first things first,be a proactive investor and e-mail tony at...

first things first,

be a proactive investor and e-mail tony at [email protected] and request a weekly drilling update be made to the market (eg every fri or mon)
as this is going to be a long drilling program

what follows is a very rough guide (meaning it could be completely wrong and nonetheless will be subject to change with further drilling progress anns from avanco) to the current 25,000m Antas Sth drilling program

assumptions

holes are being drilled in numerical order, beginning with ARVD-103; and
drilling is being carried out 7 days a week; and
insignificant downtime in mobilising rigs between holes; and
when co states holes completed they are taken to be completed

24/11/10 - ann drilling program commences with one diamond core rig

12/01/11 - ann 4 holes for 250m completed (49 days for 250m = 5.1m/day approx)

ARVD-103 (60.45m);
ARVD-104 (44.10m);
ARVD-105 (70.05m);
ARVD-106 (39.00m) this hole aborted;
ARVD-106A (approx the first 36.00m)

however this initial metreage rate will be ignored in determining current drilling for the following reasons:

likely rig shutdown over the xmas/new year holiday period (not specified); and
likely rig delay (minor) due to core recovery difficulty (again not specified)

31/01/11 - ann 8 holes for 475m completed (19 days for 225m = 11.8m/day approx)
31/01/11 - ann second diamond core rig had already arrived and commenced drilling
31/01/11 - ann third and fourth diamond core rigs to arrive in coming months

ARVD-106A (the final 38.90m for total 74.90m);
ARVD-107 (50.00m);
ARVD-108 (54.50m);
ARVD-109 (82.80m)

whilst ARVD-108 and ARVD-109 are described in the 31/01/11 drilling table as in progress, the body of the ann states that 475m for 8 holes has been completed, so for the purposes of this estimation they are deemed completed - ARVD-108 is deemed to be another hole undertaken by the first rig and ARVD-109 is deemed to be the first hole undertaken by the second rig

first rig 143.4m in 19 days = 7.5m/day (approx)
second rig 82.8m in unknown days

at this stage the only reasonably reliable rate to allow for future estimation is the first diamond rig in the 19-day period between the 12/01 and 31/01 anns (until
confirmation of future drilling progress)

so both rigs are deemed to be drilling at 7.5m/day, 2 rigs = 15m/day

excuding the aborted hole, 7 holes for a total of 436.8m have been completed, averaging 62.4m depth per hole

as at 13/02, 13 days at 15m/day = 195m, at 62.4m/hole = 3.125 additional holes completed

assuming 7.5m/day per rig, with 4 rigs, 30m/day, so for 25,000m, approx 833 days (and avanco is still at this time only using 2 rigs)

comparing this to the 2010 diamond core drilling program, 34 holes for approx 1,963m (approx 57.7m av hole depth), the total drilling days was not specified (18/06/10 ann commencement, 21/09/10 ann recently completed) however the 30/07/10 ann stated 18 holes had been completed for 1,008m (42 days for 1,0008m = 24m/day) - this was a very tightly spaced drilling program with only short distances to mobilise rig/s between holes

if this was carried out by only one diamond core rig, then 24m/day per rig is possible

if the current program achieves 24m/day per rig, with 4 rigs, 96m/day, for 25,000m = approx 260 days (and avanco is still only using 2 rigs)

(have experience on diamond core rig, in difficult ground conditions, where 20m/12hr shift was commonplace, and for night drilling large portable light towers were onsight,
don't recall any being visible in the avanco pictures of previous diamond core rigs drilling, they may only be drilling daylight hours)

as far as assay results go, from the above, ARVD-106A would have reached approx 62m (the dark chalcocite intersection pictured in the recent qrtly rep) on approx 16/01/11, with the hole completed by approx 18/01/11, so lab could have received the ARVD-106A core anytime since then (and snad has confirmed in a phone call with avanco that some core is indeed at the lab already and the qrtly states that results are pending)