WATERPROOFING RESOURCES’ EXPLORATION
Traditionally, during the northern Australian wet-season, resources exploration projects suspend field work: – typically from Nov to March. This season, the “Big Wet” has been “Bigger” than the historical average, with increased rain, across broader areas for longer periods. Some exploration projects are only now able to commence field activities.
Why has GDM continued to successfully progress?
“GDM has a series of 4 inter-linked projects. It was designed that way from the get -go,” said CEO Justin Haines. “We’ve always known about the northern monsoon season, so we incorporated it into our planning?”
“Overhead costs continue, whether it’s raining or not,” he said, “ Sure they can be minimised, but still a cost.”
“Our 4 projects – Yellow Jack, Cape, Devil’s Mountain and Coonanbula – allow GDM to be weather agnostic to a degree,” said Justin, “Can’t get onto one site, we have another 3 to work on. It’s got to do with deploying shareholder capital as efficiently as possible 24/7/365. It’s got to do with retaining the best, most talented and most experienced Team members we possibly can, and contracting out whatever else we need.”
“It’s also got to do with balance,” he said, “knowing historical weather patterns, we need to ask, ‘Can we make a project stack-up commercially if its only able to operate 7 out of 12 months?’ ”
“Then we have climate change to contend with, so add another 10% of weather related down-time.”
“We’re always examining new potential projects to be added to our portfolio,” said Haines “ Just this season we’ve considered projects across southern NSW, in WA and in our near overseas region.”
“Being an ‘out-of-doors’ industry we always run the risk of getting our feet wet,” he said, “but with a little planning, and improved geographic spread, we aim to keep everyone’s feet just a little drier for a little longer at GDM!”
