Yes Gooch, I hear what you say, and things changing. One...

Yes Gooch, I hear what you say, and things changing.

One significant matter (that boringly keeps cropping up) is the turn around from Assay Labs, not just for the market to be informed about, but most importantly to help guide the exploration.

AMX and others in Burkina have been between a rock and a hard place in some respects in the last 12 months.

If they wait for the lab results to guide exploration, then the market can hear little or nothing for a long time, and in fact exploration slows right down, and in the worst case can almost stop (waiting on labs before next round of drilling or no results), which is unacceptable to the market. To get fast track results in Burkina Labs you basically pay double the price (great business!). Some can afford, and will pay (mines), some will not. If they run without getting results,learning and adjusting from these results, then results can be misleading or efforts wasted.

If you are in a simple single gold system which you get to understand after a few rounds of drilling and logging of artisinals work, then not a major issue. Geological Prediction can work well. But AMX are not in this ... they have mineralisation over 150 strike kms, 30+ (and growing) prospects, and they have multiple pulses and styles of mineralisation. Big system yes, complex yes, some wins (and significant wins) yes, but need to be careful and not assume every prospect is going to be a winner, and need to carefully assess controls in each prospect before rushing in.

To bring onto West Australian scale, it is like thinking that the controls on all gold mineralisation between Paddington and Kambalda are the same. Clearly a joke, as you have different styles, different host rocks, different rheological contrasts, different alteration systems etc etc.

AMX have set up a PREP lab which is working better than predicted, and this has taken out one big bottleneck, but its not the only one.

AMX are using XRF and ASD to help guide exploration, as gives instant results, but gold is where gold is, and the XRF/ASD may not always help. You have to establish the degree to which you can be guided by the XRF/ASD results, and in a system where you can have more than 1 mineralising event, care needed.

In relationship to the Labs, one must never forget the ANC paradigm in Africa ...

A= Assume
N= Nothing
C= Constantly

My candid take is that the Labs rushed into Burkina, to cope with a demand that rushed into Burkina, on the back of a gold rush that started as a result of the success of GRY and AMX. It is ironic that both GRY and AMX can be victims of their own success. Haste means waste in most countries in the world. No exceptions here.

You have to remember that the Labs in Burkina must cope with the grade control now coming from 6 mines operating 24/7 as well as the exploration data flowing from about 30 companies at least, most of whom are doing lots of drilling, and all want results tomorrow, and arguably need them. Logistics, prioritizing and communicating was not done well by the Labs (and I am being very kind) and in Africa generally is my experience. AMX needs to ANC always 24/7 almost! I understand that there may still be xx,000 samples pending in the Burkina Labs (prob now going to another lab out of country).

My advice to AMX is to use multiple labs, and not rely on any one lab in Burkina Faso. Sure bit more expensive, more work, more checks, more paper work, but the results must come through a lot quicker than has been the case, to better guide exploration. AMX is moving this way and has been.

Not trying to write excuses for AMX or the other guys, but in the big picture there can be a lot of waste when there are large gold rushes in undeveloped countries. Never forget the ANC in Africa. Burkina no exception.

Plenty of gold in the ground.