Charters, Barrick had their geologists spend the summer on the Ojolali in 1996, when Coleville had the property. It has been alleged that this work generated a report from Barrick saying the property was estimated to host at least 12,000,000 ounces of gold and additional silver credits.
Barrick knew Coleville had a final payment to make in January 1997 to acquire sole rights to the property, but Coleville couldn't raise the cash w/o the willingness of Barrick to reveal the contents of the report. I believe Barrick knew they had Coleville over a barrel, and, if you recall Barrick then turned its attention at the close of '96 to BRE-X and made a bid for it. While Barrick was preoccupied with their attempt to acquire BRE-X, Antares stepped in to provide Coleville with the needed funds. This is exactly why Antares acquired an initial 45% interest in the Ojolali.
The information in the Barrick report no doubt was instrumental in convincing five Canadian banks to throw a SIZABLE amount of money at Anatares to develop this property. Strathcona Minerals was then brought in to perform a due diligence on behalf of all parties. They came back quite impressed with the Ojolali. Now, why would the reputable Strathcona give a geological positive interpretation of the geologics of the Ojolali when as you say it is not economic to mine there?
Now I offer this final fact, though I cannot say for certain if it has merit or not. You might or might not know that Antares currently is divesting itself of ownership in Rappa, a South African firm that specializes in recovering gold, platinum, cobalt, and other metals from sources that are not considered economic to treat by owners of the host substances. (They are divesting because they have been frustrated in acquiring a majority interest in the company.) For example, the wood timbers that are used to support mine shafts while explosives are put into place acquire gold particulates from surrounding ore when detonation takes place. The remaining wood debris is normally discarded, and there is an immense quantity of of this debris in South Africa which contains many, many ounces of gold. Rappa recovers gold by roasting this wood with coconut shells. The coconut shell when roasted becomes activated charcoal inhaling and trapping the volatiles from the wood pyrolysis. This is just one of their better known tricks. The charred shells are then heap leeched.
I'm confident this business relationship with Rappa has provided Antares with knowledge of specialized methodologies that traditional miners do not consider when estimating their costs. I would suspect you, E. Charters, having found most of your gold in a newsletter, are no doubt thinking in terms of traditional methodologies.
Yes, according to your post, Barrick did look at Ojolali. The language of your opening remarks does not say Barrick stopped short of acquiring Ojolali, BECAUSE its precious metals were not heap leechable. The explanation I've proffered makes more sense to me.
However, if this is what you intended to claim, then I will telephone Cynthia Dean, a former Rappa employee, now serving as Mining Engineer for Antares in Toronto, and put the question to her. She is a graduate mining engineer from a South African university or technical institute, not an English major, as yourself. (There's nothing wrong with being an English major. I have two children who have found happiness in their studies of this subject.) Also, Antares has on the board of directors the chairman of the London School of Mines to guide their decisions. Certainly he would know about "vein gold in pyrite."
I do want to hear back from you on this.
Regards,
Don DeKold |
