RE:RE:PRB, New resource estimatesHello Trapper,
Some comments from analysts (Jennings and RBC) on PRB resource estimate for your information, courtesy of LTGoldB of AGO board. If you have a chance to talk to PRB IR you might want to ask for their opinion, at least PRB should know how much of the stuff they left out in the new pit model (take a look at the picture of the new pit included in the release...there is quite a bit of data, the red blobs, outside the new pit....half of the 4Moz, i.e. the missing 2Moz, by eyeballing, which is of course not accurate. Jenning says 3Moz excluded (below). Presumably the new pit is a lot shallower, to make the case for a more economical mine, given the current POG. If POG is improve then they can go back to the previous estimate, or just start a brand new one.
goldhunter.
"Not included in this resource estimate: - we estimate that approximately 3 million ounces of gold grading approximately 0.9 g/t has been excluded from within the new pit shell. The gold is still present but the Company has not been able to draw the pit shell down far enough for it to be included. This "missing resource" remains an additional source of upside and will ultimately depend on gold prices for it to be mined profitably." comment by Jennings
"Probe management estimates that
~700–800Koz have been re-distributed from the previous resource's
open-pit category (which was 4.3MMoz at 1.02g/t M&I+I using a 0.5g/
t cut-off) to the new resource's underground category." RBC