Mr. Mazzarella, the cost of extraction in this case will be much lower than most deposits. There are deposits in the Solomon islands that are not much higher OPT. They have to ship the equipment in, build roads, bring in electric, establish water sources, etc. Then any and all equipment needs supply needs must be sent by long haul ship to keep it going. Once they are there they have to remove trees, overburden, etc. just to get at the ore.
GPGI may indeed have shown the numbers you say, but how MUCH do they have? How much will it cost to get AT the ore? There has got to be a reason why this has not moved forward.
In the case of FL, there is no overburden at all. There are already roads into the property. Electric is there. Water is there. Equipment can be sent by truck from any number of U.S. sources. Heck, Vegas is 45 minutes away for the occasional break in the mining action.
Plus, when you can amortize the up front costs like buildings and hard equipment, all figured into recovery, into a 100 year property vs. a 10 or 20 year property. It all contributes to reducing costs.
But most important, this was ONLY GOLD. AND, it was standard lead fire assay which is the least affective assay in proving this ore. These numbers will get better and they will prove the PGM's as well. We know that from previous testing.
The new labs still need time to get up to speed just as Ledoux needed time.
AND, the recovery facility will be free to use the most efficient method of recovery, not any particular industry standard so long as they can spit out metal on the table. THAT is where we will see the real numbers.
That is how I see it at this point.
Regards,
Tom F. |
