GOLD PROSPECTORS ON THE LOOSE:
Interview by Lee Hazell (FIBS)
It’s time to stake your claim and get out your gold pans. The Falklands Mineral Joint Venture, which comprises of Cambridge Mineral Resources, FIC and Falkland Islands Mineral Development, have started its 2003 exploration work on the onshore prospecting licence. Derek Reives (DR) tells us a bit more about it, starting with past work that’s been carried out.
DR: Basically, all the past exploration that’s been done here has mainly been more low key sampling in the streams and creeks, tracing back the minerals just to look for the possible source of these. That was basically with a shovel in the creek digging and then at some later stages with a mini excavator just digging a few more substantial samples.
LH: Did you find much?
DR: Basically, the Falklands have never been explored for minerals so what we are finding can be classed as anomalous but we have found what we class as significant, basically gold mineralisation and we’ve also detected some later stage background minerals such as platinum and palladium.
LH: What work are you going to be doing in the next part?
DR: Well, each level of exploration basically increases the level of work that you do. And, also the expenditure that you have. We are going to basically follow up on a source of the gold, which we think may exist. That’s going to involve actually getting through the peat cover and actually exposing the rock that’s carrying the gold. And, that will involve some large trenching, opening up a way for me to get down into these trenches, which will be about 7 metres deep. Then I will sample the unit, map it and record the geological features.
LH: Where are you going to be working? What sort of areas?
DR: Activities will be quite visible this year in terms of some of the areas we will be working. Basically we will be starting in the vicinity of Swan Inlet and begin working our way down. The trenches will be 5km apart and we will work our way down to the Port Sussex area and reverse and go from Swan Inlet towards MPA.
LH: Is it mainly just around riverbed areas?
DR: Yes. The actual unit that appears to be carrying the gold is actually a very soft rock, so it’s weathered and actually forms the valleys. So basically we will be down in the low areas rather than up in the higher ground.
LH: What sort of things can you see in the future?
DR: Basically the trench we are working is called the Shepherds Prospect. We have started to give these things names. The Shepherds Prospect is one which is accessible so the future would be, if it’s a positive result this time, we will then probably swing into a more full evaluation mode which involved a specialised drilling of hundreds and hundreds of holes to try and build up enough data to better start thinking about reserves. From there, we know how many tonnes we’ve got – x million at a certain grade of gold. We then can basically plan a mine and when we get a mine. From there we go look at the numbers in terms of the cost of building a plant. If the numbers work out that a business is going to be profitable, we will then proceed further. From there it goes into talking with the Government, doing a formal environmental impact statement and the whole works. That time-frame could go from two years or more for a full evaluation, to where you get the final approval from the Government to actually start the construction of the plant. Actually, it’s quite a long process. We could end up spending Millions and Millions of Dollars evaluating this and the value expert could come back and say it’s not profitable. It’s a high risk game. The results thus far are encouraging, so we hope to take that next stage based on results mid year.
(100X Transcription Service)
