but your hand waving needs more substantiation IMO. Esh