Hi SaltWaterCroc,
only all weather track in the region is the bituminised Barkly Highway. All the station tracks are just typical station tracks, dozed or graded to remove the worst of rocks and scrub. Average travel speed for a Landcruiser 20-30km/hr. Most station tracks are following fence lines. The tracks are really only used to install and maintain the fences. If the ground had several days of rain big trucks would get bogged (down to the axles) and regardless they'd cut the #%$# out of the landholders tracks. If bogged, you'd probably need a dozer to get them out.
If a drilling rig gets bogged, the exploration company pays for their time regardless. Rain won't stop drilling but it will stop movement of rigs and ancillary vehicles. I'm not sure if the drill crews will have accomodation out on site or be based in the Barkly Homestead where I imagine Inca staff will be. If at Barkly, they need to be able to drive each way each day. Once it stops raining, the ground is usually dried out within a few days, unless it is a major rain system then everything grinds to a halt potentially for weeks.
On another note, while we wait for the real assays, I just did a scan through the MinEx CRC portable XRF results on hole NDIBK04. These are the intervals where the field crew found Chalcopyrite. Keep in mind that when we viewed the core at AGES i the Alice Springs government core shed it was obvious that there was mineralisation in other intervals as well and that we all really need to wait for the real assays to know more, especially around gold values, as the pXRF was not set up to measure gold and it remains a complete mystery despite several references from the MinEx CRC people and the other academics etc about gold potential and the indicator minerals present (arsenopyrite and pyrrhotite).
That last interval where there was bornite visible in the core is giving a 4% Cu reading on the pXRF. Were we just entering the hot zone?
Now keeping in mind that is is just an edge of the fault structure that was close to the station track and that MinEx CRC did not have the advantage in their targeting of all the air and ground based geophysics that Inca have carried out, I am confident that we will find better. Also, keep in mind that as the geologists and geophysicists see more real core (with accompanying assays) as the drilling campaign gets underway, their ability to zero in on the mineralisation will increase. Also, don't forget that the copper that was mobilised by ground water onto the surface at Crosswinds is another sign that the copper is there somewhere.
(20min delay)