Ann: Exceptional Metallurgy Results, page-22

" Sadly for every FMG there are 100's or even 1000's of failures. "


hmmmm - I disagree there


I don't disagree with the numbers of stunning successes via failures -- that is true


what I disagree with is that FMG wasn't foreseeable --

I can't remember what the SP was at the times - but, I clearly remember the SP was crap - very cheap -

and, yet - there was actual infrastructure on the ground --------- masses of it - I can remember when Charlie Aitken was the only boy who was screaming it from the rooftops and 'all' other brokers were stony silent on it -

but, any site visit showed that this was a massive project - already well underway - and, still - they just sat as if it didn't even exist.


Now - BRB isn't like that to the same degree - but, I truly believe that people have no idea of the scale of this - they see - a map - now a map with a zillion dots - they can't get their heads around it

it just looks confusing - and, not only that -- but, there is little that is visually comparative - there has been the odd thing but, not much.

Scale is a very difficult thing for most humans to get a handle on - handle meaning - an understanding - a knowing - as opposed to just a set of numbers.

People don't even know the scale of something they handle every day - like money -

ask them how much a Billion is? - then ask them how big a pile of money in $100 dollar notes would a billion be, ask them how long a line of cups of coffee would be at $4.00 a cup if you spent the whole Billion on coffees?

people have no idea


ditto - an exploration program that comes up with a 2 kilometre X 500 m gold find -- it's not easy to get a scale on that -

you get some idea if you say to people -- ok - have you seen the superpit? - and, if they have - you then say - well - half as long as that

then, they go ------------- really?


then back up a bit and tell them that this could well be 8 kilometres long - and, their breath starts to be taken away -

but, you almost can't do that on paper - you might be able to do it on a computer screen with overlays and the like --

the thing is -- people need to 'see' something - visualise.

Without that - it's dreadfully difficult -- particularly for Australians - who just don't know what wealth is - don't know what scale is -


the only thing that Aussies do get with scale is --- nothingness


the outback - the wide brown land - they get that - but, what they inwardly get from that is that there is nothing there.


I can remember seeing for the first time some gas trains (the offshore thingys) --

oh my god ---------- scale ------------ until then, I just had no idea at all.

I also remember standing beside one of the Queens -- it was bloody massive - you just don't get that feeling or understanding by looking at pictures or drawings or numbers - but, to stand away from it a bit - you know it's alive - it's huge, it's breathing - it has a life of it's own


IMO - there won't be many of us - even the people here who are really across it - that actually realise the scale of this thing - or what it certainly appears to be -

unless we find a way of producing gold out of thin air - then, my bet is that in say 50 years - if we all lived long enough -

we would visit the Bombora site and stand besides a truly massive hole in the ground and our jaws would drop at the scale of the thing

it's like the superpit now - or it's like Ayres Rock ------ nothing but noting - no pictures, no drone footage, no words can prepare you for what you see when you stand beside the things

to get even the slightest idea of how big 2 kilometres is ----------- one needs to walk it -

then, try 8km

then get a little shovel and move 1 cubic metre of dirt.

reality is an interesting thing