RE:RE:RE: Drill for structure drive for grade Thank you Loves Au and minigman, however, I see it differently. It's an expression that I think came out of Ontario, where a gold bearing area might be intersected by just a few drill holes, but the average grade of the assayed core would be low, due to using a small sample size in a location with coarse erratic gold. The value of the holes was more to locate the zone, to find out where one could drive a drift along the gold bearing area. This would then allow a good view of what was actually there and provide many face samples. The average grade is then based on numerous samples with a reasonably good sample volume, and then a higher more realistic grade would often be found.
The situation at PVG is a level beyond this where good information from a drift is not enough to give an indication of the grade in the stope above. Therefore it is necessary to carry out the more comprehensive program of drilling at close centres throughout the stope ahead of the excavation at statistically specified locations. So I would not agree, I'd say that PVG has not drifted to find grade of the stopes, only the grade immediately near the drift, instead PVG builds a database, runs definition drilling and a grade control program to arrive at the grade of any planned stope. Or in other words, like the company has explained.