conversion or default, page-38

I was working underground at the A1 mine about 30 years ago where I started as a labourer. There was no decline then only the shaft which had a very small capacity relative to the decline that's there today.
We put square boxes which were called trucks in the shaft to go to the surface and the mill. Each of these trucks had about the capacity of a wheelbarrow. The deeper we went the less we were able to put in the trucks as the electric winder up top did not have the power enough to lift a fully loaded truck plus all the cable from say 2200 foot underground. At around the 2200/2300 foot level the winder could only lift about half a truck or half a wheelbarrow full of ore. This and the time it took to lift the trucks from the deepest levels of the mine made it uneconomical to mine the deepest levels. Also getting men and equipment up and down there was very time consuming. Because of safety reasons men were raised and lowered about 3 times slower that the ore. Dirt speed v man speed.

I believe that the gold grades at the lowest levels of the A1 mine are relatively high and would be mined very economically by way of decline and bulk mining. This is my belief/hope and why I invested in the A1 mine.

Olny a proper drilling and exploration program of the lowest levels if the A1 can confirm or dispell this. An explanation drill rig from say the old 1700 or 1800 levels should be able to drill deep enough to give a credible indication of the gold grades at 2300 and below.