Drilling and Assay Time Reference...
posted on
Jun 10, 2009 08:03AM
Focused on becoming a near-term Gold Producer
FWIW... About this time in 2007...
re: Drilling... SGX announced a 2,000m program at Jacobus Cu-Ni. They completed 6 holes (and reported assays from 1 hole) of this initial 2,000m drill program in about 37 days (about 54m per day). SGX then extended drill program to 3,800m and completed an additional 7 holes in another about 33 days (also about 54m per day). Therefore, to change drill locations ~13 times and drill 3,800 meters took 70 days and averaged just over 54m per day.
Therefore... SGX Golden Extension initial program started on or about June 8th... estimated to be 1,500m... using 54m per day (which was exact same rate in previous Jacobus drilling)... IMO this drill program could be complete in about 28 days (July 5th). They have indicated drilling 15 or so 100m holes. However, they have also said multiple holes (I am guessing 2 or max 3) could be drilled from same drill location. Therefore, they will likely not need to move drill 15 times... IMO 8-10 movements maximum will be necessary (i.e. less than 2007 program when they changed 13 times and still averaged 54m per day).
re: Assays... It seems in 2007 that other than the 1 hole reported after the first 6 holes, all assays were submitted for assay simultaneously after the entire program was completed. Remaining assays were expected in early August. Would also seem the 1 hole reported was sent for immediate assay because it did contain "best nickel hole to date at Jacobus". Therefore, safe to assume that if other holes looked of similar quality they would have also been sent for immediate or near-immediate assay.
Therefore, if previous Jacobus program is any indication... and I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't be... 1 drill, virtually same location, likely same crews... if the first few holes look promising enough to send from immediate assay, some assays would also be possible by this estimated drilling completion date of July 5th. With all the talk of visible gold on surface and found in the samples one would think this will be the case.
Would multiple high-grade hits per hole near surface over multiple holes warrant a halt or two? Me think yes. Not dealing with channel samples anymore. Let's hope.
red911
P.S. I think this is a possible completion date but I still say SGX will delay these results until Puma transaction closes. I hope I am wrong but I have seen this before. Don't agree with it but it happens. All we can do is hope that it closes sooner than they anticipated and not "sometime in July".