pressure is increasing, page-8

You have it wrong regarding Lihir's (ncm) takeover of Ballarat Goldfields. Lihir new exactly what it was buying . It was 3.9 Mt at 11.3 g/t = 1.4 Moz Resource and a exploration POTENTIAL of 9.2Moz , Ballarat was still putting their plant through testing before Lihir took them over so there was no established production also production for lihir was delayed during 2008/9 with infrastructure problems.

By the middle of 2009 Lihir decided to sell it off as they couldnt see it producing anymore than 100,000 oz per year which is not large enough for them.

The geology of the type of gold at ballarat should have had Lihir running for the hills instead of buying it, its known to be unpredictable.Its all guess work when gold is found in veins and reefs. Yes the 1.4m oz Resource is guesswork to some extent until you actually mine it which is what Lihir was going to find out.

geology of Ballarat deposit

"Gold mineralisation occurs as free gold grains (generally 70-90% of gold in a deposit) within fine quartz veins which are located along or adjacent to the major thrust faults. Deposits are strongly structurally controlled with the eastern fold limbs or anticline axial portions of the folds containing the majority of gold produced to-date. A strong characteristic of the Victorian Slate Belt mineralisation is the very high nugget effect caused by coarse gold distributed in the veins, often at a scale which is unpredictable to modern drilling and mining, but often high-grade.

Veins can occur as tension arrays with very short continuity and in the same deposit as 'fault-reef' quartz or anticline 'saddle' reefs with a range of strike continuities up to about 600m length each. Some frequency of fault reefs or saddle gold lodes can be found to depth in many fields although not always with reliable frequency."

from lihir

"The review has concluded that despite encouraging results from ongoing exploration activities in the north of the Ballarat gold field, the project would be unlikely to achieve the scale required to fit within the LGL portfolio.

A reassessment of historical mining records and more recent mining experience has determined that the project will not sustain large scale bulk mining techniques, with production unlikely to exceed 100,000 ounces per year. "

from Liongold corp the new owner of Ballarat goldfields

"production re-started in July 2011 and ramped up in September 2011. The targeted annualised sustainable production of 40-55,000 ounces per year is on track, with a gold recovery rate of 90%."