Ann: Drill Program Commences at Rebeca Vein, Topacio, page-7

Personally, I'm not entirely sure what to expect from this drilling. While ideally, we all would probably like wide intersections of bonanza grade gold, that may be a bit much to ask from the very first drill holes. A few points to bear in mind:
- epithermal deposits can have highly variable grades over a short distance, meaning the absence of high grades in a core would not prove that they may not be nearby
- many people work in a gold mine without ever seeing visible gold. As far as I know, epithermal deposits can have both visible gold in veins and also disseminated, invisible gold. Therefore I wouldn't read anything into the fact that we haven't seen photos of shiny drill cores.
- remember Oro Verde has found plenty of high-grade rock chips outside the Topacio resource area. We know there is a mineralised epithermal gold system here. The question is is it big enough to keep Newcrest interested.