Replies to post #10858 on Explor Resources Inc. (fka EXSFF)

[Destinator]

I'm not sure where you heard that you require 6-8 grams for open pit mining. Detour gold is mining roughly 1 gram in their open pit. It boggles the mind how they can make money with such grades but they expect to do just that.

That said, the Detour gold is spread out in a relatively constant manner. I'm not sure about the TPW shallow gold because I have not had too much time to study it yet. I suspect that it is in a vein structure much like the deeper gold.

One point to remember is that TPW is a very large porphyry with gold showings throughout a two kilometer strike zone which is still open along strike and may continue for up to 4 km along strike. It is believed to go down almost another two kilometers. That is one big porphyry. Such a structure holds the potential for a very long mine life and indications are that the property would see higher grade gold the longer the mine is in place. A very long mine life reduces the cost of operation for the majors because they don't have to rebuild by moving from property to property.

Yes, the majors may be in an austerity program these days, but that is why we have exploration companies and that is why exploration companies need to build their reserves now so that they can sell the property once the market turns around.

The challenge of course is raising money in such an environment. With the suite of properties that Explor has under its belt (including Chester) I would say that Explor has some advantage over other juniors right now. Copper is expected to do well in the coming years and that $150,000 used to buy Chester could end up being a cheaper way to finance drilling at TPW if we could get some revenue out of it.

[gharma]

From what I understand for open pit what is most important is very large, bulk tonnage near surface and without expense of removing much barren overburden. During the last frenzy of rising gold prices I was seeing attempts to move half gram per ton deposits to open pit production.
There are all sorts of factors, whether there is a need to crush to fine size in order to get good recovery or if there is a sweet spot where the gold will leach from a course crush in a good timeframe and without too much cyanide cost. Further the type of rock, how hard, and the type of deposit particularly how fully cxidized, etc all play into it.
In today's climate where rising costs of energy, labor, machinery, and chemicals are all concerns it is likely only dominantly oxide deposits no deeper than 300 or so meters where most of that 300 meters from surface is a gram per ton or better that will be still moving forward with the projections on possible prices for gold as they are.
jmo