Chapter 450 All the way down
And the CEO who led OZ Mining Company to take off again is named Andrew Cole.
Yes, that is Mr. Cole, the current CEO of West Africa Mining Company.
After Andrew Cole became CEO of OZ Mining Company at that time, he first conducted a three-month business review and proposed a new company development strategy.
After clarifying the new strategy, OZ Mining Company took three main actions, one is to review the cost; the other is to expand the Prominent Hill copper-gold mine project; and the third is to start the construction of the successor resource Carrpateena project.
After that, OZ Mining Company greatly increased its revenue and successfully got on the right track.
Now Barron has hired Andrew Cole to the West African Mining Company in advance as CEO. After acquiring OZ Mining Company, he will first integrate it into the West African Mining Company.
However, although it is known that the Karapatina mining area has extremely high reserves, the West African Mining Group is not planning to develop it in the short term.
Mining ore is not as many people imagine. After discovering the ore deposits, you can quickly start drying them and harvest something.
A mining project takes a long time from project establishment to final production, and the larger the mine, the longer it will take.
According to statistics on the world's 35 largest mines, the average time from discovery to production is 16.9 years, with the shortest being 6 years and the longest being 32 years.
In this cycle, the most time-consuming part is mine exploration and research, which takes an average of 12.5 years, accounting for almost three-quarters of the total investment time.
It is worth mentioning, however, that the mines that have been at this stage the longest have typically gone through multiple ownership changes and research revisions.
Generally speaking, those top mines enter the mine construction stage 1.8 years after the feasibility study is completed.
Ideally, construction can begin soon after the feasibility study is completed; but for some mines, it will take another 3 to 5 years before construction, partly because of the desire to continue to increase reserves before construction, or because of the lack of mining permits and licenses. , funding and community protests.
The more developed a region is, the longer it takes to pass an environmental review before mining. Australia is already relatively lenient in this regard among developed regions, but it still sometimes takes up to a year. Even a few years.
Just like in the original time and space, after the Kalapatina Mining Project was established, it was not until a few years later that it received Australian environmental approval, and then production capacity began in 2020.
Of course, this is also related to their limited funds at the time, which affected the development progress, but it also shows that there are still many things that need to be coordinated and approved to open a mine in a place like Australia.
And the Kalapatina mining area is not the easiest open-pit mining to mine, but requires underground mining, so mining here requires a lot of preparation work.
Just like the basic facilities in the mining area, it requires camps that can accommodate hundreds of people, construction of roads and even airstrips, etc.
There are also many supporting infrastructures for surface production, including mineral processing plants, tailings ponds, underground material transportation systems, mine access roads, external transmission lines and other facilities.
Generally, for large-scale mines, the initial investment alone may exceed US$100 million, or even billions of US dollars.
After all, nowadays, there are no open-pit mines that are easy to mine. Almost all new mines that have been discovered now require underground mining.
Moreover, these mines are often located far away from cities and are very desolate. Before using mechanical equipment to mine, necessary facilities need to be built there.
…
"What do you think of Australia? Honey."
When they came to Australia this time, Barron and the others were not just for fun. It was also because the climate in London was winter. After Bonnie could temporarily get away from company affairs, Barron wanted to choose a place with a suitable climate where she could be comfortable. Expectant.
"It's not bad. I came to Melbourne with my family when I was a child. I didn't expect that it has developed well here. It's just that it's okay to live here for two months. If it takes too long, I'm afraid I will still feel uncomfortable."
If this is the case, then Barron bought a villa here and will live in Melbourne for the past two months. After that, it is not impossible to move to other places. Anyway, there is a whole team of medical staff around them. When taking care of Bonnie, I don’t have to worry about any discomfort during the journey.
Bonnie's cousin, Countess Chris, will also stay in Australia to accompany Bonnie during this period, so that even if Barron needs to occasionally go to other places to handle affairs, there is no need to worry about Bonnie getting bored. .
It just so happens that Earl Bute will also be in Australia recently to deal with matters after Stuart Mining Group's acquisition of the Prominent Hill copper-gold mine project, so he will need to stay for a while.
But what Barron didn't expect was that a few days later, Earl Bute's sister, Jenny Butt, also came to Melbourne...
"Smoking is not a good habit, Jenny..."
Jenny Bute did not stay in Earl Bute's villa here, but booked a suite in the hotel.
As for why... when Barron asked, she looked at Barron with a half-smile and said, "It will be more convenient for the tryst this way"...
At this time, after a period of intense knowledge learning, Jenny Butt picked up the lighter, made a "ding" sound, and lit the lady's cigarette in her mouth.
Facing the smoke she exhaled, Barron waved his hand and said with a slight frown.
"Sometimes it feels like you are too self-disciplined, Barron, like a Puritan, but sometimes, you are so..."
Jenny showed a charming smile:
"But when I couldn't help but explore your complicated heart, I fell into it unconsciously..."
Well, after all, aren’t you just greedy for my body?
"How is John lately? I heard that the situation at Sinclair Group is not very good?"
"I don't care much about his business affairs, but it is true that he comes home later and later, and he has become accustomed to drinking. If I didn't know it was impossible, I would have thought he was having an affair."
Jenny Butt's tone was a little indifferent, which made Barron a little confused about the relationship between her and John Smith...why did she marry him? With Jenny Boot's background, there was no need to choose this marriage because of the Sinclair family.
But in the final analysis, for Barron, Jenny Boot is more like his pure friend (P), so he is not very interested in getting to know her too deeply, so he did not ask exit.
After the Sinclair Group replaced a new chairman, and the eldest brother of their family, David Smith, was not in good condition after being hospitalized in a coma last time, the occurrence of these things caused the share price of the Sinclair Group to decline. After a period of time, it fell a lot.
It wasn't until before Christmas that their stock price stabilized slightly, but it had already fallen by more than 25%...
During this process, IC Capital took the opportunity to absorb some stocks from the secondary market. Now the proportion of Sinclair Group shares they hold has exceeded 12%...
