Sorry to keep harping on about Talga and its underground mining intentions, but I'm finding more clues as to how much Talga is likely to benefit from this change of direction. These clues have been hidden in plain sight.
Firstly an old picture of the Vitangi target, most of it derived from surface discoveries and very little coloured red. Mark issues this picture, or the recent blurry variation bowing to possible criticisms from the JORC zealots that most of the resource has not been defined to their satisfaction. In recent presentations Mark has commented that it probably never will be. Hints here that it makes more sense to simply follow the seam.
Secondly to a more recent picture of a cross section of the seam generated from JORC compliant surface drilling
Several things to note here.The seam is not equally rich all the way across. It varies from 40% Cg at its centre down to about 15% at the edges. This means that the graphite samples would be black in the middle and a sandy colour near the edges. The man driving the underground shovel would know if he's heading in the right direction. Perhaps not a man or a women but maybe a self drive unit with a few smarts built into its capabilities.
The left side of the seam comes up against
Meta-intrusive rock while the right side sees
Meta-tuff rock.
What does this tell us? Well it tells shovel driver that he/she is off course and needs to correct
More importantly, it links the "here and now" back to what was occurring some 2 billion years ago.
The meta-intrusive is this picture on the left, while the meta-tuff is on the right. One would have been long before the bacteria (come graphite) was laid down while the other was later. Perhaps even 1 billion years apart.
Meta-tuffis a metamorphic rock thatformed from volcanic tuff, an igneous rock composed of ash ejected from anerupting volcano.Tuff subjected to high heats and pressures sometime after the ash lithifies tobecome a rock becomes meta-tuff.
This explanation of Meta-tuff indicates that being ash it is an extreme case of rapid cooling and is likely very pale in colour and with an extremely fine crystalline makeup. Another traffic signal for the underground driver.
I'm being called for my lunch time pizza!
HavaGoodWeekend
(20min delay)