Hi Ron, I just got back from a week away, and all I can say is, WOW! I have been reading all the posts I can, and I must say the same as you fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. That is going to be the only way to survive. I wrote a post over on PFG on the subject tonight and I would suggest that people read it, as this is what will count in markets like this. Glad to see you were posting on PFG Ron, in times like this it helps to have us old goats around, for those who may not have been in a market sell-off such as this before, although, I must admit, this is the worst mess I have ever seen.I also thought this post by E Charters was a little upbeat for all those who are smarting from BRE-X either directly or indirectly. I hope he doesn't mind me taking it from another thread.
Mar 30 1997 1:37PM EST
Reply #227 of
E.Charters wrote:
" Actually Bre-x epistles will become classics.
Its not that rare to miss gold. I have seen companies miss gold
in thousands of assays. I worked for a mining company that thought
their tails were 0.006 ounces per ton. They actually ranged from
0.015 to 0.08 ounces per ton with subsequent careful testing. The
Toburn mine advertised their tails at 0.025 ounces or less for twenty years. Subsequent work found the average to average 1/10 of an ounce for a large portion ot the pond, with the average over 0.05 in other areas..depending on how close you were to the outflow.
Freegold properties are notorious for bad assays. I used to send gold samples in crushed and ground material to certain Toronto assay labs. You could roll the sample in your hand and see the gold line in the sample. I panned for twenty years and worked as an assayer and believe me, the sample had gold. It would come back zero. But send a rock in with VG in it and you had an assay. No explanation but that with certain grinding techniqes such as plate pulverisers the sample could get all its gold which was already released smeared onto the plate and none got in the assay bag. Where the gold was fine and could get ground out of the rock there was protection for the grains and they survived the smearing. You couldn't get the lab to just put the sample in the crucible.
procedure called for grinding and no amount of instruction could overcome that.
Poor assays procedure at Highland Valley on a nugetty Bornite copper mine were responsible for half the copper going into tails. You could start a reasonable copper mine on their tailings at one point.
I wonder, assuming Bre-X was a nugget farm and real, it wouldn't boggle my imagination to believe that Freeport could come up empty with really incompetent sample handling. When it comes to due diligence in Gold
I haven't seen that many "experts" who really are, no matter how
much experience they claim..I have seen many long in the tooth geos comb my gold properties, and with few exceptions I would not hire them to work for me to find, assay, or prove any amount of Gold. And that goes for gold miners like Dome, Barrick et al..
People who think that there are magic white lab coat microcope eminences who just put the rock in a box and sagely pontificate the answer of grade have another thing coming. It ain't that easy. Many are the "professionals" who couldn't find an ounce let alone design a sampling program that is definitive on a property. The assay/sample handling/drill pattern program is sometimes crucial.
What bugs me is that there were no structural components to the Bre-X thing..the Central zone had large barren zones. It was also a fold nose so you would expect structural changes. The geology is also classic island arc stuff for that area which is usally refractory unless highly oxidized."
I thought it might shed a little light on a dark subject.
By the way Ron, have you entered Q2 yet?
Good Luck to you Ron and all shareholders.
Shirley O |
