Yes, Everest North is huge news indeed! Mooinooi's a bit of a...

Yes, Everest North is huge news indeed! Mooinooi's a bit of a distraction, I suppose, though it's easy to overstate even that. It's only one of the THIRTEEN Semancor dumps - and then only the PGM rights in contention. The rest will be worked over for chrome and PGMs as planned.

Besides, the contestation has been known and flagged, I thought, for some time. As has the likelihood of a commercial resolution.

But what really surprises me is the market's complete failure to pick up what’s shaping up at Everest North. This is a company-maker if ever there was one, and comes completely over and above the tailing projects which make a compelling enough case for SLV already.

I guess it's the lack of detail so far, but reading between the lines, you'd have to think Everest North is shaping as at least a combined 2 million ounce resource. Our own drilling looks to be going well, and I think we could fairly confidently expect SLV's resource base to be bumped northwards from 800,000 oz before we set to. Meanwhile, next door, Eastplats has been doing its own work, and the wording of the Letter of Intent between the two doesn’t leave much doubt that these guys are serious about getting a mine up and running. The Pool & Share Agreement is, after all, “…with respect to the management of mining and processing operations and the sharing of all PGM concentrate produced from the properties”.