How much Gold is sampled by long continous intercept Here is an example from the recent Butia drilling program...
236 meters continously in mineralized gold averaging 1.4 grams per ton
Now, 236 meters is close to 1/4 of a km....a long distance indeed.
But, what about the amount of gold did that transect intercept ?
Very difficult as we don't know the spacing between drill holes.
One simple approach is to consider that the intercept is straight through the Center of a sphere .
The formula is quite simple...Cubic volume = 4/3 radius cubed X 3.14 = 6.9 million cu meters .
The Specific gravity is 2.65 which converts to 18 million tons which @1.4 grams per ton =28 million grams or 820,000 ounces
A huge amount....too big in my estimation, based on the assumed spherical shape .
How about a channel 75 meters on the square and 236 meters long ?
Do the simple calculations and the answer is 160,000 ounces.
More reasonable but the width of the channel is still arbitrary.
My point is that long continously mineralized intercepts with economic grades of gold are sampling a large volume of gold ounces .
That is why a premium price is paid for such resource delineated ounces.
And, LDS is drilling large numbers of these long intercepts ..