FDR expands the footprintAssay results this morning put a nice finish on the combined “Greater-Froyo” zone for the moment. A kilometre-wide area has been defined beyond all doubt.
We will probably get a few more from the Upper Antino before the first Buese holes are drilled. I suspect those initial Buese cores should be processed in late July or early August, based on our team’s new approach of bundling greater numbers of assay results before release.
This is a good time to comment on a new and welcome source of intellectual support for FDR’s valuation. Aaronmcm, who also commented on our last set of drill results, rated these new assays as in the 91st percentile for both grade and length. Our gold was deeper than 75% of other assays in his databank, but that (potentially negative aspect) by itself means little here, as we already have proven our deposit starts at the surface.
At first I was astonished at the thought he could be drawing on a database of 2.5 million (!) assays for comparison. But on reflection that seems reasonable. A rotating cast of 500 venture exchange listed explorers searching for 40 years, each drilling, on average, 10 holes per year, would create 200,000 assays in that time period. Double that figure to allow for the extra holes drilled by non-venture exchange explorers, and you’ve got 400,000.
Considering that most of the drilling done each year likely comes from medium and large gold producers expanding the edges of their proven deposits, or further exploring step-out directions to determine how best to expand their existing mines, and I have little trouble adding another 2 million assays (50,000 per year).
What does this A+ rating today from Aaronmcm tell us? It confirms, as we expected, that even a moderately decent hit for Founders is still a stand-out result. I believe he said in his first comment that the most recent prior assay was rich enough it correlated heavily with a 5-million-plus ounce deposit, waiting to be proven up in the fullness of time. Or possibly... in less than a year.
All of which we FDR shareholders already believed. But it is still nice to have the brute power of statistical analysis on our side as well.