I think this announcement provides more clarity than many...

I think this announcement provides more clarity than many previous ones and starts to reinforce that they are working to the ramp up plan which was in the Nov 2023 presentation. Must admit though I had forgotten the extent of overburden stripping required and the fact that the strip ratio appears constant for the remainder of the ramp up. Does anyone know if it reduces as we get more established?

The costs supplied also indicate that mining 175,000t over 7months will cost us circa $12.4m or about $71/t. That doesn’t sound too inconsistent with the $120-130/t fob numbers in the presentation but it would be nice to have a bit more granular data on haulage/ barging / royalties/ admin to get a feel for overall costs.

What is probably more concerning for me is coal prices generally. It seems regrettably that we missed the peaks of a few years ago ( would have been laughing all the way to the bank this time 2 years ago) but are now looking at around $240-250/t which if we apply a 10% discount brings it to say $220/t. That still equates to an $80-90/t margin but could be quickly eroded with increased costs or further drops in prices. Really would like to see a bit more here to get some confidence.

Still see plenty of potential upside for these guys, but I think the market will sit on the sidelines for a while longer to see further evidence of the ramp up and profitability.

Would look to hear from someone with a lot more knowledge about CKAs cost breakdown and the trend for coal prices going forward.