RE: Simplistic arithmetic part 230 Dec 2019 17:00
This tunnel has to go pretty deep. It is not a 12" hole they are drilling as in an oil well. This is an actual tunnel big enough to move thousands of tonnes of rock per day which has to go as deep as an average oil well in the North Sea.
Hmmmmm..........this would not have been possible twenty years ago. But technology seems to be advancing pretty fast so maybe they can tunnel down to 1,300 metres (4,500) feet below sea level without any issues with water ingress, wall collapse, or rockfalls. They will be going down well below the water table so they will have to waterproof the sides as they tunnel down. And sand/sandstone may be more problematic than solid rock as you might need a giant vacuum type machine to suck it out whilst the drill bit keeps boring ahead.
If the tunnel goes down at a twenty degree angle it will be need to be about 6 miles long. It just sounds like a big job ... a really big job ....and the bondholders ought to have paid for it. That's what the directors told the shareholders in order to get the last cash call away which was at 15p per share or indicated an equity value over 400% higher than the current market pricing.
Now it seems the directors aren't going to hold the bondholders to their part of the bargain. So, somebody else is going to have to finance this scheme and to get to grips with the potential that it is not child's play to tunnel down to almost a mile below the North Sea. However, this could be a huge export project for the UK. The government ought to step in and guarantee this project and then the share price can return to 20p as those buying in at 15p didn't make a bad decision - they were just told a of inaccurate information by the directors about the likelihood other people/bondholders would see/understand the great potential returns which this project provides (the resource is huge, world class, very high quality ore, and the world needs an awful lot more fertiliser than is currently being produced).