Pine Cove Mine Back on the Mining TableI notice that the recent CP now includes additional drilling of the Pine Cove mine.
When this mine closed in 2020, it still contained 46,000 ounces of Indicated and Inferred gold resources of which 7700 ounces were Reserves.
This was estimated using a rather substantial cut off of 0.5 grams per ton at a POG of $1425 US.
Examining the chart showing mineralized tons within the pit in relation to cut off grade , at $2500 POG, a much smaller cutoff would be reasonable...say 0.35 grams per ton .
This would permit a substantial number of gold ounces to be considered to be economic.
Now, the Pine cove pit was only mined to 100 meters of depth which resukted in a production of 143,000 ounces over the life of the mine.
That is, about 1400 ounces per meter of pit depth.
The original pit depth was 150 meters , indicating that perhaps 50,000 ounces or so might be produced by fully excavating the pit.
Clearly, conducting additional drilling within the original optimized pit will be able to convert many more ounces from Indicated and Inferred to Reserves.
Even another 50,000 ounces of Reserves will add another year of mine life to the back 5 years subsequent to the initial 5 year HD mine.
More later.