RE:RE:RE:RE:Sold a bunch, kept some. GLTA.Great post about the costing anomalies @ Macassa. I still think there can be another Swan repeat, but will take another year of drilling at the minimum. At least they will get more reserves out of Swan for now. I am sure there is a ton of undiscovered gold on entire Aussie land package. And to think this was sold back in the day by Aurico for $ 100 something million USD to Crocodile Gold. JIN
PulpCutter wrote: Agree, Macassa cash costs are going to drop substantially. I was looking through the Q1 2018 MD&A. Mining costs per tonne were something like $75/tonne at the lowest mine (Fosterville, I think), but were $307/tonne at Macassa (if memory serves, but in any case the difference was profound). All the others were around $100/tonne or under; it was Macassa that stood out. Macassa's costs are high, in large part, due to the over a kilometer distance from the mining faces, to the antiquated small wood-lined #2 shaft.
Looking at the differences in cost/tonne, it becomes clear why Makuch wants to build shaft #4, and why he says it will pay off in a very short time. You're basically building a superhighway between 5500 feet down and the mill, with one end right on the east side of the SMC. Plus you're filling the mill, running 2500 tpd of 21 g/t ore.
IMO the market is/was expecting more than simply Swan reserve conversion; they were expecting more Swans.