Assay results

How long does it take to get anassay result?

Some companies can take months to release assays. We all know that these companies want to release those juicy numbers as quickly as possible, but sometimes, those evil pricks at the assay labs decide to screw everything up and deliberately go slow on those critical samples from that critical drill-hole from that critical project.

I mean, a Junior Exploration company would NEVER sit on assay results, especially if they aren't inline with market expectations/promises.

I need to take you on a trip, image that you are a little gold flake (or silver for weirdos), you've been lucky and managed to find yourself in a vein. If you've been lucky, you've ended up in a nice, warm location.

You've been there for millions (or longer) of years, an then, some dick-head geologist, probably a JAFA, whips out his Estwing, beats you out of place and then tosses you into a fine Sentry sample bag.

So, how long do you think it will take for this sample to go from the field, get crushed, analysed and the results e-mailed back to the incredibly talented exploration geologist?

(Note: I'm ignoring samples sent to mine laboratories, they have this weird think called 24 hour turnaround, that is way to little time to create an impressive story of your geological prowess).

There are 3 aspects in the life of a sample:

1. How long it takes to get  the sample from the field to the prep laboratory
2. How long the Prep lab take to dry, crush, pulverize and sieve the sample to create a pulp
3. How long it takes the pulp to arrive at the analytical lab and be analysed and the results sent to the company.

These factors vary by work rotation, project location, and location of the labs.

So, I've been going through some of my old data, and on average:

Peru - 28 days

From field to prep lab = 7 days

Prep = 3 days

Analysis - including over-limits - 18 days

Chile - 31 days

From field to prep lab = 8 days

Prep = 2 days

Analysis* - including over-limits - 21 days

Mexico - 25 days

From field to prep lab = 3 days

Preparation = 2 days

Analysis* = 14 days

*the pulp samples were sent overseas to Peru/Canada for 4 acid digest

These are AVERAGE turnaround times from hundreds of sample shipments. So, if we factor in a week or two for the geologists to import, process and interpret the results, you can see that 5-7 weeks is a good upper limit to wait for results to be announced.

So, if you are waiting >2 months for the results, maybe you should ask why......

Note: The samples form Chile and Peru were a combination of Core and surface (rock-chip, grab and soil samples). The Mexican samples were surface samples only.

Mexican Hat - dodgy numbers?

GMV's Mexican Hat project, we saw earlier how they like to add together their separate intercepts to make their gold zones look bigger.

This project has had a history of getting companies into problems with the BCSC.

The first was Capital Hill Gold (link):

oops...

And then it was the turn of Auracle Resources (link) :

darn....

We are told that the resource defined by Placer is:










So the gold is found is discrete zones?

Rock-chip sample data

Outcrop photos

Brown rocks - contain gold; grey = no gold

Drill-hole Data

Gold in narrow, discrete zones..

Sections

So GMV have managed to increase the project resources by a small 244% from Placer's original "geological estimation" of ~154,000 ounces of gold to >500,000 ounces?

Official Mexican Hat Resources, GMV resources Feb 2016

They must have drilled a crap load of drill-holes. Here are all the historic holes.

Black = Placer Holes

Here are all the holes drilled by GMV, but please be careful, as you may be amazed at how they have swiss-cheesed El Sombrero. Here are the 2016 drill-holes.

so, 15 holes?

Looks to be 18 holes in 2011 and 15 holes in 2016, and a few holes this year, so I'm sure that they hit massive thickness of high-grade gold. I assume that they forgot to put them in the PRs?

So, we have gold in discrete, narrow zones. A massive increase in resources, but without a huge amount of drilling? How does that work?

I'm sure there is nothing suspicious, but just a couple of questions:

• When will GMV release the results from the 3 holes completed in May (link)? We had a bit of text in the July 12th release (link), could be get a table?

• How has the rest of the drilling going? You Told us that drilling started in July (link), so no holes have been completed and no results? When will we get to see the results?
• RC rigs can easily drill 200m a day (so should be completing a couple of holes a week)
• You have an assay lab in Tucson just 72 miles away, a 1.5 to 2 hour drive
• Labs normally take 2-4 weeks to process and analyze samples
• You also told us back in May that you completed the 1st diamond hole in the 2017 drill program. When will we see the results from this hole, it has only been 4 months.

You should have a good chunk of the results, did you get any huge intercepts like those in the Feb 2017 PR (link)

This project smells of BS, and the company have demonstrated that they are more than happy to massage results to present a small, crap project in the best light possible.