Hi Mackyinoz,
The last paragraph sums up this issue and those talking about it in colourful terms.
MCT/GTE have ground adjacent to RIR and will probably be affected to some degree by whatever is intersected at Tabac/RHM.
MCT does have a reliable surface and drill cobalt assay in Kyarra but they are 50 kms or so NW of Tabac.
GTE are, I believe, looking for a different style of cobalt mineralization.....
RIR was upfront about the discrepancy in assays from nearly the first announcement (14/9/16 see section "assay commentary" p5) they made.
IMO it is more than HC skeptics. The assays are ambiguous in so many ways that with no original core , pulps, coarse rejects available and what appears now to be poor practice by the company in not resolving the assay issue with additional sampling there aren't many options available
1 is the risky but proactive approach RIR is taking of drilling the Bubble Well Member on JV land
2 would be twinning of one or both of PP009 or 11 but ground access is only available for #9 at the moment.
3 Walk away or don't take up the tenement - Was DLE the first and only company approached. RIR is going to put serious money towards this project.
In the early 1980s cobalt and gold (sub 1g/t) may have been considered uneconomic at these depths and concentrations so ACM's approach is understandable especially when the 1m repeats came up with nothing.
Some other musings for you to look at if you haven't already seen them M.
Some people have posted articles (
this is one) that imply some unnamed company is taking what is an unacceptable risk (even as far as calling it fraud) by discounting contamination. It is easy to say these things but what proof was offered - just an opinion IMO which doesn't discuss, among other things, multi element variations as well as how such contamination could occur in multiple holes.
I wanted to post these images of what happens when a drill bit disintegrates in a hole to show how obvious it is to the drillers who have to pull the rods to replace the bit and, in the case of the smaller fragments to a geo who finds them in the core tray.
In a diamond hole there may be a bit of contamination locally but over 80m in hole 11? How much cobalt is there in a drill bit? How does it contaminate diamond core at the levels needed to give the grades which are in fact composites over 10m?
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More posts are (in the off topic sections) within this thread begun by RDL.
In one of my posts I say I lean towards there being something wrong with the ACM assays due to either contamination or lab error.
I like T54's summation of the differing views (mine included).
(20min delay)