I loved your pit wall mark up on sections. This will clearly be an open pit firstly given the thickness of the ore zones and the low waste ore ratio that will come from these thick zones. At depth higher grade zones are likely to be pursued by decline if the future deeper drilling proves the continuity down plunge, no reason to believe it won't continue as other deposits like this in the region do.
I fully expect the two holes between XS4 and NRLC017 to return thick intersections of ore grade copper. I would be a bit concerned if this infill drilling did not demonstrate the continuity. The hole you mention further south is less certain to hit the ore shoot and a line of 3 holes might have been better but given the depth and related cost I understand why only one hole was drilled at this stage. It is an important hole for down plunge continuity of grades and thickness at depth.
I agree with you about additional shallow holes to test the up dip mineralisation on section XS4. CNB may have gone for the hole just north of this section to serve the same purpose because this would also be up plunge. There is an existing section line here with the nearest hole giving
[email protected]% Cu, so the hole will test the shallow extension of this.
The holes outside CNB's mineralisation outline to the northly side are interesting. The was a line of old drill holes running northeast-southwest over 300m distance, unfortunately all were drilled as angle holes dipping to the southwest (mirroring the plunge of the ore shoot) and would give limited information about the ore shoot being tested by CNB. There is an old pit striking at right angles to the ore zone being tested by CNB and I suspect the old holes were testing this orientation which would be akin to that of the line of the Central and Lady Maria workings but further west. The CNB holes are looking for the shallow up dip, up plunge, portions of the mineralisation but I suspect that they have found some surface indications that have warranted testing with this many holes.
So what would I do?
- I think the logical approach is to infill and define the extent of the mineralisation in the sub 300m depth range in the current shoot. CNB are doing this.
- Place a line of holes across the shoot at a projected ore depth of 450-500m depth to show down plunge grade and thickness continuity. CNB are moving in this direction too.
- Test NLIP1 where the previous drill hole ceased prior to interesting the geophysical anomaly due to mechanical failure. There is a Cu soil anomaly here and an old working.
- Test the 400m strike length of the zone of the Central and Lady Maria workings with 10-12 holes designed to intersect the zone at shallow depth and say 100m depth (5 or 6 sections with 2 holes on each).
- The northeast-southwest striking direction appears to be the strongest as these are the splay faults from the regional Pilgrim Fault. Therefore the line of workings northeast of Nil Desperandum on this strike orientation (shown on the first map I posted) are worthy of further investigation and possible scout drilling.
- Consider what NLIP3 means in light of the drilling to date. Is there another target here, another possible parallel ore shoot?
- Keep drilling, don't let the drill rigs go. The results warrant continuation of drilling.
(20min delay)