Hi Blue Turtle...well said however,I'm not comparing AVB grades...

Hi Blue Turtle...well said however,

I'm not comparing AVB grades with other deposits in the region...however Sossego less than 20km away deserves some consideration...both south of a major carajas faulted zone...if you reread my previous post, the grades under discussion have had mining dilution factored by a value of 95% coversion on drilling and inconsideration of ore with few impurities an average metalurgical recovery of 95%. Model grades of 1.5% Cu invariably will dilute to 1.4% only...

A post I completed on 9/07/2012 in which I commented "... At Pedro Branca being on a smaller scale to Sossego...the dioritic or aporitic hanging walls and pegmatite lenses and surrounding gneiss country rock may potentially be consistent with a Magmatic Hydro-Thermal Intrusion IOCG, not dissimilar to Sossego" ...meaning PB is not NOT a Metamorphised Faulted Hydrothermal structure, but other mines in the Carajas region are...

SO your comment of smallish stopes and require a lot of manpower, machinery, development metres, etc etc etc, may not applicable at PB or AN...I agree any mining in this region will require mining engineering factoring to scope out and calculate correct economies of scale and production efficiencies, being true of any operation talking about 30 to 50,000 tonne per annum of conc...Also agree that in the Carajas, there is monsoonal rainfall and Brazilian EPA to contend with... meaning the usual logistics of tails and waste rock disposal, internal infrastructure implementation and maintenance, meaning potential expensive headaches...

Your comment, re: "...I'd want to see average mining grades averaging over 4% before I open the champagne..." Hey BT, I had to laugh...in a perfect South American world I'd buy you a whole crate of champagne...El Teniente and Chhuque biggest underground and open cut lower grade mines in the world, would all of a sudden think they were mining diamonds...

As for the gold recovery...we will require comphrehensive met. outcome to establish efficient grind and process/ floatation circuits outcome maximising AU recovery etc negoitiating best credit with smelter and it is still unclear designated grade within the Cu conc...Again, until all prefeasibility work is signed off on and first things first, lets get our hands on the PFS and DFS...with revised JORC before any further definitive discussion...

Best regards and good luck in the orient...