Batero deposit will never be a mine With a grade of less than half a gram per ton, you would need a 20,000 ton per day facility just to produce 100,000 ounces per year. Here's my math:
100,000*32.15 =3,215,000 grams /year,
3,215,000/365 = 8,800 grams day, to get 8,800 grams per day from .44 gram material (from the Jan. 25 indicated resource estimate) is 8,800/.44 = 20,018 tonnes per day, operating 7 days a week.
And that does not even consider dilution or mettalurgical recovery of less than 100%. So realisitically, this project would require a 25,000 ton per day facility to produce a measly 100,000 ounces per year. Additonally the cost per ounce from low grade deposits is very high. Which company would buy BAT to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for a low profit deposit which is many years away from production? I don't believe any company would buy it unless they find much higher grade material somewhere. At this point in time I am no longer willing to own high capex projects with high cash costs. There are plenty of better choices out there.
I am selling some losers to buy BGM which will have a huge HIGH GRADE open pit gold mine called Cow Mountain and a small one coming into production probably later this year. It has also been battered severely but is much more likely to make a comeback than BAT. Just my opinions.
GLTA