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Strategies & Market Trends : Ride the Tiger with CD -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: dara who wrote (92930)	9/24/2007 11:55:14 PM
From: E. Charters	Respond to of 312932

How long do you figure before the Kazahks rip them off? EC<:-}

To: dara who wrote (92930)	9/25/2007 10:15:07 AM
From: Condor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 312932

Thanks for that re: epm Regarding late equipment. I'm guessing at secondary crushers and or screening plant. Most everything else seems to have been accounted for other than the final process of smelting from what I can tell. But it could be something like pumps that would be critical but more obscure. That summary from SH was excellant. It addressed to opportunities I had hoped for.....expansion and de-hedging possibilities. Transcribed below....... ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For those that care to register and listen to the presentation by EPM's Tony Williams in Denver today, it is well worth the listen. The mine commissioning has begun slightly ahead of schedule, and is proceeding according to plan. The commissioning was never intended to be an all or nothing event: it is a phased process of events. The primary crusher and grinding mills are installed, and all major concrete work is complete. The gold circuit and conveying will be complete by the end of October. The mine infrastructure is complete and over 700,000 tonnes of ore are stockpiled for processing. Not only has construction and ore stockpiling gone very well, but there will be drilling results and a reserve update prior to the end of the year. The are 2 diamond drill rigs on site doing 2200m of infill drilling of which about 700m is below the current pit bottoms. There is also around 2500m of drilling which is being done on the outlying exploration license, so there is lots of potential for a pleasant surprise in the near future. There is also a 10,000m drilling program within the central pit in order to optimize ore grades. Tony seemed very upbeat about the potential for reserve increases moving forward, and highlighted that EPM's potential is being severely underestimated and undervalued by the market. There are high-grade feeder zones in the pit which are now being uncovered and none of these have been factored into the resource numbers. According to Tony there is "major expansion potential" at Varvarinskoye. He also spoke about the extremely low cost structure of the mine due to copper credits. The current gold hedge is 11% of gold resources; however, Tony mentioned that unwinding the hedge will be high on the agenda for the company as soon as Varvarinskoye reaches mechanical completion. I assume such a move would be very well received by the market. As far as copper goes, there is a sales contract in place that is based on spot prices on the LME. There is no hedging of copper. Not only is the mining fleet complete, but the workforce is filling-in very well. The infrastructure in the area (roads, railways etc...) is also superior, and the installed power lines will provide very low cost electricity for Varvarinskoye ($0.02/kWhr). On top of all this EPM continues to have an excellent relationship with the Kazakh authorities right on up to the president's office, as was illustrated by President Nazarbayev's recent visit. All permits are in place for the mine and EPM has a 25 year mining license. C