wp trip

Just sitting at Tullamarine waiting for a plane. I hope most of what follows hasnn't been covered.
After the induction program I was part of the 1st group to go u/g. This entailed a 4-5 min trip down the shaft to 8l where we alighted the cage. We then had to climb down a 15metre ladder to sub level8 and the current spot they are mining Maxwells. And mightily impressive the reef looked in that spot, getting to around 750mm wide with some visible gold. The boys said it goes up to 8l so you would be talking good tonnages there. In the spot we saw it was grading in the 40+g/t range. They had actually come into the reef around 2 metres above the lower contact and now want to drive down as high grades are usually found at the contact planes.
After viewing the reef we then climbed down a 30m( seemed like 100!!)ladder to 9l where we waited with Scott to catch a lift to the surface. The u/g crew were enthusiastic and excited about the visible gold they were finding but frustrated with the speed of the winder and said sometimes they waited 5-10 mins for the thingy they have to fill( technical term!!) to arrive.
Talking to Peter Hepburn-Brown later in the night was most enlightening and he is the man making the cost/benefit decision regarding upgrading the winch and shaft or building a decline. Drilling is planned from the river adit into what is really an upper level gap zone to try and find payable ore to access on the way down to help with the costs which are $4000-5000 per metre for a decline. One of the 2 holes drilled into this zone returned an assay of over 130g/t over 1.2 metres which for this mine was an exceptional hit. It is thought that it may be a continuation of dickensens reef up to meet with the Age of Progress reef in the upper left corner of a mine cross section map that is often printed in releases if you want to look at it.
There are exciting areas in the 6 areas now okayed for mining including several assays of 100g/t+ from Burns reef on level 6.
Interestingly of the 40 or so attendees, I think all wanted to go underground and the staff must be commended for their patience in having so many greenhorns crawling through the mine. They didn't get their lunch until after 3pm.
I have to go now but will continue whwn I get back if people are interested but perhaps I am just going over old ground as I haven't had a chance to check. Sorry if I am.

Cheers Mal