I plotted its resources on the USGS Cu chart of doom with updated CuEq figures using Regulus' CuEq calculation shown intheir PRs, which, unlike the 2012 43-101, doesn't include any credits for Mo, Pb or Zn. Doing this decreases the overall CuEq grade from 0.92% to 0.83% CuEq.
So, my gut-feeling was wrong, AK is good enough, but has there been any change with the new drilling?
Here is an officially bad calculation for the AK resources that occur within the Regulus mineral licenses. You can get the Leapfrog viewer file here (link).
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| ~11Mt extra tonnes at the same grade |
That's disappointing, but the grade has stayed the same! Small victories!
Why wasn't there a drastic change? The drill results have been impressive, but unfortunately, the drilling has been directed by Coimolache who are focusing on extending the high-sulfidation gold mineralization they are mining to the west, and had not been focused fully testing the skarn-porphyry potential at AK.
However, hole AK-18-007 may be changing that. Most companies won't drill a 1400m deep hole costing ~$0.4M if it wasn't hitting something interesting (unless they needed a lot of novelty knife sharpeners for the Lima Gold Symposium). Unfortunately, we'll never see the results, but we can do some arm waving.
Here is the hole plotted against Kev 'n' Stu's geology section...
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| A 1400m drill-hole drilling nothing, I don't think so.... |
Why don't we have a look how this hole relates to the other targets defined by Regulus?
I've borrowed the Intense magnetic image from the latest presentation, not just because it is pretty, but looking beyond the hot color stretch we can see that hole AK-18-007 was drilled between the 2 bestest-ist porphyry-skarn targets (# 1 and #2) on the property? Regulus already have a decent sized target that is basically the sweaty armpit of a well mineralized district. I'm hoping that they can get some rigs exploring the blue nipple (target 1) to see what is causing it.
The red-stuff is just skarn and no-one cares about that.....
At first glance 0.83% Cu looks good. But that's a mix of surface and underground and when broken down into those components it's not so good. Surface has an NSR of about US $20/t. (Gold, silver & copper, with 80% recovery and 20% smelter/transport charges assumed) It might be OK if strip ratio is low and finance costs are minimal. Underground is tough. NSR is around $42/t. I doubt it would make it on its own. What the company needs to do is find some higher grade near surface to make this attractive for investors.
ReplyDeleteThe original CuEQ (0.92%) included credits for Mo, Pb and Zn which were unlikely to be recovered. The project will be an open pit, the original fractured claim ownership was the big issue, and Southern Legacy managed to drill several holes outside of their mineral licenses.
ReplyDeleteIf Regulus can find evidence for a large skarn-porphyry deposit, I feel that their neighbors to the west will take them over and consolidate the district. If they find some decent mineralization on the other targets, that will help to determine the proce.
I agree the Mo, Pb & Zn "credits" aren't worth considering at this point. They may wind up being penalties in the con.
DeleteThe technical report (2012) seems weak to me. The mineral resource estimate chapter is missing a lot of the info I like to see, particularly for a skarn where grades can be highly variable.
DeleteWeak is probably a good word to explain Southern Legacy's work at AntaKori. They didn't even have a good grasp on their mineral tenure ownership, which is exploration 101 - are we drilling on our own land?
DeleteIt will be interesting, once Regulus start their 'own' drill program, where they focus their attention.
Good postt
ReplyDelete