As to the quantity of resources/reserves that may well be proved...

As to the quantity of resources/reserves that may well be proved up in the years ahead - that takes considerable time on a level-by-level basis and can only be confirmed as reserves during the stope development process (ie. resources are purely inferred until stope development along the veins confirm width and grade).

Deeper drilling can only confirm the presence (and thus continuity of veins) and given the nature of narrow-vein mining it is not economically possible to prove up a bulk resource by drilling alone. Hence the rolling annual updates provided by miners with narrow-vein systems.

However, one can speculate using current and past mining, of Co-O as to what the probability might be for recoverable gold oz on each lower level.

Strike length along the system is c. 2,000m. SG is c. 2.5. Diluted head grade (stope ore + development ore is 7.2 g/t). Stope height is 50m. Mining recovery is c. 90% and process recovery is c. 94%.

If one aggregates the total width of mineralised veins across the system it is then possible to calculate the volume (and hence tonnage) for each level along the strike length. ie.

2,000 x 8 x 50 = 800,000 sq metres (ie length x width x height)

At a rock SG of 2.5 this equates to 2,000,000 tonnes of mineralised ore per level.

At a diluted head grade of 7.2 g/t, a mining recovery of 90% and a process recovery of 94%, this then equates to an estimated gold recovery of c. 391.7 koz per level.

Hence, one could speculate that the next 8 lower levels (ie to L16) may well contain c. 3.133 Moz, but it will be many years to prove the accuracy (or not) of that speculative estimate.

If there is an overall increase in vein width with depth (as is often the case with epithermal systems) then we could run the same estimate at say 10m of aggregate vein width across the system.

Leaving all other metrics other than vein width unchanged produces the result of c. 489Koz per level. Hence, the next 8 lower levels might well contain an estimated 3.9Moz of recoverable gold.
CPDLC