To: Dr. Bob who wrote (2663 ) 1/20/1998 From: D.McQ Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 4571
Dr Bob: Part 3 <<<<<<<<<<<<The company talks about gold being in "pillars" in the mine. Question: Are these pillars required to retain the structural integrity of the mine? If so, how can one mine material from them without sacrificing the structural integrity of the mine? Will removed pillar material have to be replaced by new structural supports, such as steel or wood timbers? What is the cost of such work? Is this even feasible?>>>>>> There have been several Shareholders who have visited the Brush Creek Mine. Yes these "pillars" do indeed support the structure. It has been explained to me that as these pillars are mined they are immediately back filled, shored up and retimbered as the miners move through them. In hard core mining the only material that is removed is ore that doesn't contain millable gold. The material that is does not assay out as high enough grade ore to be worthwhile to mill is not removed from the mine. If I understand it correctly, this low grade material is used to replace gold laden ore that is removed from the pillars. Since the miners are working in the areas supported by these "pillars", I would assume that it is in their own self interest that this work be done speedily and with utmost care. I would also like to point out that there are site maps on BCMD's (hopefully soon to be official)website that Aiko is working on at come.to . If you study these site map it appears that BCMD is currently following a well thought out strategy as they work their way through the pillars one by one. I noticed that the other 2 "virgin ore sites" appear to line up with the vein of "visible ore" they appear to be chasing to its source. <<<<<<<Assuming that a 250 ton per day mill is constructed and that the 4 mines can support a combined extraction rate of 250 tons per day, then assuming a 30 day month ( probably not reality ), an extraction rate of 90,000 tons per year can be assumed. Assuming a mill recovery rate of 90%, then we have, hopefully, 81,000 ounces of gold per year. Using these figures and a total inferred resource of 3182k tons, it will take approximately 35 years to extract all of the ore. Question: Is there a practical time limit to a project such as this? In other words, is 35 years too long a time frame for such a project? If it is, then more milling and ore extraction capcity must be added. <<<<<<<< By its permitting and current mining efforts I feel BCMD has already given every indication that your calculations are feasible in the near future. However, there are also many variables to be taken into consideration. How rich is the ore? How many more 500 oz/ton pockets are here? How many of these pockets will they be able to mine in a day, a week, a month or a year? It is easy to see that it doesn't take many pockets of ore that grades 500+ oz/ton to throw your calculations way off. In addition, many noted experts have speculated that only about 10% of the gold in this area has been currently located. The fact must be noted that in the few short weeks that BCMD has commenced mining and exploration of just the Lower Brush Creek Mine, they have already discovered 2 additional "virgin ore blocks" of very "high grade" ore. Additionally, it needs to be taken into consideration that these two new finds were stated by BCMD as not being included in BCMD's present inferred resource of 3,345K oz of gold. IMHO the kind of number calculations you are currently doing should be consider nothing more than a conservative guess. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<The Strandberg report gives an inferred resource of 1 ounce of gold per ton. Yet, the following text is taken from the S-3 filed on 12/22/97: "From February 1992 when the Company began limited production at the Ruby Mine to December 1992 when the Company ceased production due to inclement weather, the Company milled approximately 7,300 tons of mineralized placer material and recovered approximately 200 ounces of gold, an amount which is inconsistent with historical production at the Ruby Mine in the early 1940's." Question: Why were only .03 ounces per ton extracted from the Ruby mine? >>>>>>>>> From what I have read, the Ruby mine has both hard rock and placer ore that can be mined. Placer and Hard rock are two entirely different types of mines. As far as I am aware, the Ruby Mines hard rock ore has not yet been mined and therefore the Ruby mine production of 7,300 tons was for mining its placer ore only. As is noted on the S3 filing the company was mining the placer channels and yielding over 1/4 oz ton. (I would like to point out that this is excellent grade for placer mining. Many of the other mining companies I have research usually grade in grams per ton rather that oz per ton. A grade of as few as 3 grams per ton is usually considered a press worthy gold strike.) For placer ore the Strandberg report used only .0221 ounces per bank cubic yard for a total of 217,021 in inferred resources. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Why the discrepancy between this actual mining work and the Strandberg report? >>>>>>>>>> The only discrepancy I see was that BCMD actually produced placer ore from the Ruby that graded at 1/4 oz per ton compared to the much more conservative number of .0221 ounces of "inferred resource" for placer that Strandberg used. Since the Strandberg report of 3,128,556 is at 1 oz per ton for "LODE" or hard rock mining I assume they used the figure which is historical for this area. The Placer ore was given an Inferred Resource Value of only 217,021 ounces. I feel it is obvious that this report did not place a large amount of inferred value in the placer operation. It therefore seems logical to me that BCMD would not continue to pursue this "placer" gold when there is a considerable amount of value placed on its "hard rock" gold that has proven to able to generate a larger return since it produces more gold per oz than "placer" mined ore. Why wouldn't they wait until the value of gold appreciates enough to make "placer" gold a profitable venture? <<<<<<<<<Is this an indication of the "real" amount of gold left in these properties, as opposed to the report>>>>>>>> IMHO the fact that BCMD is currently discovering "virgin ore blocks of very high grade visible gold" is an better indication of the amount of gold left in these properties, as opposed to the "Inferred Resources" the report is currently projecting. I would also like to point out that at this point BCMD is very much a "news" driven stock. It seems logical to me that figures should be released by BCMD that should be similar to the figures mentioned in the October news release. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<When will the investors get some sort of production implementation plan which details some of the important metrics of this mining operation on a mine by mine basis? Jim Chapin apparently has the time to escort people on mine tours - why doesn't he have the time to put together a reasonable business plan for his investors? Is this a real business or just a bunch of mining wannabe's playing with some toy mines? And, when will we see some realistic press releases from this "company" giving some real data, not "5 gallon buckets" and pictures of gold buttons? >>>>>>>>>>>> I have also been informed that at the annual meeting held January 8, 1998 it was disclosed to shareholders that the company is working with its JV partner on future targets and developments. IMHO when this business plan has been determined it should be immediately released to the public. Personnally I'm impressed that Jim Chapin is willing to treat small individual investors with the same dignity and respect he treats other "wealthy" investors. As far as I understand he doesn't usually escort people on mine tours. It, however, would seem logical to me that if he wanted to check the mines out himself, taking along a few investors might give him an opportunity to make wise use of the long periods of down time necessary to commute the distance between the office and the mine. As far as the "5 gallons buckets" that alot of us thought were hype in the October press release, I would like to hear someone suggest a better way to remove "jewelry grade ore" that is is worth from $500.00 to $1,250.00 per ounce, quartz included. Personnaly I don't care how they get it out as long as they don't send it pounding down the chutes. A few ounces here and there can add up very quickly when you are dealing with ore this rich. Darlene