hello mq, gold chronicle report filed this day
i have always aimed for work satisfaction by way of societal-responsibility and history-relevancy, and in my latest re-invention i answer to both callings
i consider self fortunate that my work is calibrated to be in close alignment with my passion for macro economic understanding, geo political pondering, and i hope that it would also pay the bills
1. been working all day and for several days now on project #1 (gold mine bank and the gold mill atm) biz plan
2. we are now very close to first pour of project #1, just in time to start paying off gold loans and such
(2-i) it is wonderful that gold price is quite a ways below the 1700 mark, because the gold loan terms and conditions require delivery of more gold mass, above and beyond the 10% annualized yield, to make up for lost gold value - some kind of wonderful
(2-ii) should gold unfortunately drop to 3 digits by sequestering fools, then the loan holders just get a whole lot of gold for sale later at much higher prices. what a math.
i do not believe i would be so lucky, and besides, the gold loan in math terms to the shareholder / lender is a bit of left-pocket profit to right-pocket transfer of prioritized distributions
(2-iii) the investors, that be those who sit in freedom hong kong, funded the project w/ 50/50 equity to gold loan, and
the boyz in australia, directed by their cfo, that be me, one of those who sits in hong kong, shall deliver gold, else stands to lose the mine given the lien on mining / mill asset backing the gold loan, and forfeit their free carry, and cough up all the goodness.
in so far as the shareholder-gold-loan-lender is concerned, just more left / right pocket smoke and mirrors
the only metric worth focusing on is troy ounces from the ground
3. i am now part of a manufacturing operation, intending to turn rocks into cash
(3-i) following the schedule of this dump to move and that crater to dig
(3-ii) keeping track of excavators, loaders, graders, trucks, and light vehicles so they do not get lost
(3-iii) familiarizing self on how many hours of operation tires are good for
(3-iv) figurings for grinding balls, cyanide, hydrochloric acid, caustic soda, hydrated lime, carbon, and diesel, lots and lots of diesel
(3-v) reckonings for some god's-work machine termed the 'albion process' that calls for ungodly amount of electricity, oxygen, and something called flocculent, whatever that be
(3-vi) kwH per everything, litres of many things, grams per ton, $/ton, grade, recovery rate, concentrate weight recovery, plant run up time, etc etc
4. staffing troubles - our staff costs a fortune relative to just about everywhere else, with excavator operators at aud 180k per annum, and electricians @ aud 120k.
a good thing we are not mining for iron
5. hopefully one fine day in april we churn the oxide circuit to turn milled oxide rocks (~7g per ton) into 9999 - we actually start w/ 2.6 g/ton dumps left by the old-timers; but as the dumps are already on the surface we do not need to dig, and only focus on move and mill.
even as we apparently have more than a year's worth of dumps to process, we intend to mine as soon as our geologic team tell us where and in what direction for the easy peasy 7g/ton oxide while we wait for the albion monster to be spec-ed, ordered, manufactured, installed, so that ...
6. another fine day in december we fire up the albion monster to turn baked sulfide rocks of great merit (>16g/ton and as high as 50g/ton) into same 9999
7. the strategy is simple and most of the time does not involve competitor analyses. only issues to keep in mind are the environment, government regulations, locals, natives, grades, recovery, cost
we do not have to be so concerned about the price of output, for the sequestering wastrels are underwriting the price guarantee
8. w/ most manufacturing operations the problems start once the products exit the manufacturing process
9. w/ gold manufacturing, all problems end with the completion of production
(9-i) process monitoring should be easy, by web cams watching other web cams and watching the wire cage that is the core of the operation, the gold cage.
(9-ii) marketing cost should be near zero unless we term parties a cost
(9-iii) r&d expense should be almost zero, except to check out some wonderful china processes that claim to squeeze more gold from less rich rocks and without use of toxic this / biotech that
(9-iv) distribution logistics should be easy, a suitcase full of goodness once so many days
(9-v) after-sales service reserve should be moderate, because polishing cloth doesn't cost a lot
10. sales operation only has to sell enough gold to cover cost and fund the albion purchase, with the profit to stay in 9999 form, as 9999 is cash.
cheers, tj |
