The IP (induced polarization) and CSAMT (don’t even ask) measure the “polarizability” of rocks (ability to accept an electrical charge and “light up”) as well as resistance to current flow. Low resistance equals high conductivity. What you do is put an electrical probe into the ground and measure at various stations distant to the probe the reaction of the rocks. On these 4 readings, the dark blue is pretty much the boring old “background high resistance” to electrical flow or low conductivity i.e. not many metals or metal bearing disseminated sulphides.
The green and yellowish finger shaped “stalactite looking” things coming down from the top of the figures represent higher conductivity i.e. metal bearing. That’s the good stuff that in the case of the Fortuna Vein averaged 64 gpt gold over 30 years of production. Note the relationship between the dotted lines and the figures. On the top right reading “5,800” you can see the Fortuna Vein centered in both the figure and the dotted line. Over to the left of center(west) of it you see another highly conductive structure. This is not shown on the map but clearly appears to be a similar structured vein with the same conductivity.
On the figure corresponding to “5,500” you can see the wide Fortuna Vein right of center which nicely corresponds to right of center of the corresponding dotted line. Then you see what appears to be a red (super highly conductive, low resistance) jewelry store looking figure that the miners apparently missed. This did not make it to surface and those miners had no technology to find this. This is called a “subparallel” vein because it is lower than the FV and parallel to it.
On the other 2 figures you can see vein like structures not shown on the map. You can print off this page like I did and add these to the map. The dotted line “lineaments” shown are the surface showings of the faults that host the veins. You can see them from an aerial view but they haven’t been trenched yet and sampled. The yellow on the map that surrounds the red linear veins represents Argillic alteration that is often associated with veins formed by hydrothermal fluids that entered into cracks in the rock and later cooled. The argillic alteration represents “cooked” nearby rocks that got converted into clay. On this map there is a lot more vein structure than shown by the red lines. When you add the “lineaments” and the greenish-yellow stalactite looking figures you can see that this “Merlin alley” has a lot going on and these veins extend to about 400 meters in the case of the red conductivity high shown in the second figure labeled “5,500”. This represents 5,500 meters from some fixed point to the south.
All of those arrows citing “open” means that the terminus of these various veins have not been found yet. Argillic alteration with “boxwork” or “honeycombed” patterns found at surface are highly suggestive that supergene enrichment is below surface. This would explain the 64 gpt gold at the FV and the 27 gpt gold at surface in the Merlin 1 Vein. Those are very big numbers and these are very big veins. The metals (usually in sulfate form) that used to be inside of the boxworks/honeycomb has been dissolved and transported lower. To date AMC has discovered over 5,000 meters of veins that made it to surface. There could be multiples or fractions of that under the surface. It’s nice to know that the IP/CSAMT readings correlate nicely with the argillic alteration/veins. I don’t know how extensive of an IP program they have done to date but I would guess that there’s going to be plenty more done using varying dipole configurations to look at various depths.
It’s interesting here how the unlabeled Merlin 1 Vein to the far left of the map that runs into the Caren Mine crosses the granodiorite and goes into the ocoitic (porphyritic) andesite. This suggests that the veins came later in the sequence of intrusions from down below. The average “gold mine” involves veins averaging about 2 to 4 gpt gold. A lot of times these are in lousy infrastructural areas in geopolitically unsafe regions. Although the share price is 180-degrees antipodal to the geologic findings this is pretty good stuff they’re finding in this area. If we end up with 10 Km of veins here averaging 1 meter in width and only 200 meters in depth and the same 27 gpt gold found at surface at M 1 you’re looking at about 4.6 million ounces of gold in situ (in place). That 27 gpt gold at surface at the M 1-M 5 is going to be hard to match but we’ll see. I would suggest, however, that the Pegaso Nero findings will totally blow away even these findings. And no, I’m not obsessed with this deposit and you can even ask my cats Merlin and Fortuna!
Also, hypothetically of course, the cost of mining the 4+ million ounces in this case is some fraction of what it costs in other locales, with significant less country risk.
In a nutshell HUGE GRADES AND HUGE SIZE. Page 12 and 13 of the new deck cover the PN deposit. The PN sits on the southern downslope off of the plateau. The average Cu-Mo porphyry worldwide weighs in at an average tonnage of 500 million tonnes. Recall that C.S. Perez’s hyper spectral satellite survey, which does not penetrate and only measures surface alteration, identified a 7 Km long swath of “about a dozen intrusives” ON THE SOUTHERN DOWNSLOPE OFF OF THE PLATEAU.
The Cu-Mo (PN) breccia is right at surface sporting those insane grades. It’s a tough area to work on because of the severe slope and Medinah saved it for the big boys even though it was probably the gem of their find. A lot of discoveries are identified via the “road cuts” that create the roads used to access the area. It’s almost like vertical trenching. You get rid of the highly weathered and highly oxidized layers and get down to the good stuff often. Most of the mineralization in porphyries is held in veinlets and stockworks. The south road that services the old mines there has 2 full Km of porphyritic veinlets revealed by the road cuts. The Carrizo and Cobriza Mines are located here and they had very nice near surface numbers. They’ve barely been touched just like ACA Howe said about the Fortuna Vein area.
If you have alteration at surface for 7 straight Km then you have stuff underneath there that provided the hydrothermal fluids to do the “altering” or cooking of the native rock that converted it into rocks of a different chemistry (metasomatism).
As far as the costs to mine, you’re within view of the Santiago airport for crying out loud. There’s no need to bring water in from the Pacific Ocean and build a desalination plant. The power is already there and we’ve already tapped into the main grid that goes north just west of Lampa. The new deck of AMC refers to the “Low CAPEX opportunity with unique location, close to cities, ports, power lines, water supply and communities friendly with mining activity.”
Blame Les and his bait on a hook because it isn’t Mike making up when the news is coming out. I’m just as frustrated as everyone else but Mike is just relaying what he has been told.
Hey… don’t sweat it… it’s just the way the board works… you’re safe because you dislike MDMN BOD’s and Management… if you liked them… you would have been banned by now…
I’m with the few who are saying… wait for some news to come out… then make decisions from the facts at hand… trying to predict the future in a situation like this… is probably not going to give anyone anything very accurate at all… JMHO…
But I do say… everyone should be allowed their opinions/speculations… and stop all the badgering… arguing… etc…
Maybe… A New Year… will bring a change… can always dream…
I asked when news would come out from Auryn. The answer was he doesn’t know. He is not in control as to timing of Auryn updates. Updates have been prepared but not yet approved by all parties. There are more Corporate meetings scheduled Mid January in Chile. IMO 2016 will be a great year for shareholders.
