Cut off grade
posted on
Sep 02, 2010 08:47PM
Creating shareholder wealth by advancing gold projects through the exploration and mine development cycle.
Both the Kodiak GM resource and the PG Hardrock resource reports use a cut-off grade of 1 g/t but GGR used 3 g/t in both the 2008 and 2009 resource reports. I went through them to see if they indicate any reasons for that particular cut-off. I couldn't find one but I did find some fine print in the 2009 report that stated the cut-off " must be re-evaluated in light of current market conditions". That suggests they just used a number from earlier reports without assessing how current it was. The 2004 report specifically assessed the possibility of an open pit operation with a cut-off of 0.04 oz/t ( 1.4 g/t). That also is a high cut-off for open pit but back then the gold price was under $ 500/oz. Kodiak's current strategy is to re-evaluate the open pit mine approach, so they will be using more appropriate cut-offs. The deposit is open at depth and along strike. More resource was defined after every drilling program so there's every reason to believe Kodiak will do the same with the proposed 20,000 m drill program. It's just a question of how much the resource will increase from applying a lower grade cut-off and more drilling. I was part of the group of people who thought the glass was half full after the press release and bought shares with the stock price still at $0.20. I think Kodiak should now be valued in the $0.30 to $ 0.40 range depending on how much value you put on the acquisition. If the GM resource estimate released earlier this year had the same numbers as GGR's Magino report, would we not all be in a happy place? Brian can now put together a decent dog and pony show to get the share price up. It will take awhile because the deal has to be finalized and the pre-feasibility study must be done before year end. It's the first time I've felt optimistic about this stock since the GM resource estimate was released.