| | | That Capex comparison isn't really fair, though...
That's because all of the other companies on that list do have a clear and unobstructed pathway to enabling economic production. ZEN hasn't shown that they have that, yet, and, worse, ZEN also hasn't shown that they have a pathway that leads to that pathway. They're one step removed, not from a valid early stage proof of economic viability... but from having an ABILITY to prove that there is any process that can be scaled up, that can be made functional at production scale, and that can be economic.
ZEN was promoting that they had a process that was better than others... when it turns out they don't even have a process that's equal to others, or one that can work.
The gaping holes in the ZEN generated PEA... provide proofs not of what they're capable of in a valid economic assessment that allows comparing them with others at an early stage... but instead it shows what they're missing in a valid economic assessment... that they refuse to address honestly.
The PEA isn't ever intended to be definitive, of course... its just a first step along the path, with feasibility studies needing to be done later to more fully to clarify the picture in the puzzle that they're working on putting together. But, in order to justify doing the feasibility studies, at huge cost... you do need to see a complete and valid effort being made in doing the PEA, so that it does show the company knows how to properly connect the dots in making a case for moving a project to production.
While the PEA is never the final word, rather than an early effort in validation hoping to prove the project is worth the effort to continue... that only means that the PEA is more of an impressionist painting of the picture that ZEN would like to see become reality, instead of a high resolution photo....
The problem ZEN has isn't that the impressionist painting they've created on the puzzle of their PEA is blurrier than most... the issue is that the ZEN crafted PEA is missing pieces... they simply left stuff out and hoped you wouldn't notice that the only answer possible from reading it is: "can't get there from here".
Given proper awareness of the other issues that exist at ZEN... I'm not even sure you can make any valid assessments of ZEN's real GEOLOGIC potential, based on what the company has provided.
It looks to me like ZEN structured incentives to provide the CEO with a big reward for publishing a PEA... so, he proceeded to publishing one as quickly as he could, to gain that reward for himself... even though the result that he generated is complete crap... requiring that it will have to be done over again...
It appears the CEO didn't know enough about mining and the process of development to ever think it would be useful to consider doing anything more than "phoning it in"... putting a "check in the box"... on the way to picking up his paycheck.
Warren Buffet would know how to solve that problem. I've seen him do it many, many times... in other plays where I was an early stage investor in those companies, before him...
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