Now Playing.  Assays from all but the last half dozen or so cored holes have been announced. Based on the exploration history here, fewer than 9% of the exploratory holes evidenced poor gold content. So I say that: assays still to come will show 5.4 out of 6 core holes found the gold bearing veins to extend beyond the limits known at end of March, 2005.  This good news will have the same effect on the market as the rest of the recent past good news. Phhhht! 

Put up a sign Cassidy : ADDITIONAL KNOWLEDGEABLE SHAREHOLDERS WANTED!

Announcements the last week in March 2005 brought home the fact that Cassidy is literally digging up a "helluva" lot of dirt!  Here are my observations on what I believe is happening in THE HUNT (big letters intended).

Change of pace.  Between June 2003 and late March 2005 there were approximately 175 core drill holes done. The Reverse Circulation (hereinafter "RC") drill started in early 2005. This changed the drilling dynamic incredibly. Remember, drilling 175 core holes required an almost constant effort for nearly two years. The RC drilling started in January 2005 and before the end of March it had drilled 256 holes. The RC rig made a hole in 10,674 meters of dirt  (or saprolite to the geological purists). (For us fossils, that is 6 1/4  miles of hole, or, almost as far as the distance we walked through fierce blizzards while going to school every day, remember?) 

In fairness, the RC had an easier task. It concentrated on drilling the shallower easy to dig gold containing stuff.  It's a "dirty" job but it needs be done. Let me explain.  

Putting things in perspective. RC drilling does not provide as much visual information for geologists as core does. But, it provides a very economic  way to get samples from underground. It is great when used for certain chores. Cassidy geologists can now project where the gold is in the two trends that had lots of coring done. What they need now is to better establish "How much can be pay dirt and how much gangue?".  (Gangue is useless material in mining talk. Do not confuse gangue with Ganja) Think of gangue as "overhead". You can't get away from it entirely but you want to keep amounts moved low.

A Geology "smidgen".  Cassidy identifies, among others, two nearly-parallel, close-by gold containing trends, the Sanu Filanan and the JJ. Each has economically significant gold occurrences. It's time to think about how one might mine this. Two investigations are needed. One is to more precisely determine the amount of gold within the trend. The second is to get an idea of whether and how gold can be taken at a profit. The first task is well advanced in determining the indicated resource of the Sanu Filanan. And, although the JJ trend was not studied with the same intensity, the similarities between the two are evident. Therefore, one can reasonably say that the shallow part of these trends, when mined, is likely to yield between 40,000 ounces and 80,000 ounces of gold for every 100 meter length of trend now known. Will it be economic to mine this gold?  How should one expect to best do it?

The gold bearing veins are contained in two basic settings.  Veins cut through an upper layer of rock that has been "weathered". That means the rock  has "rotted" right there "in place". Anybody other than a geologist would call it dirt. Deeper down, the rock is not "rotten". It is referred to as bedrock. Millennia ago, while the "dirt" was still "bedrock" the area was wracked by mountain-building forces. These earth movements created breaks in the brittle rock. Hot fluids squirted into the cracks. As the fluids cooled they deposited minerals in these cracks or "veins". In the area Cassidy is drilling, the mineral deposited in the veins is gold.         

Drilling shows that there is a varying thickness, up to 100 meters of the soft rock. The RC drill goes through this stuff like grass through a goose!  It will be easy to dig, move  and  crumble the saprolite (dirt) to get the gold out. To get it you may dig a long deep trench reaching to the bedrock. This is called "pit mining". But you cannot just dig straight down. You need to assure that there is room for roads into the pit and provide slopes so that the sides of your hole are not so steep that they cave in on you. Complexity arises. If you are going to pit mine the Sanu Filanan maybe you should widen the pit to take the JJ gold as well. Maybe even the north SF.  So you see, you have to know a lot about dirt.

Picture this: The "trend" along its length is like a ribbon sitting on edge. The lower edge of the ribbon goes down into the earth for an unknown distance. If we were to look at a cut across the trend(s) line we would see a pattern that looked somewhat like a tree with branches.  Now imagine two trees side by side on the prairie. One is the SF and the other the JJ. The constant wind has caused them to grow with their tops leaning toward the east. The branches of one tree may overlap the branch pattern of the other.  (Like the SF seems to do to JJ at the north) In place of a tree, imagine that the trunks represent the main part of the trend and the branches are the smaller cracks. Both the large and small veins contain gold. You need to design diggings that get all the gold that it is practical to take, and as little gangue as possible.

Watching paint dry? The  RC drill is drilling rows of holes, as if fence post holes for a giant's fence. It is investigating the gold content of the area occupied by the "branches" between the two known trends . This may not stir a lot of excitement but it provides info needed to make plans for mining. Some high grade areas may be found. We saw some, reported as  "highlights" from the RC holes announced on March 30. The work will help in planning a pit that is efficient, taking the greatest proportion of pay dirt to gangue. It should eliminate the possibility that a powerhouse, road or mill is located atop an area that should be mined. Exploration of the deeper, "bedrock" potential that exists represents "in the future" excitement potential. But for now, the drills dials are set on "soft" and "dirt".

The exciting part is still to come.  Cassidy's  "knowing eyes" look at where artisanal workings have been done, where geochemistry shows concentration of gold or where the geologists find promising looking ridges to rip into with the bulldozer. Cassidy has created a catalogue of continuing opportunities. These "leads" can be efficiently given the "further quick look see" with the RC drill. It is cheaper than using the core drill. The RC does not need a water supply to drill. It is more mobile than the core rig. It can operate through the rainy season. By drilling an "X" pattern of holes bracketing an area of interest the RC can quickly evaluate those targets where the greater "wisdom value" of the core drill can be best directed. Core is needed to determine the "geometry" of a find of the type known here..

Coming attractions:

1. Assay results of "fairway" cores still not reported.

2. Results from literally hundreds of soil geochem samples. Remember,  "soils" led Cassidy to drill the current discoveries. 

3. When not building roads for the drill, the dozer rips the dirt for trench samples. Results from this can lead to added new target areas.

4. The RC drill will begin a series of exploration holes within a week or so.

5. The core drill will resume work in about three weeks. Please get your popcorn and beverages now. You don't want to miss any of the main feature.