To add to this - coarse gold should never be used as an excuse -...

To add to this - coarse gold should never be used as an excuse - one samples gold ALWAYS with the expectation that coarse gold exists - well u hope so as an explorer anyway because that usually means u are onto something, however i digress - The entire program of both sampling and use of RC drilling is to combat and reduce the effects of coarse gold, or nuggetly coarse any material to such an extent that u can be satisfied that the assay is representative of each interval.

It may well be that S2R have been a bit stiff here and that though it cost them a lot to eventualy find out, core drilling in 95% of cases is a sure bet - should be minimal contamination ( yet gold has been known to smear down core too but any observant geo should see that) - yet there too are many arguments on core vs RC in the industry for getting representative samples - for gold especially. No real argument for dry samples RC is cost effective ( but loss of geological data) , but wet samples means core more reliable and u often only find out in the early stages of drilling a new prospect like Monsoon.

The assumption here is that the samples were wet - if not then that really is a major blunder!!!