My questions today to Dr. Webb and his reply.

"From your perspective, is today's news as disappointing as many seem to feel with regard to those grades in general that were determined, and especially the grades that came out of the areas that had high grade grab samples? And, how might we better understand what seems to be a relatively small strike length, and the relative number of holes with significant gold vs, those with none that were reported on today? Some were disappointed by the total number of results today seeming to be lower than what was anticipated following all that drilling that took place since December. What would you tell them? Interestingly nobody mentioned anything about the Clan Lake results. Will they be following soon?"

Dave's reply,

I thought the positives on the release, the continuity and strike length of the gold zone might be overshadowed by the grade. It is tough explaining what a shear zone hosted gold deposit looks like to people who expect ore-grade intercepts in each hole. I have tried to make it clear that we’re initially hoping for anomalies or >1 gpt gold over 1 metre, and once we find a zone to follow-up on, we hope to get some real kicks. Follow-up will come once we test more targets.

The average stope (orebody) in the Con Mine was <100 m long but plunged to >200 m down dip. Giant was similar. Beyond the orebodies, the shear zones graded less than the cut-off, often only trace or no gold. So what we managed to do in the 3 months we’ve been drilling is outline a mineralized segment of a shear zone that is close to 3 times the average strike length of an orebody. The grades, while not stellar are heterogeneous, suggesting we might get some high-grade zones within this >250 m strike length. This is good.

There is no guarantee there is going to be some high-grade at BigSky. I’m optimistic, but it will take time. It is worthwhile recalling that Corona Corp found the Hemlo orebodies on drillhole #76. Not drillhole #1, #10, or #20. It does take time, perseverance and yes, luck.

Clan Lake results are pending. We didn’t start on Clan Lake until 40 days after we started on BigSky in 2008. They’ll be released as soon as we get the numbers in.

Exploration and development of mineral resources is a gut wrenching experience. Great highs, terrible lows.

I am sure we’ll get something on one or more of our exploration properties that will be very exciting. I’m not sure it was in this release, or will be in the next release. I’m fairly sure it will be in 2008.