RE:RE:RE:Commercial ProductionHi TW,
I was not a follower of the company back when Santander was being commissioned, however, looking back at the news releases, I believe you are incorrect. If you look at SEDAR, they were providing monthly news & commissioning updates, for Dec/2013, and Jan & Feb/2014 - and then had a news release declaring CP On Feb 20, 2014, from which I've copied:
"Management has determined that commercial production at Santander has commenced, based on all of the following technical and engineering design achievements: -
Completion of the operational commissioning of the Plant and handover of the Plant asset from Glencore to Trevali effective January 31, 2014;
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The demonstrated ability of the Santander mill to operate consistently and without significant interruption at a production rate exceeding 70 per cent of design capacity;
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Metal concentrates production meeting saleable concentrate specifications;"
So, in their news release they declared CP on Jan 31st, but when the auditors reviewed things, it was changed to Jan 1st. See the Dec 2014 financial statements, from which I've copied:
"As of January 1, 2014, the Company determined that its Santander operations were capable of operating at the levels intended by management." Thereafter, they use the same language as the above quote.
All I'm saying is that they can't wait till they get to nameplate mill design to declare CP. If they did, they might never get there, as you could be at say 90-95% forever. Even in the conference call, they specifically mentioned 70% of mill design, but the CEO did say "it was all about recoveries". I suspect that's what "other technical factors that need to be considered" refers to, but even so, they were there as at Feb 21st. Do the math: they had 69% Zn recovery for Jan/2016 and 73% Zn recovery for Feb/2016. These represent 82% and 86% of their targeted 84% Zn recoveries.
So I think they are just being conservative like they were for Santander. We'll know better when they provide their March month-end commissioning update.