Update on geochemical sampling?
posted on
Sep 13, 2007 07:37AM
Combining Classic Mineral Exploration with State of the Art Technology
Following up on the Agoracom response about drilling...
If the company can't tell us yet when the drills will begin to turn (although I believe I heard Mr. Briscoe say November in an interview) can we at least be told when the sampling will be completed?
1. How many breccia pipes sampled to date?
2. Of those sampled, how many look like drill targets?
3. How does this compare to the VERY AGGRESSIVE statements in the company's past quarterly filings. For example, the statements posted below:
Only guesses can be made at the current time about potential discoveries. The preceding and following are projections based on previously productive mines and exploration information. No mineral deposits have yet been defined on Company property. Based on previous production from the eight mines in the North Pipes
Super Project (NPSP) area the grade of ore is expected to be in the range of 0.6 to 0.7 percent uranium or about 12 to 14 pounds per ton. At the current uranium price of $113 per pound this mineralization would have a value of about $1,356 to $1,582 per ton. The uranium is generally associated with other metals which
include in apparent order of value, zinc, copper, silver, vanadium, molybdenum, nickel, cobalt, gallium, germanium, lead, gold and others. Some of these metals, particularly the first four may be worth recovering and could yield important value to the projected ore. By product metals could account for as much as $180 to $275 per ton. The eight producing mines produced about 26 million pounds of
uranium so an average size of 3.25 million pounds each is estimated. At $113 per pound uranium this would be valued at about $367 million per mine (not including by-products) or a total value for the eight mines of about $3 billion. If the Company's success ratio is 17% (approximately that of the earlier discoveries) and 342 Pipes are explored then 58 mines might be found. With average grade and
size this could result in an approximate projected production of $21 billion in uranium at the current price of $113 per pound uranium over a period of about 25 years. Capital costs for each mine are roughly estimated at $30 million. Operating cost is also roughly estimated at $325 per ton. Payback of capital is estimated roughly to be 2 to 6 months after full production is attained. Of
course we can neither be sure of the success ratio nor the long term price of uranium or other metals.