√ I think we both made valid points in our responses, highlighting (in bold) different aspects of what the future may have in store near term (several years? - “No Fortuna. No Merlin 2, 3 etc. No PN. No LDM”) and longer term (2nd post - “Brucejack’s daily production capacity is about 2,700 tonnes.”)
Note for future reference: highlight in bold is not a shout.
Sadly, I read through the whole report as well (with two naps in between) several years ago. The problem is that 2000 tonnes would be the equivalent of small bulk sample and not representative of a producing mine. Either way, the data is limited but very exciting (which is why many of us invested here in the first place). The potential for numbers that could turn heads will be there if we get anywhere near 15-20 gpt (once we have the cap structure cleaned up).
[quote=“Baldy, post:542, topic:1528, full:true”]
Averaging 50 gpt over a sustainable period would be unprecedented. … To reiterate, a sustainable 50 gpt would be unprecedented, meaning, it’s never happened before. …
…[/quote]
I agree, and have stated I agree, with the unusual nature of Auryn’s claims. They are their claims however.
I will contest the statement in bold. According to The Geology of Chile [1], page 187 [2], the El Indio mine in Chile since 1980 has
produced 191 000 t of direct shipping ore that averaged 209 g/t Au
meaning about 1.3M Oz of production. Interestingly this came out of “quartz veins”. The mine is now closed. It was operated after 1994 by Barrick. [3] It is near the stalled Pascua-Lama project in the Andes, not near the ADL. Nevertheless, it has happened. And it has happened in Chile. No doubt it is extremely unusual.
I believe there were numerous not well documented historical cases where such grades were experienced. For example, in California, multi-Oz-per-tonne grades were experienced on average for a period of time in some places. But these were quickly mined out. The precision of grade measurement back then is certainly not to be relied upon. But the production numbers for some mines were very high considering the amount of rock moved. The grades had to be quite high. In the case of the ADL, grades were high enough in places to justify some crazy guys or making your slaves create and crawl around in small hand-made tunnels digging up ore back hundreds of years ago. One thing we learned (I learned) is that those 3 adits on the north side of the ADL are not associated with the Fortuna time period. They are “Spanish tunnels”, according to Maurizio, like those over on the LDM.
CHG
As a follow on:
Barrick closed El Indio some time ago. But they picked back up exploration in the region again starting in 2010.
Here is a MineWeb interview[1] from last year with Rob Krcmarov of Barrick (now Executive Vice President of Exploration and Growth)[2] regarding their recent exploration in the area. In the interview they reference the old mine saying:
RK: Geologically you’ve got the some rocks, but the mineralizing style is different here than El Indio (which is roughly 30 km away). It’s much more similar to Veladero (high sulfidation) whereas El Indio is an intermediate sulfidation system.
For context: Think of a continuum or a spectrum. You look at an intrusive center that might form at a depth of 2-5 kilometers. And above it you know you’ll have some intermediate sulfidation generally characterized by quartz carbonate and minerals like enargite. And you’ll get copper. And then above it there might be high sulfidation epithermals like Veladero and all sorts of other deposits.
So you’re thinking about that spectrum, from 2-5 kilometers to surface, this one formed in the near surface environment. El Indio itself is intermediate sulfidation. It was very very high-grade veins. In fact so high grade some of them were direct shipping ore.
KK: I believe a million ounces there in DSO.
RK: Yeah. That was a license to print money.
KK: Incredible.
That doesn’t mean Caren / Merlin fits this bill. But 34 g/t average with bonanza grades in spots above 200 g/t is Auryn’s public claim at this point.
