Time Lines and related timesdebvan - thanks for posting the NR on DB's approval of The Snap Lake Project. And now that I have printed it off and before I file it away with all the other Winspear and Aber Snap Lake stuff, here are time lines that may be of interest.
Year 2008 DB forecasts Snap Lake to be on full production (1.5MMct/yr)
Year 2007 DB forecasts construction to be complete & production starts
May 10,2005 DB announces plan to proceed with mine development at Snap
Mar.23,2003 National Post Article,"Snap Lake Mine a horror story for De Beers..."
Feb.01,2001 Aber reports completion of sale of its 32.24% of Snap Lake to DB for $171MM Cdn ($114MM US).
Aug. 27, 2000 De Beers annouunces it has successfuly secured over 90% of WSP shares in its bid to buy WSP's 67.76% share of Snap Lake for $301MM Cdn ($203MM US).
July, 2000 Scoping Study
Sept, 1999 Resource Study
So, from initial puchase of WSP's share in 2000 to completion of construction is 7 years and to full production (one more year) for a total of 8 years (7 +1).
With estimated construction costs of $636MM CDN and acquisition cost of $472MM CDN ($171MM CDN + $301MM CDN), the total capital invested is $1108MM CDN or $1.108 Billion CDN (with no adjustments for Time Value of Money)
Very interesting. After a long and winding road, production and profitability is in sight for DB.
Anyone know when Winspear first began exploring the Snap Lake property? If it was say 1991, then from first exploration to first production in 2007 took some 16 years from start to finish.
I think Fipke/DiaMet started his exploration efforts in the NWT in the early 1980's and first production began Oct. 1998 marking some 18 years from start to finish.
You gotta have a lot of patience to play this game where lots can go wrong in between. But for the very few that persevere and ultimately succeed, the rewards ($$$) are enormous.
Now how does this translate into likely time lines for MPV/CFV? If DB buys them out now in 2005 and adds 7 years for the process as in Snap Lake that brings the date of first production in 2012. If they want production from that MPV/CFV mine before then, DB will have to work faster and smarter...Hmmm...
Any comments and insight out there?
Cheers,
LB