I think rather than concentrate on the highest reported grades, as investors we should look forward to the average grade of the deposit that may be proven up.  If you have a gram of gold in a kilo of rock, that works out to 1000 g/t!  So what?  You can find high grade samples just about anywhere.  I have quite a few in my office that I have collected over the years, many of which for sure would grade in the range of several thousand g/t gold.  These are not representative of the entire deposit that I chipped them out of.  It makes for an impressive number and not much else.  In fact, reporting of assays demands that higher grade numbers are cut and excluded from the calculation of a resource so as not to overly skew the data with a high grade sample anomaly.

The important thing about Hercules is that the higher grade zones occur with such frequency, and start right from the surface.  Gold occurs within quartz veins, which are relatively stable and hence it is unlikely these high grade zones are just a function of surface enrichment.

Neighbouring geology would suggest that the same vein formations could extend to great depths.  Numerous faults and sheer zones appear to intersect and they too could host bonanza deposit areas.

Once we have tested some of these targets and have more data in hand, some more accurate assumptions can be made about the deposit, average grades, and potential tonnage.  That is when the serious speculation will begin.

High grade zones near surface will be a plus for the overall economics, since these are the areas that would likely be mined first and generate the quickest payback on the cap-ex to develop the deposit.  But I suspect it will take a lot of exploration work to depth before anyone will ever make the decision to advance to development, and thus the deeper extensions will matter too.

Keep this in mind:  even if the geos decide to ignore all of the other targets, and just focus on the Golden Mile zone for all 4 kms...   A 60,000m drill program is a huge exploration commitment.  But if they decide to drill every 70m along the entire vein extension, that means setting up nearly 60 drill pads.  To test the vein to depth, from 40m and then around 100m, and then to 150m, you would need to do a fan of drill holes amounting to about 450m in total per pad.  That would use up about half of that total budget for drilling and you would still only have scratched the surface. 

And while we all wonder just what may lie to depth, I doubt they will punch too many deep drill cores without first doing all of that shallow work to define the near surface mineralization.  Why go to the time and trouble to drill for a week in order to test to 500m depths, when the entire vein may have pinched out or been displaced by faulting?  You drill shallow first and then follow the vein downdip.  We do not even know if the lateral zones of the Golden Mile are even mineralized at surface.

The geos running this program must feel like kids in a big candy store.  There is so much out there for them to go after, it must be difficult to stay focused.  I am glad that KXL has decided to raise all that money now because this is going to be a honking big project and it will go on for a long time.  I would encourage people to look up the history for Osisko Exploration (OSK) during the last few years and note the similarity to what is going on here.

Okay, thats it... I am taking off my pumper cap and going to bed.

cheers!

mike