The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
Isn't tomorrow the deadline for bids from potential buyers ?
Bulent,
It's on care & maintenance by the look of it. I can see 4x4s still doing the rounds day & night but not sure if they are Wolf vehicles or the administrators. I'll get my binoculars out. There's definitely activity and the plant lights are still on every night.
Mike,
Yup. Agree with you there. Ore sorters also maybe ?
Yes, Jeff not to blame for any of this. He rightly assumed the technical work done by "others" pre-project was sound (which with hindsight it obviously wasn't).
Here's to getting it back up and running with an appropriate and workable method of processing.
gla
Almonty ? Is that correct. I was always told it was AMAX who had it prior to Wolf and they dropped it due to a downturn in the Tungsten price (after winning the public inquiry and getting planning permission). You sure it was Almonty ?
kmufc77.
Trying to recall who was the "lone" Man U supporter ? Give us a clue.
Totally agree. I worked there until very recently.
Would like to point out that Rupert McCraken was the "Project Manager" who was supposed to do the due diligence and who built the plant. Jeff Harrison was under him (General Manager) and had little say in how the project was set up.
Sad day. Sorry for all my friends who lost their jobs today, and for all those that invested. I've just spoken to one of the technical staff and they've all been told that the show's over and that they can go home.
Terrible leadership from the Executive at Wolf. A special shout out goes to my "friend" Callum Semple LOL. Well done !! Bravo !!!
A list of some of the nationalities of persons who worked at the Drakelands operation fyi. Sorry if I missed some:
Scots, Welsh, Irish, N.Irish, English, Australian, American, South African, Zimbabwean, German, Spanish, Polish, Romanian, Samoan, Dutch, Malian, Finnish, Russian, Ukranian, Brazilian, Thai, and many others. Oh yes, a few Cornish miners also !!
99% correct Tungder. Agree totally that the deposit is uneconomic. The 1% btw is due to the fact that there have been 3 prior attempts to mine the Hemerdon deposit before Wolf dived in too quickly without doing their homework properly :-).
As for you Martina07, you obviously haven't got a clue about mining operations in general, let alone the problems with Tungsten deposits. I would keep those kind of comments to yourself. I know for a fact that the Mining and Technical Staff at Wolf battled from the very outset with this deposit. All of them came with extensive experience from very profitable operations globally.
Ouch Dave.
And then there were two (managers that is).
Thanks for the update Devon.
Ophidian. Richam is not "still too angry". These are cold and hard facts. Pull your scaly head out of the sand and start sniffing the coffee with your forked tongue. Sssssssssss. Hey... call me Snake !
Please stop this 30 years tosh. Listen nicely now everyone. It is not possible to mine 3Mtpa from the Hemerdon deposit for 30 years via open pit methods. The pit rim perimeter is highly constrained. An underground operation is too costly and is very unlikely to be given approval in any case. Don't forget that this mine in not in the middle of WA. It's right next door to Dartmoor Zoo of "We Bought a Zoo" fame. Given the mines location, it's a miracle that it is operating at all.
Wouldn't there be shipments to WBH on top of the GTP US shipments or have Wolf stopped sending to Austria completely ?
36 years of life left ? Who told you that Devon, or is that just you're optimism showing mate :-)
Agree with Ophidian,
Ongoing issue is plant reliability related. There's also obviously the issue with the current crusher config. A document search of historical mine records from previous operations would have revealed the wear and recovery issues experienced in the past. Total deja vue.
Geology team have worked hard over the past 4 years and, and despite the orebody being more complex than was initially modeled, the mining and geology aren't the real issue. Also the Iron contamination appears to be diminishing with depth and is no longer a significant issue which is good news.
When the geos read this, their egos are going to...... Orphidian ;-)
Peak, Richam,
Agree totally with both of your comments below.
100% drought in NSW currently. Sheep and cattle are dying.
Possibly. Thank the Lord the mine isn't in NSW.
It's the haematite mate. Like you said, overloads the circuits and magnets so I'm informed. Reports through to the product. It;s also true that the killas is heavy and I guess would cause a cut point issue in the DMS circuits. I'm sure someone is busy working on all this however.
SWest,
I believe the killas has a very high Iron content. That was the original issue with recovering tungsten from the waste. If the ore sorter could upgrade the metal grade of the waste, as shown possible with the lower grade ore trials, whilst at the same time losing a large chunk of the Iron, then it may be feasible to process some of the "waste" mined from the pit. I believe from recent statements that such trials are just getting going.