I had a suspicion that you would find the exception to the precedence if there was one. I couldn’t find much if any details on El Indio beyond the following:
"El Indio is a high sulphidation Au-Ag-Cu deposit hosted by welded ash flow tuffs that underlie andesitic volcanics in a north-south striking fault bounded depression. Mineralisation appears to be related to the emplacement of small felsic domes and is of late Miocene age. The ore is present as fault controlled veins covering an area of 500 x 150 m. Mineralisation was emplaced in two well defined phases, namely initial massive enargite-pyrite veins, and second stage quartz-gold veins. The massive sulphide veins are accompanied by kaolinite and lesser alunite alteration and are rich in Cu, but gold poor. The second stage has associated sericite and lesser pyrophyllite, with local bonanza gold grades. Total production plus reserves are quoted as 23.2 mt @ 6.6 g/t Au, 50 g/t Ag, 4% Cu. Past production of bonanza grade ore totalled 0.5 mt @ 121 g/t Au. "
Hard to tell how the directly shipped ore fits into the 25 year history of the mine’s production but it’s an interesting find. Maybe MDMN will be the highest grade mine in the history of mining and we can give a finger to the El Indio (and Les) while we’re at it.
Luciano Bocanegra is the Auryn geo who produced the Auyrn Merlin 1 estimate of 34 g/t average across 1800m of vein length for 491 KOz contained in 200m of vein depth. He is also an Executive Director of Auryn Mining Chile according to his Linked In page.
Here is LB’s Linked in page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucianobocanegra/en
Luciano claims
very well developed skills in … vectoring in porphyry and epithermal systems.
“Vectoring” should ring a bell as Auryn is clearly working with / developing the idea that the porphyry that is manifest in the copper / moly PN on the side of the ADL, is the source of the Gordon Breccia and possibly the high grade gold veins of Merlin 1, Fortuna, etc. They point it out implicitly on Slide 19 of Auryn’s current ADL presentation. It has been mentioned more explicitly in other material. But the point is that the trend of the PN surface anomaly goes right toward the Gordon breccia surface expression and Fortuna, Merlin etc. seem at surface to trend toward the PN as they get to the southern part of the plateau.
Anyway, Luciano has been publishing some posts on Linked regarding “vectoring” that could be of inteterest.
Hydrothermal Alteration System, Mapping of Alteration with Focus in Targeting and Vectoring
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hydrothermal-alteration-system-mapping-focus-luciano-bocanegra
Alteration Vectoring in Epithermal Low & Intermediate Sulfidation Au-Ag Veins
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/alteration-vectoring-epithermal-low-intermediate-au-ag-bocanegra
Alteration Vectoring in Epithermal High Sulfidation Au-Ag-Cu Systems
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/alteration-vectoring-epithermal-high-sulfidation-luciano-bocanegra?trk=prof-post
They appear to be mini-commercials for the company he is part of: Petra Gaia. But it’s easy to see how they apply to the present ADL work. They are a bit too technical geo for me but perhaps MG and/or Doc will have some comments.
Thanks for your carefully researched post. It is customary to post a link when quoting someone else’s text or citing a reference so as to better put information into context.
also,
[quote=“Baldy, post:545, topic:1528, full:true”]
I was originally attacked by even suggesting that Vittal’s 75M shares was suspect (even by one of the guy’s on this board who I respect: HR). Guess what, he gave them all back. An innocent man with legit shares would not have done this.[/quote]
Attacked?..LOL. My “attack” was more akin to a tickle fight, but I acknowledge disagreeing with you on the level of criticism levied on the involvement of the directors. I’ll fully confess to giving people the benefit of the doubt and plausible deniability to a fault. It comes from unfortunate experience of shooting from the hip and being wrong, so I prefer a more measured response in the midst of anger and uncertainty.
I also disagree with you that the return of shares by Vittal and Greg is an admission of guilt (as far as being in on Les’ malfeasance), but at the very least it is a necessary admission of personal responsibility in allowing it to happen - more so with Greg than Vittal I think. I have no idea what Vittal’s culpability may or may not have been. I only know that he owned a lot of shares, reported them in the last Q, and nobody (on this board that I’m aware of) knows how he acquired them. Taking into account my m.o. in the previous paragraph, I’m not willing to circumstantially speculate to the felonious side of the equation without more proof. Les on the other hand is another story…he is “guilty as sin” as you said.
