the cold hard facts

The Twin Hills deposit had a near surface high grade zone of approx 360,000 tonnes containing an estimated 2.5 million ounces of silver.
The approx actual ore P and P reserve( you can check the full details in the old JORCS) was around 500,000 tonnes for 4 million ounces and 2 million tonnes for 5.5million ounces. the rest of the reserve was low grade dump leach. The high grade is in 3 zones, but the big chunk was right at the top and easy to mine first

so you see that over 40% of the silver is in 20% of the ore. Thats the cream . Take off the cream and the rest is skim milk

Now when this mine was being developed Bob McNeil said one of the advantages was that high grade zone WOULD ALLOW RAPID PAYBACK OF CAPITAL

Remember those words. For those who know about heap leach, high grading is a big risk. the reason is if the heap leach doesnt work you may have wasted your best ore.

So how much high grade was mined?

Well we dont know. THATS THE PROBLEM!

But we do know that a total of just over 400,000 tonnes of ore was mined before closure of the mine.
And we do know that Bob McNeil had previously talked about mining the high grade first for rapid payback

So you can now make an informed decision about the JORC
and what the new reserve might be, if there is any ( remember JORC resource and reserve have different meanings)


However let me assure you, if the cream has gone there would be uncertainty about whether the remaining ore is payable.

But Mr King would know how much high grade is left. he has access to the detailed mining plans So why doesnt some one ring him and ask him and report back to the faithfull so the market knows

So if you like skinny latte, thats fine. I prefer my silvermines with the cream still intact like CCU