the mentalist

Chalco, my friend, after your post I rang a friend of a friend who is a mine geologist who specializes in open-cut mining and is a qualified “ rock mechanic “ and a member of AusImm whatever that means. He said “assaying orebodies for production to be most accurate is assaying from drill and blast holes. Holes are drilled vertically across the Orebody and on either side to determine the area to be mined. It's then marked out with a spray can color by the geologist indicating ore and waste for the digger operator. He said it’s the only method of assaying in an open cut and determines the waste-to-ore ratio. He said RC drilling ore diamond core drilling is only for determining the resource and cannot be relied upon for actual mining. The RC/Dia holes he said are angle holes and between 15 and 25m apart so cannot be accurate for fine detection and in situ of an orebody. Mining is vertical. TBA he said after reading their latest announcement is 100% the best industry practice. As you know I have never been a big fan of management and have said some on many occasions, but I say it as I see it, and, seems, they may have finally got their act together. I’m on the road at the moment towing my van to the gulf for some R&R and might be out of contact range for a while Even though retired and still love fishing at Karumba. May drop into Mt Freda if I get an opportunity or am allowed to visit.