Quote:
"In non-mining terms we've had some nibbles and now we have hooked something - but we haven't got it on board," says Glass Earth's president and CEO Simon Henderson.
More technically they have found a broad, wide system. They have drawn a line through it and drilled four holes across the middle. Now they intend drilling out at 100 metre intervals towards each of the pointy ends of the football shaped prospect.
"If it is 800 metres long - Martha Hill is 1000 metres long - then it is a world class ore body," says Simon.
It will be another 6-12 months and six more drill holes at $500,000 each to get the detail.
"We celebrate our victories on the way," says Simon. "We have been waiting six or seven years to be getting results like this and we have invested more than $20 million in New Zealand in the process."
Looked at optimistically, they have drilled four holes into the prospect and every hole has had economic mineralisation in it. "This has got some legs in it."
So, what is a World Class gold deposit? Apparently one with over 3.2Moz of gold in it.
Quote:
World class base and precious metal deposits; a quantitative analysis
Donald A. Singer
U. S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA, United States
Over 62 percent of the 193,000 metric tons of gold discovered to date is located in four countries and more than 68 percent occurs in four types of mineral deposits. About 55 percent ofthe 1,740,000 metric tons of silver found is in four countries and 45 percent is in four types of deposits. Fifty-six percent of the 1.52 billion metric tons of discovered copper is from four countries and four types of deposits contain 88 percent of the total. Over 50 percent of both the 713,000,000 metric tons of zinc and 349,000,000 metric tons of lead discovered to date come from four countries and 70 percent of both metals occur in four types of deposits. All discovered gold would fit in a cube with a height of 22 m, silver in a 55-m cube, copper in a 550-m cube, zinc in a 460-m cube, and lead in a 310-m cube. At least 74 percent of gold, silver, zinc, and lead is in deposits having average grades above the respective median grades and 44 percent of copper is in deposits with average grades above the median grade of all deposits. Lower grade deposits contain less total metal than higher grade deposits. Tonnage of mineralized rock is an even better predictor of contained metal with over 96 percent of each metal's total residing in deposits having greater than median size and between 47 and 79 percent of metal contained in the largest 10 percent of deposits. World class deposits, defined as the upper 10 percent of deposits in terms of contained metal, account for over 86 percent of all gold, 79 percent of silver, 84 percent of copper, 71 percent of zinc, and 73 percent of lead. These giant deposits contain at least 100 metric tons (3.2 Moz) gold, 2,400 metric tons (77 Moz) silver, 2 million metric tons copper, 1.7 million metric tons zinc, or 1 million metric tons lead. Mineral deposits occur rarely in the earth's crust and large ones are especially uncommon. This analysis shows that only the unusually large deposits can significantly affect supply.
If WKP proves to meet the minimum standard of World Class, GEL's 35% share is 1.12Moz, at say US$150 in-ground value per ounce on a bad day, it's about US$168 Million (that's a lot higher than current MCap), and they have many other permits.