Mt Adrah is only at the exploration stage... so there is no mine to restart atm. In a conversation I had with Michael Leu [chief geologist] about 2 years ago, SOC had done some desktop studies on open pitting the Hobbs Pipe. The average grade for the pipe is 1.1g/t and the ore is refractory but the pipe is not homogeneous in that there are higher grade zones and lower grade zones. Selectively mining the higher grades in an open pit is just economic at $1800AUD ... so that means Hobbs Pipe, as a stand alone, will not be mined unless the PoG rises significantly more than it already has.
Going all the way back to 28 October 2013, SOC reported 10ms @ 17.7g/t Au at a depth of 500ms..... which is very nice but of no use to anyone unless that carries to the near surface. There are multiple examples of outcropping reefs but so far no drilling has been done to explore if the intercepts at depth are related to the surface outcropping .... hence the extreme frustration of the long term holders of SOC. If somebody, anybody, cares to get their hands dirty we might one day find out.
If the gold at depth also carries to the surface Mt Adrah is commercial.
SOC Price at posting:
0.4¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
