I wish people would learn the difference between resources and...

I wish people would learn the difference between resources and reserves.

RESOURCE = Gold in the ground. Mineable or not. In the mine plan or not.

RESERVE = Gold that can (and will) be ECONOMICALLY extracted at prevailing metal prices.

Its a hell of a lot more difficult to define a JORC compliant reserve as the level of geological definition required (read drilling) is far higher + evidence needs to be provided as to the economics of extracting the resource. Generally, in underground mines the concilliation between resources and reserves is poor due to the practicalities of extracting the ore most profitably (which is not necessarily most completely).

So, for the record IBR currently have a 2MOz RESOURCE which probably equates to a reserve (at least on a practical level) in the order of 0.75-1Moz. (remembering that a large chunk of the 2Moz headline is from the Portugese ground)

A 2Moz reserve is an achievable target but we arent there yet.

4Moz reserve... if that happens by the end of 2007 - I'll eat my shirt.