Not sure what the point you are making about drilling...if you...

Not sure what the point you are making about drilling...if you know the local grade and average nugget size and orientation you can statistically work out the probability of hitting a nugget.

Remember the nuggets are tiny and its easy to be mislead by looking at a huge (in comparison) red circle.

Lets say its 1:10. So drill 10 holes very close together almost touching and one produces a nugget or two produce a bit of a nugget each, what does that tell you? Only that there is gold. No help determining grade because we dont know localised average nugget size, or if the bits of nugget we found are 1/10 th of the nugget or 3/4.

But if you space the holes on a wider grid the results are even less meaningfull as the distribution may or may not be random and uniform, and only indicate there is gold where you made a hit.

At present bulk sampling is the only way im aware of that gives an indicator. Thats slow and expensive so an alternative will be found, perhaps geochemical analysis of cores can be used to give a non jorc compliant indicator of grades suitable for mining decisions.

You can bet Novo are already working on it.