LonghandStrong wrote:
I am worried that more bulk tonnage of the sort we have is not what the market wants. I mean, if 28MM ozs didn't get their attention, what will another 10 or 15 MM do? I really hope that this year they are able to improve the grade, perhaps the infil will turn up some of these higher grade seams. Or, that PSZ is higher grade. I can only imagine where this would be if it was even 1GPT au, I think (hope) that we can all agree that stronger assay values would/could drive market interest and SP. IMO, in the lower grade spectrum we are much more tied to macro gold, and that "grade" concerns lead to "feasibility" concerns, which lead of course to negative sentiment. If we can raise the average grade AU, perhaps above that magical resistance of 1GPT, maybe we will decouple from gold macro and roar. The met, I don't know much about it and candidly, at this point, I agree it's probably just noise. As the project progresses however, this will become more than "much ado about nothing" in my opinion if the grade stays flat and or of management doesn't address with more clarity.
I like challenging questions like this because it drives me to do more research, and I learn more as a result. So thanks for sticking to this line of thought.
I'm not sure the 28 million oz. got anyone's attention. But I am sure that 15 million M&I oz. in an open pit very much did. It's not as if there are a boatload of other 15 million oz. open pit options out there.
As to grade, if .65g/t doesn't cut it, then what do we think about Iron Cap with 33 million oz. Au at only .45g/t? Toast? Worthless? Or what about the entire Proven and Probable KSM gold total of 38.8 million oz. at .55g/t? P&P but so what? Snowfield M&I is another 26 million oz. at .59g/t. No good? Another 65 million oz. KSM+Snowfield Inferred on top of that at .38g/t? We better tell Rudi.
I'm not expecting Perfect Storm to provide us with higher grades. Based on the trend of the Sulphurets system to deliver higher grades further north, the PSZ grade could come in between Goldstorm and Iron Cap (between .45g/t and .65g/t). However, PSZ is clearly the size of Iron Cap or Snowfield in terms of footprint so we could be talking another 30 million oz. in all categories when Tudor is done drilling out PSZ and Eureka. Based on Mr. Konkin's estimate of 1 oz. Au for each drilling dollar, a $30 million drilling season could also indicate that kind of result. There is clearly more copper at PSZ so far.
I agree that much needs to be done in terms of finding the best ways to extract and process the Au from Goldstorm. The same is true of the KSM deposits, GT Gold and just about every PEA I've read in the region. I accept that the "P" stands for "Preliminary." As more work is done we'll see what answers are found. I'm not sure a major will wait until Tudor completes all drilling and PEA work. The miner that takes Goldstorm will likely be a first mover that makes an aggressive bid.
Do your own DD. GLTA. Doug