Besra Gold Inc (BESAF)

[muleofkintire]

Hello I will give you an uneducated guess. Lots of mines either gold or oil (not exploratory mines) are further along in their life expectancy and so the cost to get the resources out of the mines costs more because etc the trucks now have further distances to haul to the processing plant as the mine expands.

Haulers are now 450 tones and use a lot more gas to run.

The technology has also changed where a few years ago you would have a dragline digging and moving a lot of tar sands, now it is truck and shovel and the truck & shovels are also electric and are more vulnerable to down time. When a truck or shovel are down it costs millions of$$ in lost production so it all adds to the loss of profit. I am not sure if it has been proven or not but the draglines (I believe) where more reliable and would have more scheduled shut downs for maintenance rather than break downs. The trucks are very high tech and are more complex to maintain and trouble shoot again one truck down for a few days is millions of $$ in lost production. The older vehicles needed less trouble shooting experience for the mechanics and so down time would be less costly. Now the heavy duty mechanics need the higher skills to maintain the more sophisticated trucks, and most of the older/new electricians have never worked on this high tech computer trucks & shovels so it takes years to train a work force to be able to understand the new technology. At one time you would have a fleet of 250 ton trucks at $1million per truck now you are looking at 450 ton trucks at $5 million per truck and they are so high tech with satellite they are very complex and difficult to trouble shoot. The drivers are making $50-$60 per hour when you include all the benefits etc. The heavy duty mechanics and electricians are also earning the same/similar type wages. All of these factors and more contribute to loss management and profits/loss. The bottom line is yes companies are getting more $$ for their resources but it is costing them more to get the resources out of the ground.
Years ago when oil was at $10 per barrel and gold at $257 lots of mines made major cut backs to survive and exploration was dead in the water. It takes years to bring a mine up to speed so right now most of the mines are older they are expanding but with the new technology and an ageing work force and a lack of apprentices due to cut backs plus the mines being further along in their life span/ the newer mines are not in full production yet these factors all contribute to loss of profits
Just my humble opinion. Everyone is welcome to disagree.

Best to you Mary.