Management said they were looking for another project once KEX came into Berenguela. I had assumed Picha would be the most obvious so this announcement surprised me. My initial reaction was more like shock horror. Still can't shake that but getting involved in a producing/near producing high grade, albeit narrow vein, gold mine at current Au prices must have made sense to management.
Managed well such deposits can be strong revenue producers with the early days of Silver Lake (Daisy Milano) and Doray (Andy's) which may give some idea of what successful projects can do.
There is a lot of information available about the Radio Mine some of which is
available on the REZ web site. The other main source is Valor's Sept 4 separate announcement which has no HC replies on it.
2 narrow veins, open to depth, grade maybe from <=20cm 500 g/t Au zones, statistics for the main area allow high grades to be left uncut because they are consistently significant and not simply nuggety gold, manual airleg mining is probably the best and lowest capital cost approach, economics? REZ/VAL/?Sulphide X must be reasonably satisfied it will meet their needs...
Exploration potential.
The long section shows the structures and grades probably extend to depth and possibly along strike. Narrow with good but patchy grade. The drilling was done by a range of companies who have looked at the mine and put in at least some 20Kms of drilling. Lots of data in appendix of Val and probably more on WAMEX (WA govt exploration site)
I HAVEN'T LOOKED AT THE OLD REPORTS but suspect that the narrow patchy high grade combined with low POG deterred companies such as Sons of Gwalia and Burmine.
There is readily available gold in this mine - not large quantities but accessible with available infrastructure . The price of gold is high.
Can't say I like this decision but it does look a little better than my initial reaction.
Very much a preliminary range of comments - DYOR
