beatle ramblings from afar, page-5

one more comment from Beatle:


The gold grade was a complete (pleasant) surprise to me - although as was pointed out by Morton_Main it seems to be characteristic of this part of the general surigao province, and boyongan is similarly high in gold.

If you look at the copper grade, yes its lower than a lot of porphyries, but still will amount to some significant copper output (of course depending upon whether this first hole is indicative of the whole deposit and also if the metallurgy is suitable - which is likely to be ok since boyongan has no issues with metallurgy) - Based on the annual throughput rates envisaged for such a large tonnage ore deposit. (If you think about it, at an annual rate of say 10 mtpa it amounts to contained copper of around 17,000 tonnes, and assuming 90% recovery, is reasonably large from a revenue point of view at around current price of US$3.60/lb ie 0.9 x 17,000 x 2,200 x 3.6/0.93 = A$130million pa!!!).

Its also important to note that the second hole is not aimed at evaluating the heart of the deposit, but actually aimed at testing the limits of the deposit - this also is confirmed with the comment in the announcement that there is an increased level of sulphides (assumed to be pyrite) so this gold grade of this second hole may not be as great since its on the margins - typically these porphyry deposits are zoned outwards, with a lower grade pyritic zone marginal to the orebody, so if the grade in the second hole is lower this is not necessarily meaning that there is no scope for the deposit, it just means it has defined the limit to the higher grade zone!

The third hole probably is a more important test of the tonnage potential, due to the targetting of the deposit at depth below the first discovery hole. And as I have mentioned before, its phenomenal to think that RED has found such strong gold mineralisation in the first hole, its a real indication of potential.

(BTW, note that there are a number of other porphyries in the Siana MPSA as well, and Madja will probably get more of a look at now, both with this first success as well as RED having more money to spend on the exploration).

I would also appreciate you informing all on that other thingo, IF you see it worthwhile, for the comments I make in previous posts here, regarding the acquisition of Merrill Crowe Corporation, its a REAL plus for RED, but no one seems to have really seen it as positive. In fact its probably the biggest coup of all! (And I am not seeking any attribution to your post, I just want everyone know that is a great result for us at RED).

Regards
Beatle