hole TBD 245 intersected 7.19m of base metals at a depth of 472m.to give you a perspective of what is viable.mount keith nickel operations was at a depth of about 200m in 1996.mount keith is maybe the largest nickel operation in australia.out of that 200m they were mining ore for atleast 100m,probably more.remember that it is the ore that pays for everything.i will also point out that mount keith is a massive tonage low grade operation. i dont know the history of the jaguar deposit,however looking at there last intercept of 7.19m,nearly 500m below the surface.you could not possibly consider open cut operation for that.the only alternative is hopefully they have a much shallower resource which will enable them to open cut down 100 to 150m down,and then hopefully start a decline underground operation.even then they would need a rich vain of ore to chase down to get to that depth to pay for every thing.also remembering as a general rule you need a higher grade again to run an underground operation. a few facts.open cut gold can run at a head grade of 2 to 3 grames per tonne AU.mount keith nickel open cut,and am not sure exactly the head grade but i think it is under 2pc NI.maybe 1.5pc NI. for pilbra to even metion the major increase from 1m to 5m in thickness as impressive in an insult to the average mans inteligence. even if that 7.19m was only 100m under the surface it would be a challange to make it viable.regaurds,KB,USA.
