I have tried hard to keep our projections in line with realistic expectations. I have also tried to poke holes in the notion that this might be a continuous deposit. I have, however, been presented with some very convincing counter-arguments that this belt may in fact contain one long deposit for exactly the reasons that Naughty use to suggest that it is not - namely that nature is chaotic.

The arguments that were presented to me are as follows:

1) The hydrothermal system that intruded into host diorite through a chaotic fracturing event was an extremely rare event. So rare in fact that it is more likely that it occurred all at once along the entire strike, than for it to have occurred at multiple sites along strike.

2) The system required extremely high pressure to fracture the diorite in the first place. Any pressure release at one point along strike would likely have resulted in precipitation of the quartz and thus precluded the possibility of another zone being created.

Of course- I think it is impossible to rule out multiple high pressure surges as a result of the continental collision/rebound event that was believed to produce this belt.

These are the arguments as they have been presented to me . In the end I am more comfortable with the possibility that this is a continous, albeit highly chaotic quartz system.

Snezzer- As for the width of the belt, Naughty is correct that it is very difficult to predict and likely changes along strike. As a conservative estimate I would say that 50 m of quartz across multiple parallel veins within the 1km wide belt would be a conservative starting point for your calculation.

Best,

Scott