think tank, page-124

I believe that the fact that ABU has been given approval to mine, treat and SELL gold from their EL’s is the strongest possible signal that they will be granted ML’s over the deposits. I also believe that the unorthodox approach of scaling up production with minimal additional equity or loans is a great concept, if it can be done quickly enough.
I do, however, have concerns about how easily a small bit of information can throw the whole positive vibe off track, often for no real reason. I think that the trial mining and gravity only processing could produce a negative sentiment unless the results are fully understood.
Firstly, the trial mining is not designed to produce gold (but it will), it is to get a better understanding of the “nugget effect” caused by the spotty nature of the high grade gold distribution. The probability of getting higher grades has to be about the same or less than getting a lower reconciled grade. It is the information that is valuable – how does actual gold production compare to predicted? Getting much higher grades than predicted can be just as problematic as getting lower unless the reasons as to why are understood.
The second area is one that could put a negative spin for absolutely no reason. The initial test work showed that ~95% recovery could be achieved by gravity alone, a very impressive result. However, people need to be aware that this recovery is into a concentrate that may not be direct smeltable and will likely need cleaning over a Gemini table (or similar). This could reduce the recovery to Dore’ by a significant amount but they still have the remaining gold available for treatment (with cyanide). So, when the results are published, please take this into account – it is not just the gold in the bar that has been recovered. The tails from any table are usually very high grade and are never disposed of and are therefore also considered recovered.