<Meadowlark dynamics>
Claude, if you are really looking for a project this weekend <g> here is the technical report on Vault:
sedar.com
From what I've gleaned of it, the challenge continues to be the high stripping ratios, although there are some areas where that drops back down to 3 or 4 to 1. The old pre-feasibility (before Vault) showed a high 7.5:1 ratio, and that's expensive. Under table B, open pit mining costs for loading and hauling this material is about 60% of costs. Note that generally once operations get to that 5000 TPD threshold Meadowbank seems to be arriving at, costs drop 20%.
bc-mining-house.com
The old number was $187, so could we SWAG this down to $150 based on new efficiencies from the Vault addition? Then if we get that stripping ratio down to below 6:1, may pick up another $5-$10 our way? Gettin' there.
WMC JV at Meliadine: here the problem has been the disinterested partner, WMC who has exited the gold business. From the financial footnotes is this item, "To maintain its interest, if commercial production is not achieved, WMC must make annual payments of 500K by January 1, 2002. WMC will make further cash payments, increasing to $1.5 million per year (not a bad windfall for a company with a US 11 million EV) after 4 years (this started in 2000)and each year thereafter until the operating date is achieved or the AGREEMENT IS TERMINATED. In the event of termination, WMC retains no interest in the claims and they are transferred back to CBD and the non-recourse loan (continguent upon production) from WMC to CBD will be forgiven. So going out there are several outcomes all good in descending order: WMC sells their interest to other "interested" party, WMC just walks away and interest reverts to CBD, WMC starts paying through the nose, or WMC sells to CBD (hopefully for a song). |
