PEA to Pre-Fease to Full Fease
There is a school of thought that the PEA to pre-fease to full fease is the way to go. That is why it exists. The level of reliable data required for inputs into each level of study differs a lot. Now at NB we have 4 versions of PEA. All a PEA's should be meant to do is justify the spending on a Pre-Fease in my and many industry experts minds. If you get a positive PEA then OK go get more rigorous data and see where it leads you. If the level of data collected at the pre-fease level is positive it may support additional spending at feasibility level rigor and engineering. A pre-fease can perhaps justify further work should be done or not. A FS can be either positive or not. Mines have been started on low levels of engineering data. Largo and Rubicon are a couple recent ones that are in deep trouble. It's often a scary way to go but in certain markets it can be possible but often ends in pain.