"The life-cycle of a conceptual resource project starts untested by anything with unknown but all upside. Then targets are generated through mapping, geochem, geophysics etc that may demonstrate more or less than the upside originally hoped for. Then targets are drilled and again, upgraded or downgraded based on results. The more drilling again to see if any 'smoke' was indication of a material deposit or simply low-grade alteration but nothing economic. Once all the targeting tools have been used, and targets generated drilled ,and results show no economic mineralisation is evident... the odds of 'jagging' an economic deposit from blindly pattern drilling the target reduces exponentially with further work (unless a new targeting tool or radically different geological model comes along).
The project's 'value'' falls precipitously from 'highly prospective' to another 'close but not medal' idea that litters the history of exploration. No surprise, insult or embarrassment.... that';s how exploration works and the odds are stacked 100:1 against finding and ore body of economic potential, and 1000:1 against finding a mine."