On another note, I am completely with you on taking a more conservative approach regarding the production and grade expectations by Auryn. I appreciate CHG’s analysis and calculations, but I think there is a lot of fuzzy math there, particularly coming from Auryn’s statements of the grades without the assays, meterage and continuity to draw some of the conclusions and assumptions of the Caren deposit as a whole. I would be DELIGHTED to be wrong, but when it comes to making estimates of deposits, I’d prefer a formal geological report, or in its absence, at least a consistent track record of production from which to draw conclusions. I’m not going to tout anything in mining as unprecedented without solid facts supporting it as so.
Shareholders in this investment have far too often been led astray by wild-eyed expectations of unquantifiable riches by the boots on the ground in Chile, “unprecedented” joint venture terms, and fanciful myths of naked short squeezes. This folklore has unfortunately led to a long and painful history of disappointment, lost investment dollars, and unnecessary angst even without the recent share structure debacle. How many times are we shareholders going to allow ourselves to be set up for disappointment? ADL appears to have the goods for a profitable mining venture, perhaps a very profitable one. But given the history that’s surrounded this deposit, I’d prefer to be cautiously optimistic and pleasantly surprised.
Z[quote=“Hurricane_Rick, post:565, topic:1528”]
But given the history that’s surrounded this deposit, I’d prefer to be cautiously optimistic and pleasantly surprised.
[/quote]
Amen to that. Proof it up Auryn. Talk is cheap.
Guilty of malfeasance or incompetence (failure of fiduciary responsibility). Not sure I understand the difference. I don’t think either Greg or Vittal knew what Les was doing but they returned their shares (representing considerable monetary value) because they were guilty. There’s a looooong list of folks to follow their lead.
Related to Vittal. When a guy with very little assets (not speculation) shows up with 75 million shares, out of the blue, you may choose to take the high road and come up with some fantastical explanation for this serendipitous windfall but, given the history of shares being handed out like Zimbabwe Dollars, it seems pretty obvious that something ain’t right. And, as much as I’d like to feel bad for his 75 million share loss, I’m fairly confident that he sold an amount exceeding that number over the course of many years. Not sure how those shares ever find their way back to the treasury BUT “benefit of the doubt” should no longer be part of anyone’s MDMN vocabulary, IMHO.
I have to admit, it’s impressive to watch some of you continually find ways to argue with one another no matter the topic, even when the tone is turning more towards the positive.
Some will never be positive even when it is. re the large shareholders in most recent filing, I believe Les and Days never reported them or the inflated numbers but holders like Vital and OCallahan were always there. Gary found it and reported it and here we are.
I hope Les goes to prison before his natural life expires.
Initially it was thought Les has been.stealing shares for 4 years and now it might be 10 yrs. Vital did a PP with Les in 2006 and 2010. I don’t know for a fact if those were the shares he gave back but I do believe after talking to him that he did not know what Les did until Gary with others uncovered the fraud. Of the 1.4 yrs. he served as president almost 1 yr. was spent in India because of family illness. He did ask for a audit while serving as president but because of Mdmn being broke it was not done. Les also blindsided Greg. And by the way I know they are responsible to shareholders and didn’t do their job.
Nothing wrong with a healthy debate. If you’re looking for mutual agreement and harmony I don’t think you’re going to find it on a message board covering a penny stock that is down 95% trading under a penny. However, it’s worth pointing out: “arguing” about whether we’re looking at 15 or 50 gpt material is a problem most projects would kill for.
I asked Gary how many shares he thought we could claw back at the AGM and he hoped between 400,000,000.-500,000,000.
How does a shareholder Gary who just got appointed to the BOD catch it and guys like Vital GC Tenney did not? Tells you these guys didn’t watch out for our best interest. Lean was right all along and should be given an apology. GC knew there were never NDA and what kind of director goes into hiding? Give me a break. Thank you John!
Not at all.