The messenger arrived at the Municipal Chamber at 10:15 on Thursday morning carrying a parcel wrapped in brown paper. Inside were eleven copies of a 58-page document bound in blue card — the same shade, the same stock, as the interim report that preceded it. The resemblance ends there. Where the interim report described a direction, the final report describes a destination, with every mile costed, every bridge financed, and every worker accounted for.

The Copper Review Commission — co-chaired by Councilwoman Ida Pryce and Councilman Aldric Voss, established sixteen days ago by unanimous vote, conducted across four public hearings and six closed working sessions — has delivered its recommendation to the City Council.

Build Phase 1. Finance it. Survey the ground beneath Phase 2. Support the workers who must wait.

The Numbers

The final report refines the interim’s “approximately 280 million” copper overrun for Phase 1 to a precise 282 million florins, based on a copper price assumption of 865 florins per tonne — the Thursday morning spot price, locked for the report’s calculations — and a procurement schedule spread across three tranches over eighteen months.

The financing framework rests on two municipal bond issuances:

Series A: 185 million florins, issued within sixty days of council approval, at an estimated 4.2 per cent coupon over twenty years. This covers the first two copper procurement tranches and the geological survey.

Series B: 125 million florins, issued six to nine months later, contingent on survey results and copper price trajectory. If copper falls below 840 florins per tonne at the time of issuance — a scenario the report describes as “plausible in the event of Kaelmar resolution” — the second issuance may be reduced or restructured.

Deputy Treasurer Annabel Whitford, whose testimony established the city’s bonding capacity at approximately 350 million florins without triggering a Continental Rating Agency downgrade review, confirmed that the proposed structure “operates within the city’s fiscal envelope, with limited but adequate margin.”

The report also notes that the co-chairs have written jointly to the National Infrastructure Fund in Caldwell requesting a 40-million-florin contribution — describing the tramway as “critical urban transport infrastructure of national significance.” No response has been received. The financing framework does not depend on the request being granted, but the report observes that a national contribution would “substantially ease the burden on municipal ratepayers and restore the margin of prudence.”

The Survey

The geological and geothermal survey of the Greymoor Highlands — unanimously mandated by the interim report and scoped by the Royal Institute panel on Tuesday — is budgeted at 1.65 million florins. The report incorporates the panel’s full recommendations: drilling to a minimum depth of 250 metres across twelve sites, comprehensive geothermal mapping, seismic monitoring, and copper ore grade assessment.

Drilling was originally projected to begin in mid-April. The final report pushes this to mid-May, citing equipment transport complications from the March gales and the need for access road preparation in the Highlands after the winter. The four-month survey timeline is unchanged, placing preliminary results in September and a full report by the end of the year.

The permanent Greymoor monitoring station — the first sustained scientific presence on the ridge since the 1950s meteorological outpost — is approved at 195,000 florins in construction costs and 48,000 florins annually in operating expenses, to be jointly funded by the Municipal Treasury and the Royal Institute.

“The commission regards the geological survey as the prerequisite for any future decision on Phase 2,” the report states. “It is not an optional refinement. It is the foundation upon which this and future councils will build.”

The Workers

The transition fund — endorsed at 14 million florins in the interim report — is now fully specified. Eligibility: any worker holding specialist tramway-related trade certification for eighteen months or longer who is unable to secure equivalent employment during the Phase 2 deferral period. Payments: up to 800 florins per month for a maximum of eighteen months. Administration: through the Docklands Workers’ Association, with quarterly audits by the Municipal Treasury.

Patrick Seldon, the DWA foreman whose testimony at the commission’s second hearing named three workers by name and asked for precisely this mechanism, described the eligibility criteria as “sensible but narrow.”

“Eighteen months of certification excludes some of the youngest workers — the apprentices, the ones who took the courses on borrowed money,” Seldon said. “Samuel Obi completed his welding certification nine months ago. Under these criteria, he does not qualify. I will be raising this on Monday.”

Pryce, when asked about the eligibility threshold, said the commission had balanced breadth against cost: “Extending eligibility to all trainees would approximately double the fund. Fourteen million is what the city can commit today. But the criteria are not carved in stone, and the Council may choose to revisit them.”

The Timetable

Phase 1 groundbreaking: spring 2027 — contingent on council approval, bond issuance, and the commencement of the geological survey. The report projects construction on the first three stations (Docklands Terminus, Harbourfront, and Midtown Central) beginning simultaneously, with track-laying commencing in autumn 2027.

Phase 2 — the remaining seven stations from Caldecott Square interchange to Upper Fernwich — remains deferred for a minimum of two years and contingent on three conditions: Kaelmar diplomatic resolution, favourable geological survey results, and council approval of revised financing.

“Phase 2 is not cancelled,” the report states. “It is sequenced. The distinction matters.”

The Reaction

Pryce and Voss issued a joint statement identical in tone to their interim report phrasing: “This is the work. Now the Council must decide.”

Council Speaker Desmond Falk, who will preside over Monday’s debate, called the report “a serious and detailed document that provides the Council with everything it needs to make an informed decision.”

Mayor Blackthorne’s office confirmed, through her press secretary, that the Mayor “has received the final report and will address the Chamber on Monday morning, as announced.” No further elaboration was offered.

Voss, reached by telephone, was characteristically precise: “The geological survey is the most important commitment in this document. Without it, Phase 2 is a question mark. With it, Phase 2 becomes answerable.”

Pryce, by contrast, pointed to the timetable: “Spring 2027. That is eighteen months from now. For the families whose livelihoods depend on this project, that is not an abstraction.”

Seldon has requested speaking time at Monday’s debate. Falk has confirmed that public gallery seating will be expanded and that a limited number of oral submissions will be permitted.

The Municipal Chamber convenes at 10:00 on Monday, 9 March. Eleven copies of the blue-bound report sit on eleven desks. The numbers are no longer approximate.