Hi Kamprad
I see that you share my interest in the historical drill cores and pulp. I think that the market in general has grossly underated and misspriced the potential of WA8, which has been greatly enhanced not only by the Antimony MRE itself, but in the manner in which that MRE has been achieved, and the potential to rapidly build on that MRE by applying the same methodical approach. But, in WA8's case, being methodical by no means necessitates a slow pace.
Reading through all of WA8's announcements related to Antimony, and reading between the lines, it became obvious to me that the reassay of historical drill pulp and core had played a pivotal role in not just providing critical information to make the MRE possible, but also an opportunity to achieve an MRE MUCH, MUCH sooner than would have been possible had WA8 set out on the path to define an MRE by drilling alone. And, based on numbers which Amanda supplied to me in answer to a question I posed, the cost to reassay the material sent to the lab from historical drilling was less than 15% of what the cost would have been to drill and assay.
Kamprad you aked = how are the historical drill cores examined? Hand-held X-ray fluorescence spectrometers are used? Sb could measured by FP-XRF. I don't know the answer to that, but I assume that in the case of the diamond cores at least, the FP-XRF might help to prioritise cores for accelerated lab analysis. And, although I don't recall the specifics, I do recall I came across a mention in one of the announcements of visible indicators of antimony in some diamond cores, which might also help prioritise those cores. Even so, I would expect that adjusting drilling programs would not occur until lab results were returned.
Now the really exciting part. Originally WA8 estimated that only approximately 11% of historical drilling at Ricciardo had been assayed for Antimony. Now, based on more information, that percentage has proven to be only approximately 7.2% (264 of 3680 holes). So approximately 92% of the drill holes were not previously assayed for Antimony! Based on Amanda's answer to my question, outside of the Ricciardo zone, the percentage of holes assayed for Antimony is even lower at Azure Coast, Bugeye, Keronima, Austin, and M1. (Recall that WA8 hit 8 metres @ 2.2% Antimony on the Azure Coast).
In further response to my question, Amanda said "we are going to re-assay every suitable sample we can find". And "we have lots of samples in the lab."
I've also gleaned from previous announcements that when WA8 first confronted the prospect of searching through the core yard for varifiable pulp and core to reassay, it was a daunting task. I've personally been inside a core shed at the abandoned Ardlethan tin mine in NSW (in my role as an adviser to a company which briefly owned the mine), and perhaps it was partly this background which drew my interest in this aspect of WA8's research. The thousands of samples in the core shed I inspected would indeed have been an intimidating prospect to sift through, and they were from just one company and one mine. So I have a good understanding of what our team were faced with, and high respect for their achievement in producing the result they have in such short time. And as I expected they must have, Amanda confirmed that they now have a system of "pulp rummaging" which works.
So, in summary, we have lots of samples in the lab from historical drilling. Previous results from similar samples from Riccardio have played a pivotal role in the production of a maiden Antimony MRE, at a blistering pace and minimal expense. Of course, we don't know what the assays of these samples will reveal. But we do know that there are widespread indications of Antimony near the source of some of these samples. And we know that previous explorers tested less than 7% of their drill holes for Antimony. We know that our team have an established, efficient, successful system to identify, process, and ship these samples to the lab. We know that the cost of this process is less than 15% of the cost to drill and assay. WOW! This is very nearly equivalent to having just completed a massive Antimony drilling campaign for FREE, and now in the process of systematically assaying the core and pulp. If anyone else knows of an explorer in a comparable position, please share. I want their stock.
Oh yeah, this from Amanda also...."We are drilling now. We have a second rig turning up in (most likely) one week."
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