Hello William? (a guess)
Today is a day of very good questions. The Struthers description of Franklin Lake geology is correct. I understand that at times the water is even on the surface. And it is wet and muckey all the way down, I would think.
Let me say this about deep assays of high grade at Franklin Lake and Ron Struthers opinion that high grade samples from deep will never be mined. First of all the samples represent what? 130-230Ft and 230 - 330Ft is one interpretation. Spot high grade samples are another. If they had 2 ounce precious metals ore (not counting silver) for 200Ft vertical, that would be great even at that depth. Those lake bed sediments would be easily dredged. Floating dredges can dig a pond to float in. The top 15 feet is dozed away. The hole is dug until the dredge will float. A big dredge in easy ground might operate to 300Ft vertical. The cost of the dredge might be $70-100 million today. The dilution effect will be 115Ft of low grade will get mixed up with 200 Ft of high grade. The dredge will run at 7,000 to 10,000 tons per hour, if it is that big. It will take a big one to get that deep. It is an attractive proposition if the process can keep up with the production.If they think they have that thickness in high grade (200Ft), they better forget what I said about proving their assays and delineating the reserve. The risk is too great to do otherwise.
On the otherhand, if those are just spot assays that do not mean important sample thicknesses, they have little to talk about. Better keep prospecting. Since the assays are probably spot samples, I would say that Ron Struthers is dead on accurate on this one. Listen to the man.
Now we have a deep deposit that will be ground to minus 1000 mesh at 7,000 to 10,000 tons per day. Wow, I am impressed. I once tried to screen 50 pounds to -300 mesh. It took me all day just to screen it. Right now I think the finest commercial grinds that can be proven are about 90% -320 Mesh. The grinding is very costly. The reason that an oil filter on most cars, filters to 20 microns is that abrasive particals have no cutting or grinding ability below those dimensions. Nor does the mill have the ability to grind at that level either.
Now impact mills may be able to see some proportion of their product reach -1000 mesh (more likely -500 Mesh), but I would think the method is not practical or effective enough for this application. Now Dr. Johnson of Johnson & Lett has been in DD research for quite some time and I am hoping that he has an invention that will astonish the world. That may be the biggest discovery of the Johnson Lett process. That is unless he intends to use nuclear bomb comminution power. Miners call ore grinding comminution.
I believe that the surface samples at .02 to .3 opt precious metals will be attractive only if reasonable low cost metallurgy is adopted. If Newmont had the property I would feel better about it's chances for a surface operation.
mike |
