RE: short to medium term1] this report was rushed preliminary and conceals the higher grade core within its averaging estimates. There is no substitute for drilling the ore body out and the company has wasted a drilling season playing lets hit a home run. These guys are explorationists who don't have a clue how to systematically build a mine.. In their rush to play catch up they concealed the essential value of the high grade core of the deposit with marginal ore.. I have no doubt that once the ore body is drilled out and the marginal ore is cut off the higher grade zones will more then make up for the resources that will be removed from the table...By including the marginal resources they also blew their strip ratios out of whack. Ergo the greater proportion necessitating underground mining. it is a beginning and if the home run hitters get lucky with their 200 meter step out hole the game will change again...
2] yeah but in the higher grade core of the deposit the copper grades are excellent. This rushed effort to present a resource on the basis of minimal drilling has distorted the overall quality of the very large central core of the deposit. gradewise especially...
3] if they are redoing placers original feasibility study it was done a long time ago with prices for gold and copper that were very low.. I seem to recall kinross stating that their have been some cost saving developments that should be incorporated into the updated feasibility study... Kinross and barrick will likely want to finance some part of any construction costs. Ergo their bankers will want up to date data on the project. They don't call it a bankable feasibility study for nothing...Economies of scale compensate somewhat for lower copper prices....
4] In situ copper deposits were having trouble selling their mines on the basis of $1.50 per pound basis even when copper was trading at $3 and better... At the time when cero casale was purchased Barrick did not overpay for the copper...In situ prices for copper in world class deposits was going for closer to 4¢ per pound
5] kinross and barrick will make their decision one way or another. I see no economic reason for them not to go ahead..It is still an uncertainty that must be considered...It will take about 30 months to build out cero casales if they decide to proceed.. Even in this depression the copper supply is being rapidly depleted and only the Chinese are into building new sources of supply... I agree with the commodities analysts who are saying commodity prices will 'eventaully' rise with a vengeance.
6] possible that caspiche will sit undeveloped for some period of time.... It can take many years from the discovery to building the mine.... caspiche is not as yet a world class deposit but it may well be on the way to being such...
7] Maybe not a lot of leverage but even with the .6 gram grades and using your $1500 an oz estimate they would have a gross metal value of $27 for the gold alone... Costs have risen but these look like bonanza prices for large economy of scale operations..
8] cero morro is another great exploration coup but 400 drill holes later these guys are still chasing the glitter and not the gold... I think they were drilling esperenza on 40 meter centers and I suspect shareholders will be pleasantly surprised by the resource report... I don't think they have total continuity in the esperenza vein so they will use both underground and open pit mining methods whichever makes the most sense. The company only has to bring an expert on this kind of mining this kind of deposit on board and they are a go.... I am looking forward to the drilling up of the extension of the esperenza vein onto the formicruz extension.... We will be getting news and soon on the ore potential of this exciting esperenza vein extension... heap leach I don't know... the grades are so high it doesn't matter what extraction technique they use... the silver might be very difficult to heap leach bt then again this may all be oxide ore.. i wouldn't know..
9] i just see red where financings are concerned....
10] there will be drill results until june.. at least... the assayers have time on their hands now.. but their will be some metallurgical tests due as well and they will be able to announce their next seasons drilling program....
Cero morrow results will fill the void and once we get a resource to underlay the high grade core that we will undoubtedly get from the extension of the esperenza vein the market will take notice...I was disappointed that you didn't mention the upcoming resource estimate for cero morrow. That will be one the mining community will appreciate
11] good for them they have an opportunity to make a bundle.... on the cero morro and the 200 meter step out on caspiche and perhaps whatever other home run hole they may or may not be attempting there... me myself I would be focusing on getting the direction the orebody is heading in better focus.. and extending it in a more conservative increments... Caspich is an orebody that needs systematic drilling now. The home run hitters should step back from the plate and allow the ore body to be defined properly... This slap dash preliminary report is hurting the evaluation of the caspiche deposit. it conceals as much as it revels in terms of grade and the size of the mineable deposit...
Me I sold 7% of my holdings..... I am very overweighted in this stock ... Got more leverage and substantiality in another golden opportunity... bbr.v .... 4.7 million ozs ...