More thoughts on the OB issue:
First, my thanks to you and Rick for all the info.
Second, apparently not everyone agrees with his assessment that you want nothing to do with OB > 50 metres since all of the MEO/Kennecott cores pulled this fall have OB in the 100-150 metre range. Granted, open pits are a lot cheaper, but they evidently believe that you can go underground and still be profitable.
Third, while I sure don't know, I doubt that "the Alberta diamond mining advantage over the NWT is greatly diminished when OB greater than 10m is encountered." Maybe I missed the post where the details are laid out, but any mine that is so much closer to major infrastructure and located in a comparatively mild climate has got to be significantly cheaper to run. Certainly, the underground would reduce the benefits over NWT, but still leave a substantial spread.
That's my two bits. Owning MEO but not MMU, I certainly don't want OB to be an issue! And I know that K likes open-pits, since I live within sight (40 miles) of the largest open-pit Cu mine in the world, their Bingham Canyon mine in Utah.
Pete |
