Based on my chat with SL I view it most likely that they will mine NN and Pepper first as it is likely to have a sizable resource and most miners front end their production with the highest grade they can readily access.. That will mean a head grade of at least 6g/t which may end up being higher and could even get to 8g/t based on how Pepper is progressing..
I am no mining engineering or geologist so I am putting the following comments out for discussion.
Since NN UG starts at circa 300m above Pepper they may start UG mining with NN first from the top of the underground area and will continue to mine NN until they reach Pepper - ie the width of NN is narrower at the top so production will be lower initially until NN widens out and even more when they reach Pepper. However there is a alternative scenario noted below.
I did not notice this in the past until after my discussion a few days ago with Simon - the area I have highlighted in a purple with a red border has had NO drilling to date (the original image had a grey dotted border which noted they have not drilled - see second image below and note the
blue ? Since they have been unable to drill from the surface as I noted in an earlier post my speculation is that area will probably be drilled from January and I assume it will be the first area to be drilled.
If that area contains high grade gold like NN/pepper or even WW type grade then I speculate that they will drill that area out from UG and it will be part of the first underground ore mined together with NN. Drilling that area out may delay the restart of the mine but that is not a negative if it contains high grade ore. If that area does have reasonably high grade gold they may also include 4P in the first ore drilled given its proximity. However I may be wrong as it is difficult to understand what is really going on with a two-dimensional image.
Note that Pepper high grade starts just below the first flexure zone and that they have not been able to drill much above that zone for Pepper - does that mean that Pepper may have some additional high grade ore above the first flexure zone that they have been unable to drill to date from the surface? I hope Pepper does extend upwards from the first flexure zone as if it does Pepper may end up being of a similar sized resource as NN and if its dimensions are similar to NN at a higher grade could it turn out to have a higher MRE than NN? Maybe its wishful thinking on my part but one can always dream!
(20min delay)