(Hunter is to forego 90% of its ten per cent interest until) "All other parties have been reimbursed their exploration, development, and mine construction costs."
This means Hunter will not see a centime for a long, long time. If ever. The explo, develo, and contructo is basically the whole capex, and while it could take 3 to 4 years to pay back, it may take longer. Noranda, curiously, used to be able to extend payback for the life of the mine by means of skillful accounting. They still seem to be able to weave that old magic, as in the Hemlo deal. Still not paid back after 23 years. tsk tsk.. that is possibly where the saying arose, "crime don't pay and neither does Noranda."
In all our contracts we stipulate that we get it off the top, that there are no dubiously worded deductions for benefication, production taxes or other legal verbiage, and we get it from pour one. After all, the employees get paid, the lenders get paid, and the government gets paid right from the starting gate. Why the finders should have to wait in line to get paid until hell has a skating rink we tend to think is one of mining larceny's abiding mysteries.
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