Number of stoping blocksas per my post from early febuary:-
Not wanting to appear that I'm avoiding a simple yes or no answer, but consider the following. The recent press release stongly suggested that pre production planning has delineated the need for 15 stoping blocks at any one time. Lets assume that at any one time , three blocks are in development , three are being long holed, and two more are being prepped with slot raises etc. That means there are seven stopes with active drawpoints in production at any one time.
Today's release states that there are a total of 27 stopes , either in production or under development. This of course is almost double what was planned earlier this year.
This is good news / bad news. An incresed number of planned stopes certainly makes for dramatically improved flexibilty for mine planners and the production personnel. However at around $6-8000 per metre development costs , there is a large initial CAPEX associated with this acclerated development rate, Plus of course , this wasnt implemented just for fun, Someone mustve identified that the initial plans would not be adequate in the short term. ' Would go someway to explaining the recent apparent cost overuns.