While we wait for news and/or results from the current Swit Kia (Upper Zone) drilling program, and before the next Qtly Activities report is released (likely to be late this week, probably on Friday 31Oct), I thought I'd share my thoughts on Swit Kia re the geology, mineralisation, remote location, etc., but mainly to try to answer the question of why other explorers have walked away from the area in the past.
Note that the following extract (which I'll include after my usual "Rgds, W" signoff) has been taken word-for-word from an email reply I sent to a relative back on 1 Aug 2014 (i.e. the day after the last qtly was released on 31July). It was written in response to the question "Why has every other Company walked away though?". It contains my thoughts and opinions re Swit Kia at that time, most of which have not changed since. Some important things that have changed since are that we now know the location of the 2 new drill pads (see the 20 Oct 2014 ann.), we now know that the old SUG001 drill pad will not be used in this program, and we also now know that the current drilling program (initially at least) will only be targeting the upper zone mineralisation.
Note that I am not a geologist, and hence my views can be taken to be those of an amateur, but I thought I might put the info out there anyway (in the hope of starting an interesting and possibly enlightening discussion here on good old HotCopper). Hopefully some professional geologists will be drawn into commenting on this, and can share their thoughts and opinions re the geology, mineralisation, etc.. I won't mind if they disagree with my interpretations, as I may well learn something (and probably will, which is always a good thing) !
Rgds, W.
Re Swit Kia: Why has every other Company walked away though? I think it's partially due to the remoteness of the location, the steep and difficult terrain, and the extensive vegetation masking the surface exposures, but it's mainly because they didn't have a good handle on the geology, intrusives, faults, structural/mineralisation trends, etc. Up until now, almost every hole drilled in the immediate vicinity of this prospect has been drilled on the basis that the mineralisation is likely to be "normal" dip slope mineralisation (i.e. they are thinking it is probably in stacked, or sheeted, layers immediately under the surface, and over a fairly wide/dispersed area). Pete sounds like he's onto something now, and has worked out the likely controls (i.e. structures, faults, etc.) on mineralisation in the area. The important thing to note is that he doesn't think the mineralisation is "normal" dip slope mineralisation. Instead, he thinks it is either sub-horizontal or (more likely) sub-vertical (with a steep SW plunge), and hence does not follow the same dip as the surface rock layers. This is extremely important when it comes to designing and carrying out a drilling program. If you target "normal" dip slope mineralisation in a drilling program, you would generally try to find out the lateral extent of it (in the hope that it is spread over a large enough area for it to be economic). However, if it instead has a steep SW plunge, the drilling program needs to be completely re-designed ! As he says in the anns, the only hole drilled so far that may have tested it properly (but only really for the lower zone) was SUG002 (an angled hole drilled by Ok Tedi (with a 50 degree dip) starting from just south of the lower zone, and trending NNE), which intersected the lower zone from 12 to 13.3m downhole and returned 1.3m @ 27 g/t gold. However, it didn't get to vertically below the upper zone until it had reached a depth of almost 200m (which was way too deep for an initial test of that zone). SUG001 was a vertical hole (drilled by Ok Tedi and located on the eastern side of the upper zone), which just missed (to the north of) the upper zone, partially because the upper zone mineralisation has been eroded away in that particular location, and partially because the remaining mineralisation also appears to trend further ESE (or almost SE) in that location. Hole DDH-S4 (drilled to the NE at a 75 degree dip by Equatorial Gold) was started about 25m north of the lower zone and about 40m south of the upper zone. As Pete says (in the green text on p13 of the qtly), it passed over the top of the lower zone but didn't reach the upper zone. However, it still returned 1 g/t gold and 0.225% Zinc over 0.6m at the bottom of the hole (81.25m). The other 4 holes drilled by Equatorial (DDH-S1, S2, S3, & S5) were all poorly targeted and/or drilled in the wrong place (see maps on p25 of the Qtly & p38 of the 1 Apr ann), based on what we now know. Note also that, even though it's not high grade, there is still "some" gold at around 200m depth underneath the upper zone, with SUG001 returning 1.7m @ 1.56 g/t Au from 201.3m, and SUG002 returning 13.3m @ 0.21 g/t Au from 191m downhole. This bodes well for future (100% FNT) drill holes, where both the upper and lower zones will be targeted much closer to the surface outcrops (which are known, from the trenching and sampling done so far, to contain high to very high grade gold) ! Pete may even be able to use the existing drill pads (used for SUG001 & SUG002) for some of the upcoming holes (which would save quite a bit of time and money), and drill a number of angled holes towards his preferred target zones (both the upper and lower zones, and maybe even targeting both zones in some of the holes if he's clever !). Another important point (that also bodes well for future exploration in the Bulago region in general) is that Pete reckons the structural/mineralisation setting and geochemical pattern found at Swit Kia is repeated many times within the Bulago EL in soil and rock geochemistry ! ...
FNT Price at posting:
1.9¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)