Disappointing grades in this round. One step forwards one back....

Disappointing grades in this round. One step forwards one back. I'll give this a third (or is it a fourth) chance on the back of the phase 2 diamond holes and yet to be consummated profit share agreement on Lena-BoD with WGX.

It could be a question of changing the drill oreination but given the diamond core they have already they should be starting to get the picture. They say the mineralisation is steeply dipping to the east but going by their highest grade section it looks more like a flat lying east dipping pod. You wouldn't walk away from this story IMO until you see the results of a "down dip" hole on this section. Mind you a bad result there has the potential to kill this off further.

Could it be a situation where the deposit is made up of a series of stacked high grade ore zones/pods up and down and along the contact? I think I remember reading something like this in connection with Granny Smith. Yes here it is

https://hotcopper.com.au/threads/an...4247077/page-11?post_id=33743917#.XD1IPxo_WhA

"Spatial variations in the conjugate vein orientations indicate that the local stress field was heterogeneous and controlled by the shape of the granitoid contact. The greatest variations in vein and implied stress orientations occur in zones where the contact is most irregular. These are also the areas of richest mineralisation. Fluid flow was thus focused in a regional-scale low mean-stress region created by the geometry of the granitoid intrusion. Its irregular contact caused deposit scale variations in fluid flow and resulted in heterogeneous gold grades along the contact zone."

The infill hole DD011,  between holes DD008 and DD012 is also a bit of a disappointment. The "high" grade zone doesn't appear to extend between these two holes (best 43.2m @1g/t). If this had have been more like the >3g/t results around it, we would be much happier. The new 20.2m @ 2.3g/t in hole DD009 helps but it's depth is an issue.

There are more diamond holes that can be drilled up and down dip and along strike which could change the picture back into our favour or kill us off. The down dip holes are planned and proceeding. It's up to each individual investor to take their pick I suppose. In my opinion we also need more strike length or new high grade zones/pods to be discovered along strike (if you believe the Granny Smith comparison), so we need to come up with two Aces in the next round of drilling. The picture of high grade ore zones conforming to the stress fields that developed in response to the heterogenous shape of the granitoid contact should not be discounted if this prospect truly has comparisons with Granny Smith, as was one of Rob's original ideas. This basically means there could be literally pockets of high grade ore up and down and along the contact. The problem then would be; are the pockets big enough? how close together are the pockets? and would the collection of pockets be amenable to economic open pit or UG mining or a combination of both.

@plough

Well done on your clever exit. I would have guessed judging by the pre-announcemnt trading that the results would have been better. I suppose those buying really had no idea and might have been buying on the basis of just knowing "results" were expected.Esh