RE:I Got More Information From Peter!Sorry but I don't have it quite right yet. And I have been doing a lot of wilder speculating here about what the company should do! But I am an outsider (shareholder) looking in on the workings of the management mind.
But it's really worth the effort to try to understand as much as we can!
Pete got right back to me about trying to understand the terminology regarding ppm. Technically, it's all depends upon the mineral involved that is being graded! Who'd have guessed that?
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Here's what he wrote me exactly:
"...Remember when you move from ppm to an "oxide %, you apply an adjustment/conversion factor, so 1000ppm Nb when converted to NB205 actually works out to a slightly higher % value than 0.1%.
The adjustment/factor is also slightly different for each element (just to complicate things, lol) - U ppm to a U308 % uses a different factor than Nb ppm to Nb205, and so on...
At Niobec, they mine Nb at grades of 0.4-0.5%, but underground (at 100-500 meters). Assuming the same metallurgy (which it probably isn't), mining Nb at surface presumably would require less grade, due to much lower extraction costs.
However, I think the trick at Boxi is to keep looking for higher continuous grades along the dyke - in other areas and deeper. The mineralization comes from a large magma intrusion, so there's bound to be perhaps very large pockets of higher grade - it would be truly odd for 26%, and 10% pockets to just appear, out of nowhere, as a strange anomaly. It's all coming from somewhere!
If we can find some bigger pockets of good grade, then the lower and less consistent areas just supplement the whole deposit. The signs are certainly there, we need some "next level" expertise to help guide our next steps.
And yes, as you say, it would also be good to get a handle on what a "bulk" sample looks like, even in the "inconsistent" areas. Perhaps the VERY high grade pockets are frequent enough that the overall value of, say, 2 tons, ends up being significant and/or economic.
Lots to do - but our cash burn is very low..."
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Contact With Management Is Good!
I am learning a lot!
And sometimes even management must seek out even better, expert advice!
You just have to know which door to knock on!
All The Best! Java