The reason I ask about the underground drilling is that I didn't see anything in the budget for the original find for drilling. All the budget states for drilling is for the North Zone, Y Lake, Grizzly and a small diamond drill program. I think what they are thinking is holding off on drilling this deeper stuff in the West Zone Extension, 119, 119 Extension and South Discovery Zone. If there was a mine and they go underground I think it would make sense to drill it then? This stuff is pretty deep and it costs a lot to drill from surface so they will concentrate on the shallow stuff until they are underground in the west zone.
I do remember talking to Mike Maddigan who was part of the old management team and he thought that there could be a couple hundred million tonnes in the west extension all the way down to and including the south discovery. Of course that was just a guess on his part based on the geophysics but this was a man who was winding up his time with SRU and was terminally ill with cancer and had nothing to gain by telling me this. I know that the geophysics they ran in this area had run over 2000 seimens which is supposed to be a very good reading. I had emailed back and forth with Sid Vissor who was in charge of the geophysics and he said that he has seen very few projects get a reading this high. He said there is something there without a doubt. Of course this is just speculation until such time they drill the area. That is why I was surprised to see no drill program for that area and can only conclude that they will drill it in the future when they are either underground or in production and don't have to raise funds to continue a larger drill program. It will cost a lot to drill this from surface because it runs some 1000-1200m down.
I just went through the NR dated January 22, 2004 and Syd Vissor stated "
Of particular interest is the fact that, in the S.J. Geophysics Summary Report, portions
of the new 2003 UTEM-3 conductive anomaly have geophysical signatures that have
similar, if not better, features than those in the West Zones and 119 Zone."
I suggest that people go back through the old NRs on the website to fully appreciate what this company may be sitting on. I have done this several times to refresh my memory since there has been very little done, especially in this area. This NR from January 22, 2004 is a great read and should be read by everyone to understand what this formation is really about.