A response to the excellent question or observation from Dr. Rock:
RE:CGE-
<Tom,
To answer a few of your questions. You are right, the water well drilling was done without any geologist on site and the method of collection of samples is not known. The rig that was used is a conventional rotary rig and not a reverse circulation (RC) rig. These facts are certainly worrisome. There are no duplicate splits that were available so I could not confirm the veracity of the data that was collected.
However, I did personally collect literally over a hundred samples underground and on the surface that did contain ore-grade gold which was assayed by A.L.S. Chemex, a top tier Canadian assay lab and certainly one of the top labs in the world...therefore, I know for certain that there is plenty of gold in the Trebol system.
A RC rig is the preferred method of drilling because the sample comes up to the surface on the inside of the drill string and cannot be contaminated by anything up-hole from the bit face. This is the method that Corex will utilize when they initiate the Phase I drill test of Trebol. In my experience, usually contamination from "narrow zones" down the hole occur in holes that have incompetent rubble zones that are washed down the hole by high water flow from ground water. This most likely did not happen at Trebol as none of the holes that the drillers drilled, encountered water. The project is quite elevated above the general valley floor (where the water table occurs), and it is very doubtful that water will be encountered within 200-300 m of the surface in any of the holes. When I was with Echo Bay Mines, we did encounter severe contamination from rubbley rock and high water flow at the Cove Deposit in Nevada. The rock at Corex's Trebol project shares no characteristic in common with the drilling done at Cove. The rock is very competent limestone and shale, and there is no indication that water exists anywhere near the surface, even in small amounts, to wash gold down the hole.
As far as the hole following the stratigraphy down dip, that is very unlikely. The water well holes were drilled vertically (90 degrees) and the rock is not dipping vertically, but at a angle of 55-70 degrees south around the mine and 30-60 degrees to the north to the north of the mine. Not only that, but several of the holes that encountered gold are hundreds of meters apart which suggests to me that the gold is more wide-spread than just occurring in a small fracture or narrow bed.
I have visited the lab where the samples were assayed which is a Technological Institute in Salltillo, Mexico where quite a bit of cutting edge research is done by graduate students that are working on M.S. And Ph.D. Degrees. The lab has state of the art lab facilities, microprobe, scanning electron microscopes etc. Most likely these samples are not far off the mark. I also know one of the samplers who collected the rock and he told me that he could pan gold from the cuttings as the hole was being drilled.
With all this said, there are still many uncertainties involved, for example the conventional drilling technique used. I cannot be 100% certain that the results can be completely duplicated. I know that the first few holes that I drill will twin existing holes that contained gold intercepts and we will use those holes as a departure point for our program. I also plan on testing the breccia pipe/manto chimney because I know from my mapping and sampling there, we are looking at 3-4 gram rock within the first 20 meters of the surface. What is below that, only the drill can tell.
I don’t want to mislead you, ore deposits are rare and finding one is the exception rather than the rule. Mineral exploration is just that, a search for scientific information which can be used to find a mineable ore deposit....no property is a 100% certainty. Corex will do it’s best on the first round of drilling to prove up some of the conceptual targets which are described in our 43-101 report on the property.
Best Regards,
John R. Carden, Ph.D, P. Geo.
Director & Vice-President, Exploration> |
