Mixed messages?13 Nov 2023 10:55
The 5th Nov RNS had many mixed messages. The general view on this board was that the RNS delivered the message that BR was a dud or that at best we would have to sit on our hands until Cu prices increased. This was stated in the following sentence:
"The current Racecourse Prospect Mineral Resource has the potential to be economically mined at mining rates of 20Mpta, or greater, and at copper prices of US$10,000/t and above."
The following para was a bit obvious in that any system that is optimised is going to improve the situation - it just depends on how difficult it is to do that.
"The Bushranger Study recognised that optimisation of the processing plant capacity, capital costs, operating costs and metallurgical recoveries could greatly improve the economic outcomes of mining the Racecourse deposit. Addition of an ore sorter does not add value at this stage."
The one point I think that does not make sense is that an ore sorter is not going to improve the situation. The results from the ore sorter trials clearly stated that the amount of ore that had to be processed could be dramatically reduce and that sounds like prime 'optimisation' terrotory to me. I can only think that the study put very little confidence in anything outside the RC crown and hence the low grade material was treated as pretty well immaterial.
Then, despite all the negativity related to the publishing of the study we get the following message:
"The Bushranger Study concluded that due to the large size and relatively low grade of the Racecourse deposit, conditions are expected to be excellent for efficient and productive mining."
How low grades lead to conditions being excellant for efficient and productive ming is difficult to imagine. The para finishes with the sentence:
"The current Ascot Mineral Resource is not of sufficient size, or close enough to surface, to warrant mining."
Well, at the time that Ascot was bing drilled I did point out that a lot of effort was being spent trying to link the bridge between RC and Ascot and that it did not make much sense to me. If I remember correctly the thought was that CB was trying to find the resource rich source for the porphyries but in the main only found a dearth of Cu at the expense of sounding out Ascot properly.
The following para does hold out hope though:
"The Company believes that the discovery of the Ascot prospect porphyry copper deposit (see RNS 9 December 2021) confirms that the Bushranger Project hosts multiple copper-gold porphyry systems and further new discoveries could significantly enhance the economics of the overall Bushranger Project."
Although it's unclear whether the 'company' is those douing the study or the XTR board.
Seems the way forward is to do the optimisation studies and do further drilling on Ascot to bring that ore to a level where it can contribute to the overall resource. I personally would also like the porphyry west of Ascot to be explored.
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