RE:This changes the whole dynamicIcarus, you statement above:
Now it's possibly: no nuggets, no gold. That's tough to swallow for many, because it says that If the nuggets are not continuous, then the gold is not continuous. I think most of us knew this was not a continuous resource throughout the Pilbara, but this just increases the possibility of large swaths of worthless dirt, (especially along Sprott's 86 kim of strike). My bold highlight.
I agee with most of your post but stating this is not a continuous resource is a bit premature. ES had to have some basis for his statement that the conglomerates continue over 85 kilometers unless you think his geo's are idiots or ES lied to pump the stock and QH went along with it. Now those conglomerates might not be rich as Purdy's appears to be but calling those conglomerates possibly worthless is a stretch at this point. The whole thing could be "possibly worthless". You and I don't think so but there is a chance. And investors alway's knew that was a chance. However, the selloff today supports your points that this set us back quite a ways. However,
Purdy's to comet wells and beyond have nuggets present at surface along entire length. They're drilling and trenching 400 meters wide and hitting the same type of conglomerates. Do the math, 8000m x 400m say 3m thick at 2.5 tons per cubic meter you get 24 million tons to process. At 10 gpt you get around 8 million ounces.
That's enough to support the SP given that the gold is at or near the surface so AISC will be very low using open pit mining. You'd want to do 2 million tons per year processing and the Radio Hill plant could be upgraded to that for $100 million. The best bulk samples will come around the end of 2018 when they start running tonnage through Radio Hill. Can't see QH/ES fighting DL on this now.
As for waiting several years to have a reliable resource estimate, we weren't going to get that anyway no matter what type of sampling was use. They don't even have permits to drill down dip. They'll widen diamond drilling down dip when permits are approved. If the same conglomerate beds extend, then they can reasonably extrapolate a resource based on actual Radio Hill mill output.