RE:Underground drillingTo Mr Shifty...
There are some Gold mines in Canada that are 3kms deep and several in South Africa that are over 4kms deep. Try google...or just look at the January 9th press release from Signal specifically Exhibit D it says...
Exhibit D. A schematic vertical longitudinal section looking north, showing the 3.4-kilometre strike of known gold mineralization between Dolliver Mountain and the Goldboro Deposit. The drill results from Dolliver Mountain are significant in that they demonstrate potential for discovery of additional gold mineralization down-plunge to the east beneath the current Goldboro Deposit.
If you look at the verticle scale on the right hand side of the Exhibit D shows the deposit is open at 1.5 kms deep...these deposit types (stacked saddle reefs) can go much deeper than 2 kms. The goldenville formation hosting the deposit is only 10-13 kms thick, so who knows how deep!
Drilling yes will be from the bottom of the pits - phase 2 which has been discussed as future plans for some time. Yes cheaper to drill from the bottom of the pits...and then from drilling stations blasted from underground to go even deeper.
Economics will determine how deep we can go and at chase what grade. I'm not worried about even 1 km deep as yet as that will not be on the table till 10ish years after production starts and Signal or whomever owns the deposit has their pockets full of cash to proceed underground and drill off the deeper stuff.
The underground potential here is massive...especially adding the 1km stuff to the west...yes narrow but profitable to mine underground...it all comes east at depth under the two pits...several kms of strike length....love it.
Underground and depths below 250meters is a decade away after production starts...just saying it is a big carrot for a big company who wants to produce in one spot for decades...Goldboro can provide that underground!!