I looked for a recent presentation, but could not find one. The most recent is 2008 Croydon valuation at 3x exploration expenditure = $8m This is unjustified as results so far are uneconomic. The results so far are too low grade given the depth and the higher grades too narrow and too deep. If slide 22 is correct then they may have drilled down the veins. True wide of the mineralisation may be much less.
Sao Chico
You are looking at 20,000oz per year, 60% of this owned by GOA equals 12,000oz.
The 2 new veins Vein 1 Very narrow cm wide stringers to 0.5m (=unminable). The length mined so far is 25m, what happens along strike is not indicated. Grades 0.42g/t and 15.1g/t One sample has pyrite suggesting that the miners have dug down beyond the oxide zone. Gold may be associated with the pyrite – if so how do you extract it? Metallurgical testing?
Vein 2 Up to 2m wide (irrelevant, what is the average width) Mined over a strike length of 25m. What happens along strike? Grades 20.1g/t, 6.05g/t, 1.42g/t, 1.2g/t gold
So only 1 sample out of 6 is 20g/t. Nuggets cannot be relied upon to make up the 20g/t average. If they find too many you will have the local miners back again.
As far as I can read there is no evidence for the other veins being 1km long. No trenches appear to have been cut.
1m average for a vertical vein in an open pit means a high stip ratio.
In the annual report sampling averaged between 15 and 19g/t gold and not 20g/t. The presence of high Pb, Zn and Cu is a worry and will impact on gold recovery. I could not find any metallurgical test results. Where are they, I would like to read them.
Potential for other high grade veins is there but not yet proven.
M
GOA Price at posting:
4.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
