I don't know....these NRs seem to come out when I'm swamped with other stuff. Or maybe it's just fair to say that I'm swamped with other stuff, all the time.
Anyway, this was a very solid NR. I did make some predictions not very long ago, with respect to the Timmins 1 bulk samples, and I am not at all disappointed, even though my predictions were not 100% fulfilled. The surface polygon did increase in area, and it also now has more precisely defined boundaries. The average grade did not increase, as I predicted, but the updated average grade has not substantially changed. All in all, we now have a much firmer statistical basis for both the grade and the mineralized envelope at Timmins 1.
I was very pleasantly surprised to see the two higher grade trenches on the 88 zone. As I noted in my earlier post, it was entirely premature to conclude anything about the mineralization in the 88, and it remains premature now to come to any sort of definitive conclusions. There is a lot more work to be done on the 88, and we still are waiting on some diamond drill assays. I'm certain that once all the available data are received and interpreted, we'll not only see those results, but the company will be spending some serious time analyzing those data prior to initiating further exploration work on the 88.
There are some other things in this NR that are really important, also. The new bulk sample protocol employs a 3/4" screen, rather than the previously used 2" screen. That may not seem like much of a difference, but the particle mass of the material just passing the screen has been reduced to about 1/20th of what it had been (take the cube of 2/.75). In prior conversations with Mr. Tilsley, he had raised the issue that the 2" screen used in the prior bulk sampling program would very likely still not have adequately homogenized the bulk material, and the effect of inadequate sampling may still have limited the grade determined by assay. That supposition is clearly borne out by the data derived from recrushed material from the stored bulk samples arising from the previous bulk sample program. When recrushed to 3/4" passing the screen, the grades did substantially improve. There is a graph in the complete news release that demonstrates this change unequivocally; the effect of sampling zeroes is substantially diminished.
Other companies' bulk sample programs that I have read about involve custom milling of the bulk sample material. Although our data still suggest that the average grade would improve from the average assayed grade if the material was actually passed through a mill, we would have lost all the data arising from the individual samples. We have far more information about the distribution of the gold, but we still do not have a truly accurate grade estimator.
Another brief comment may be easily overlooked, but they now have 12 gold-mineralized zones in the Timmins area. Of those, only Timmins 1 and Timmins 2a and b have been anywhere near sufficiently drilled to provide probable outlines for the mineralized envelopes in the near-surface depths. Notwithstanding that, further definition drilling will be required (and is already underway) to produce a resource estimate on those zones. The other 9 mineralized zones are in the early stages of exploration.
In conversations with Jim Tilsley and Dany Boilard, I've raised issues relating to the apparent lack of erosion at the newly uncovered 88 zones, when compared to T1. It's been observed that the gold grades tend to increase when you get away from the edges of the diorite, something akin to the fruit within its peel, or the yold within an egg. Surface bulk sampling at 88 may simply sample the rind/egg white, and miss the fruit's pulp/egg yolk, because it hasn't been exposed by erosion. Both Tilsley and Boilard provided pragmatic answers to me; you sample what is availabe to you, and you learn from that. Once again, I would caution against reaching premature negative conclusions from the work done at the 88. It's still very early in the process.
I've got my fingers crossed that we'll see some more news soon. Somebody dumping into the bid yesterday killed each move upward in the shareprice. I expect that we'll have to chew through a few more such sales, but one good news release could do it.
I've got to get packed for PDAC. So much to do, and so little time.....
Best,
Lar
