possible news, page-21

* More high grade stopes open

Underground mines get their ore by digging it out of spaces called "stopes". Mines need spaces for access too. Horizontal "drives" are dug parallel to the ore and there is a whole lexicon: winzes, raises, cross cuts, inclines, declines and shafts to identify other access spaces. These spaces are usually dug in waste rock but Hill End Gold Limited, very cleverly, get extra ore by driving along convenient vein sets. This practice produces much more data about the ore as well. Most ore However, comes from the stopes and new ones need to be opened regularly. Stoping is currently underway along the Mica veinset and new stopes are being developed. The Mica orebody includes some very rich veins of mineralisation. Opening a new stope in it is a significant event, well worth announcing.

According to the Quarterly, "Mine planning for wide stope production as part of the project expansion is underway for the upper reward shaft mineralisation." Infill drilling, and measurements of unmined stopes will be providing the company with data on the size of wide zone resources. A decision to mine has not been made at this planning stage. This decision is due when there is unequivocal evidence of sufficient wide vein resource to sustain a profitable operation. The time is very close. The expansion of mining operations may be announced over coming weeks.

Wide vein mining at Hawkins Hill/Reward has the potential to lift production rates by a factor of five*. A green light for mine expansion in 2010 will be good news indeed.

* The actual increase in gold production depends on average grades in the wide zones. Actually measuring these grades tends to be confounded by the nuggety gold problem. Past, wide zone grade from Frenchmans appears to have been around 16gpt. I have been guided by this grade in making my estimate of production rates.

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This has been the last of my followup posts. Each one of them replies to the original where I wrote a disclaimer. Please read it. This thread is about possibilities. Hill End Gold Limited is well endowed with potential so the possibilities are many.