Fellow Investors,
In the latest press release I like were they stated that the deposit is open at depth and that they have got a good grasp on the geology of the deposit now. I do not recall them ever mentioning specifically before that the deposit was open at depth. This could be foretelling of what to expect in future P.R. I believe what will really make this stock jump is when confirmation of the deposit extending to depth is given. For every extra 250m in depth you can effectively almost double the number of ounces.
In every P.R. they mention that FDN is located in a Pull Apart Basin and I think the significance of this has not been understood by many. This is very significant in terms of geology. Pull Apart Basins are caused by 1 of 2 methods . These being the divergence
( drifting apart) of continental plates or the Strike- slip method of plates along fault zones. In the first method the tectonic plates drifting apart creating a pull apart basin are more commonly referred to as a rift valley. The second method is where there is movement laterally along a major fault, as the plates slide along each other sometimes in more localized areas they are forced apart creating this Pull Apart Basin or large tear in the earths crust. This is the method that created the Pull Apart Basin ARU’s FDN deposit.
These are important features because it is along these geological diverse area’s that valuable minerals are deposited.
In order to understand the FDN deposit one must first understand how gold gets deposited.
Its hard to imagine things like gold or quartz being dissolved by water solutions, but if the water is hot enough, the pressure high enough, and the chemistry is right (acids, and other elements like sulphur are present), then gold, quartz and other things you don’t expect to see dissolving will go into solution.
This hydrothermal fluids being less dense and moving by natural convection (hot things rise) in the earths mantle look for a place to escape from under the earths crust. Much like a trapped air bubble under the ice looks for a place to escape.
This opportunity if the conditions are right can presents itself when a large facture in the earths crust occurs during the making of a Pull Apart Basin. When this rupture or fault occurs and if this gold bearing hydrothermal fluid is present it will quickly rise up into the void created. The hydrothermal fluid cools as it moves farther from the heat source in the ground and moves closer to the surface.
Gold will react with sulphur and other elements to form soluble chemicals when put under extreme heat and pressure in the presence of water. These chemical complexes are not all that stable, so that when the hydrothermal fluid rises and the pressure & heat drop, the chemicals decompose, allowing the gold to precipitate out of the solution.
Other minerals like quartz and sulphides become less soluble also and they come out of solution to form veins. Quartz is a silicate mineral. The silicate minerals compose approximately 60% of the earths crust because of there relative low density and thus they rise to the surface much like oil sits on top of water.
This fast rising quartz hydrothermal fluid traps, suspends and carries the gold which is much more dense up with it until the fluid solidifies. This is why gold is almost always associated with quartz.
The most common conduits for these hydrothermal solutions are natural fault zones; this is why most veins are shaped like fault zones, a long and narrow plane.
This is the process that forms nearly all gold-quartz veins.
Sometimes strong single vein systems will fray out into a stock work system at the ends of the vein, or where it crosses into a different rock type. This is most likely what has occurred in the south end of FDN. .
It turns out that coarse gold most commonly forms in small veins . Big veins, with a width and length large enough to be mined commercially underground, almost always produce small gold even though they may be fairly rich. Of course, there are a number of exceptions to this rule, FDN appears to be one of them, but generally speaking, it is true. So why in general, does course gold form in small veins, while mostly only small gold forms in big veins.
Growth of coarse minerals from hydrothermal fluids requires stable conditions where large crystals or nuggets can continue to grow over an extended period of time. It takes some time to grow course gold, so conditions must be fairly stable to allow this to occur. Due to the large amount of V.G., these stable conditions must have occurred at FDN.
Rapidly changing conditions, including rapid drops in pressure or temperature which generally lead to the formation of fine-grained crystals - the minerals are forced to come out of solution so fast that large crystals cannot form.
Wide fault zones and other large openings in the rock generally lead to more solution flow, and greater quantities of quartz, sulphides and gold, which means bigger veins, but it also means more rapidly changing conditions, which means rapid deposition. This generally leads to growth of fine grained minerals. In larger openings, the larger flows move quickly upward and the solutions become over-saturated, so the minerals in solution must drop out quickly, forming fine grained minerals of small size.
This is one of the reasons FDN is so spectacular in that it has massive sized veins with large amounts of V.G. relatively close to the surface. This also means that as you go deeper into even longer cooling periods the grade should get even better. These hydrothermal fluids come from the earths mantle and therefore this deposit should continue to depth.
Therefore in conclusion I am hoping that with what I think could have been some hints in the last P.R., we may get confirmation that the deposit extends to depth in the next set of results or two.
Stay long fellow investors this could be the find of the century.
Regards,
F.F. |
