By drill core they are referring to diamond drill core, which...

By drill core they are referring to diamond drill core, which they announced was underway back on 20/10/23. Generally you have to be careful looking at met data from RC chips, as the RC drilling process tends to produce a lot of fines (the rotary hammer just keeps crushing the fines, whereas in a crushing circuit they pass straight through the jaw). In this case, the data looks to show coarser samples behave better, so my guess is we should see reduced acid consumption with diamond drill core (less fines) over RC chip, but let's see. Testing diamond drill core is moreso a derisking step, as there is always a question mark over testwork on RC chip due to the way the sample gets crushed.

I'm more interested in how they go optimising the leach. Rob really emphasised the three met upsides they are focussing on - crush size, residence time and leach pH.