announcement 05/05nopoo:
The announcement says the Bankable Feasibility Study is due for completion "in 2005". I presume that means later in that year, probably the autumn if all goes well.
Thus NDM will not be able to offer a proper quantification of the construction cost and cost per ounce figures to a buyer/buyers until then. The experience of Cumberland where the construction cost estimate suddenly rose just before the BFS was completed will make a buyer hesitate. If the sale is in early 2005, then the valuation will be on the basis of resources figures and cost/environmental estimations only and a lower sale price will result as there are still imponderables.
However long it takes, I'm holding the shares as by far the most likely outcome will be either a huge or a massive gain for patient shareholders either way.
In the meantime, if the relevant metal prices rise the value will be mutiplied more for this low-grades mine than for a high-grades one. If gold for example rises to $500 per ounce it will make the economics of Pebble enormously more attractive whereas it will only have a marginally beneficial effect on high-grade/low-cost developments like Bema's Kupol deposit which should be coming onstream in the same time-frame.