Ann: Mineralisation intercepted, up to 17.5m thick, at Big One, page-64

I don't think sircorp has much practical experience in exploration or in mining. Another poster had to set him straight about how samples are taken and chip trays are collected at a RC drill site, which is all routine stuff and many laypeople are familiar with.

Its also telling that sircorp can't discriminate between the wet season (2-4 months) and the dry season (10-8 months duration) in NW QLD. I'm not going to even try to educate him, but if other people are wondering about the logistics of mining during the wet season vs exploration drilling in the wet season then obviously they are two entirely different propositions.

Established mines have all-weather gravel and/or bitumen roads which are engineered to a certain standard often with concrete floodways to maintain access for most of the year, and they usually have access to ample stockpiles of roadbase on-site, heavy erthmoving equipment on-site, and have engineered drainage, fuel farms, airstrips and accommodation camps so that drilling may continue near a mine site over the wet season provided all the access roads are sheeted and the fuel and personnel can get access to the rig.

In the exploration setting such as at The Big One, they have access to none of those facilities and are working in remote locations with much longer logistics chains and poorer quality roads and tracks that can easily become flooded. Even if there is no rain at the rig a significant rain event somewhere else can stop access to the drill site or the accommodation or stop access for fuel. No fuel or no drill crew = zero metres drilled. Soft waterlogged ground usually means no moving 20-30 tonne drill rigs = 0 metres drilled after completion of hole. RC drilling also means frequent rig moves, which means frequent drill site preparation and requires roadbase and machinery available all the time.

In short - if you have the budget and an operating mine site and unlimited access to road sheeting/road base and earthmoving equipment you can drill all year round in NW QLD if you really want to, but the costs and logistics usually mean that proper exploration off the beaten track in the middle of no-where is limited to the dry season. That's why most exploration happens in the dry season, except for maybe deep diamond drilling near well-established mine sites which can happen in the wet but are more costly and require better logistics.

As for Zambia - there is a little kerfuffle called Covid-19 that has made travel a bit more difficult since March 2020, that's not to say that they can't source geologists in Zambia though , I haven't looked into Zambia and how things are going there but I would guess - "not so smooth" would be an answer.