If drill was through softer strata then hit mineralised BWM then theoretically could cause contamination as bit passes through harder material
I don't think this has happened, but was one explanation.
Gold values increased in sync with Co providing a better argument to rule out contamination, as no Au in drill bit.
Even so, if drilling hits mineralisation and there is increased Au within it but majority of Co is from the drill bit then could still be a possibility (although slim)
Bad batch of drill bits that just atomised?
The question then becomes how can you physically contaminate 80m @.77%?
Assume a 4 inch collar (could be 6in not looking it up)
X 80m @ ~ 15kg/ m (prob more)
1200kg of mineralised drill core
X .0077 = 9.24kg of Co
Can 9kg of Co be separated from a drill bit without it being stupidly obvious? Even 5kg? Consider Co only a small % of the bit in question - what would this bit /bits look like afterwards? -nothing mentioned in notes?
I'm no expert, and may have a zero out somewhere, but if the quantity of Co is even close to the above you'd never send the cores in for testing. Unless Drummond was at the pub during the whole exercise and the juniors were out having some fun.
I am aware that Drummond has recently said it was probably contamination. Have heard this from 2 sources. How can it be contamination at these volumes? Would have no drill bits left.
Why did the re assays show basically 0.00 %? Where did the contamination suddenly go? Obviously a cock up from start to finish
My guess is basically there was very little oversight of the whole episode. Probably very little care factor as well to have these discrepancies and not follow up satisfactorily.
I don't think it's a shameless pump by JK as some have suggested. I don't think he knows where the hell this will go anymore than we do. We have access to all the material RIR does, I'm confident of that. All basically open source
Those with a lot on the line will either make a pile or lose the lot. Not me anymore... I had ~ 5m at one stage but reduced to a fraction of that. Was fairly well strapped in but no longer have the stomach for the ride
So many questions, and as one wise poster said, the chain of trust to source data is very weak
Im doubtful it's simply contamination, but I dont have much faith in the historic operation, from start to finish. Even the lab must've done re assays during their Christmas party
Anyway not long to wait now before we test the 'sloping table ' BWM theory. Wouldn't want to guess where this will go if initial drilling hits zip. But probably below CR levels? Obviously will take off if we get even a sniff of confirmation
Above are only my ramblings. DYOR
All the best
RIR Price at posting:
2.5¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
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