The side by side that was done a month a go suggested $5 and change and that was for the known. It was an accurate value. Would we get that? Probably not. $4 and change is more like it. I would be very happy with that and a contract to do the rest. I still value the min value at over $8. That's for the whole enchalada of course. But, I'd prefer to sell in pieces so that we get a chance to prove up the control structures.
When I asked Elmer about drilling the root zone that appeared under the 3d he said that was someone else's problem decades down the road. So why didn't we drill 1200 meters there just to see? Well, the drilling we did do indicated uniform continuity so we don't need to. There's a vanishing return involved because of the depth so we get a credit for it without having to prove it or define it.
Our recent purchase fills out the area we need to control so that we can mine the control structure along the mountain side. That deal took a while to conclude. We bought those on strong evidence of a major hit. As we drill it there will be some exciting results mixed with some expected assays over 1% mark. So why sell it for a couple buck premium. It should return another $3-$5 worth at our current share count. That's a whole lotta pay dirt.
Breaking it up makes it easier to swallow. Adding 3.5 billion to the 3 billion start up cost for the main zone makes the economics a bit hard to swallow. Now imagine a 10 billion acquisition before building the mine. That's 10 years to complete return. So we just gave them the starter pits to do that. If we can prove up 70 million ounces of silver in the north peppered with 8 million ounces of silver then the bitter pill gets easy to swallow and they can enjoy another 5 billion pounds of copper. Since we have had 3 feet of core with gold and 3 meter cores of silver there's no doubt about the quality of the starter pits. I have also heard that the small bore drill rumor is true. I think this is why we are preparing to parcel off and go attack the north structure. When they can see a 20 inch streak of gold they don't need assay it and more likely, they don't want anyone to know.
I'm all for a second run. Elmer has saved the best for last. One really good thing is we won't be watching the paint dry on that one because the area is well defined. Elmer will ladder across it and work his way up the valley. That piece will be sold buy Spring time next year. I'd like to see over $5 for it.
