Hi Folks,
December 11, 1997
It has been some time since I have added to this forum, but find sometimes that I just have to say something. And I have had so many requests to return to this forum, well here I am. I hope all those Email requests weren't kidding, because here I am.
What triggered this is some information which I though you would find interesting. I have permission to discuss this on the Web, but not all of the details. A geologist I have known for some time came to me with some samples to assay. They were core samples from a massive sulfide smoker deposit found in the Western US. Now these smoker deposits are very rare indeed. And the geological setting for where to prospect for these deposits are probably all known. They are related to what are called greenstones or green stone belts. Back in the Precambrian, I believe this one is Archean, a volcanic event happened onto the sea floor. It was at a time when the earth had not cooled to the extent that the earth is cooled today. The metals were or are believed to have been more concentrated in the volcanics back then. The Witwatersrand of South Africa is Archean, I believe. However, the Witwatersrand gold is said by some to have been formed by the erosion of the richer rocks of that era.
Well my friend opened up some boxes and exposed some core that was composed of massive carbon and massive sulfide and some rock too. Wow. So I was asked to assay this stuff. My samples showed from .05 opt gold to .5 opt gold. He had one assay by a large assayer that was more than 20 opt gold. Eureka, he is rich. Well not so my friends. Bozo assayers. But my friend does get interest from some foreign company offering tid bits from the table. And two large companies, among the largest in North America, just happen to take up residence as neighbors. One to the North and one to the South. And the neighbors start drilling too.
Well my friend decides to get some 1 pound samples fired into dore' bars. A few into iron and a few into silver as collector metals. Yep the gold is the same as before, but there is clearly evidence of PGMs. So I recommended that we could have Stan refine the metals after I prepped them, so they were all recollected into either gold or silver. And also I wanted to be sure the dore' to be analyzed was free of interferences. Interferences can cause some refining procedures to fail. The metal was now ready for refining. To Las Vegas they went. Everyone up here kept their fingers crossed. I call it trying to wish value into the dore'.
Well, all the answers are in now. Using good refining procedures the PGMs are now reported. They run from 1 to 42 opt platinum alone. The gold numbers are as before.
The deposit is maybe the largest of its kind found anywhere in the world. And some of the others of its kind are among the richest of the world class deposits. This deposit is far from proven. The metallurgy for this type of deposit is probably standard. A few drill holes do not make a reserve. The work is just beginning. My friend has to find a partner, get a lot of drilling done and if not he says he will mine it and process it himself. Already he is starting to find out what he has to do to get operations permits. I say good for him. He wants to be a miner for the only reasonable reason possible, to mine and extract valuable minerals to be marketed at a profit.
Now I have no interest in his deposit and can only help with advice. But he is not a stupid man; and I am sure he will still make mistakes, but in the end, he or somebody will be mining that fine piece of real estate. And I hope that when he is in production, his first choice will be to bring his dore' to me for processing. And I hope when the time comes, I will not be in a laboratory and will be able to refine and market his product. The ingredients for his success are blood sweat and tears, his reward, I believe will be a magnificent and very profitable mine.
And please take heart. This deposit is the type that explorationists dream of. It has been there and walked over, drilled around and presto. One man and his vision. Good for him. mike |
