Not only that Pete/Plough but I have been having a much closer...

Not only that Pete/Plough but I have been having a much closer look at the drilling diagrams provided in the resource update dated 31/7/2009 and the last Qtrly dated Sept 2009,SOMETHING I SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Correct me if Im wrong but that line of bore holes to the west(blue dots/black crosses)of the completed drill program in the Sept 09 Qtrly used to define the last resource upgrade is DOWN DIP of those completed resource upgrade bore holes.In other words yes we may be seeing an extension of the resource DOWN DIP which would infer that we may see a sizeable increase in the resource base.

One should also note that there are CURRENT drilling
/planned boreholes along strike to the south.Not many,but they are there.

On the basis of this Im very willing to change my opinion that this may well not only be a BFS infill drill program but also an extension to the resource base.

After all they did say they had 11 rigs beavering away at this drill program and would probably also explain why they wanted the extra cash prior to the Tubatse raising.This cant be cheap throwing all this at Garatau.

What is of major interest is to WHY they decided to go with further drilling down dip and to the south.IF they do use this extended drilling in any further resource upgrade it bodes well for the structural integrity of this ore body even at depth.The company has already said itself the structural integrity of Garatau is a primary reason they went with the Garatau first.

It MAY also be an indicator that Xstrata want Garatau to utilise all the potential resource of this tenament given that already stated ore body integrity.Its not as if its as deep as Northams record depth effort at their mine.I guess if you have the gear down there you may as well dig it up if its an easily followed seam.

Any such resource extension result may well explain the strong sp performance as of late.

It would be interesting tstl to see what BOTH MORE INDICATED/MEASURED(effectively reserve) AND AN EXTENSION to that resource base will do for the sp!!!

d.