Hello S.E.Baker
You are more than welcome.
It is an exciting possibility isn't it? It is the first I have heard of such a figure as well, but given sufficient ore, and the continued maintenance or improvement of both price and grade, the only constraint to such a production rate is profit and time.
When I crunch the numbers @ a grade of 1.26 carrats per tonne I get something in the neighbourhood of 27,000 tonnes per day rather than 40,000 which would imply probably running a minimum of six adits or lifts. Over a 42 km strike, not out of the question.
Of course if we run into any more pipes like the M-1 @ 3+ carrats per tonne, then the production rate could drop to 10,700 tonnes per day to achieve the same result.
Finally, any significant deposit of paleo-gravels with a reasonably low strip ratio and reasonable environmental restrictions would measurably improve the economics again. A revolving scoop bucket or drag line can move allot of gravel per hour.
At these potential production rates I would think water would be the limiting factor but if a recirculation system were used, this should not be an insurmountable difficulty. Diavik proposes to use one at Lac de Gras and I believe they are common in Africa where water is often in short supply.
Just for fantasies sake, lets see....12,500,000 carrats per year @ net say $100 per carrat / 32,000,000 shares x say 7 = $273.42 share.
One last thought. Typically pipes are richer from original grade down to approximately 150 to 300m. After that, grade typically falls off. Now this is the fun part. If the M-1 is a remnant lets say erroded by 1,000m (less than Kimberly) and it is running at 3+ carrats per tonne, what does that suggest to you that the original, now erroded pipe ran at? Six carrats per tonne? Ten?
So not only would paleo-gravels have concentrated the diamonds in a pay streak, but that pay streak potentially sourced from a pipe running at at least twice the grade of the current M-1, could be phenominally rich!
Have a good one.
Regards |
