Elect,
These are not economical values. Claude is right. Where it might mean something to quote osmium or rhodium in grains per tonne, for gold and platinum it is comical.
To give you an idea of how insignificant the gold and pt values are, there are approximately 16 grains in a gram, and about 31 gram in an ounce, so the number of grains in an ounce works out to 480 (there was some rounding in the 16 and 31 values). So to give values like .1 grain/tonne means there is approximately 1/5000 ounce per tonne (opt).
The Palladium findings are at least listed in grams/tonne, but the best reading (.31 gram/tonne) still only corresponds to about 1/100 opt.
If you had a huge proven orebody at relatively shallow depth with consistent values around .01 opt, you might have an economical discovery, provided the price is right. By way of example, take a look at Las Cristinas 4 & 6 in Venezuela. The gold values are nothing to write home about per se, yet the extent of the orebody and the relatively shallow depths allow for an economical extraction of the gold at .01 opt, but only with a gold price above $350.
I am convinced there is a large orebody that is feeding these disseminated deposits in the Sudbury area, but it is probably very deep - on the order of 5000-10000 feet. Murdo is not going to find El Dorado with this hit and miss type of activity. He needs to partner with a major. The only viable deposit that he could begin to prove up unassisted is the Wolf Lake gold deposit. |
