never mind the depth ... feel the width, page-4

Well I contacted the Extract Resources investor relations person, Richard Henning. Its all good. This is what I asked in my email.

I had been reading the Company Update issued on 17th August 2007. Slides 9 and 10 show the Garnet and Holland Dome cross sections with uranium grades starting at the surface. However, the cross sections indicate that the mineralised zone projects downwards at a slope of approximately 30 degrees. Does this mean that although the initial part of the mine could be open cut, the remainder will need to be an underground mine? I guess the scoping study will answer these questions, but I would appreciate it if you could clarify this point.

Also, although the Garnet and Holland Dome cross sections are easy to interpret from a layman's perspective, the diagrams for Ida Central are less intuitive, and the presentation indicates that at present EXT is focussing on Ida Central and Ida East. In fact from a layman's perspective it appears that Garnet and Holland Dome are better than Ida Central and Ida East. Hence, if this is the case why is EXT focussing on Ida Central and Ida East rather than Garnet and Holland Dome?

Richard called me very promptly and explained everything very well. Please excuse me if I have misinterpreted anything, because although I know a lot about electricity, I am an absolute novice at mining. He advised that EXT is planning an open cut mine with the mine model being essentially identical to Rio's Rossing mine. That is there will be no need for an underground mine for the deeper ore. At this early stage the strip ratio of waste to mineralised ore is expected to average about 3 or 4 to 1. Obviously the strip ratio will be much lower when they first start mining the surface mineralisation, but the strip ratio will increase with depth. I presume that the 3 or 4 to one estimate is the average for the complete resource, but I may be corrected. Apparently an average strip ratio of 3 or 4 to one is quite good.

The 17th August 2007 presentation is a little out of date as the drilling focus is now on Garnet Valley and Holland Dome rather than at Ida Central and Ida East. Slides 9 and 10 in the presentation show very clearly the excellent cross sections for Garnet Valley and Holland Dome, but it appears that a similar style cross section drawing is not available for Ida Central and Ida East yet due to the limited number of drill results at these locations.

DoubleD, thanks for encouraging me to contact Extract Resources, I now continue to feel very comfortable with holding EXT and would buy more if I had any cash spare. I wonder if RH reads Hotcopper, if so he will know who I am now from my email, unless he already has me on ignore of course.