Turnipseed

Sticking with North American Palladium

Mark,
I was referring to your using a single intercept in ddh 07-007 of 29.69 gpt PGM and implying PAL has discovered an ore body of this grade. My comments were intended to point out that much more work was needed in order to prove your implication. If you didn't mean to imply this, then why do you claim PAL has the world's richest Pd mine?
The drilling in the OHGZ gave indicated reserves of 3.239 MT of 5.45 gpt Pd and 8.24 gpt of Pd equivalent, and inferred reserves of 12.794 MT of 5.25 gpt Pd and 7.90 gpt PdEq. Pretty good grades but a far cry from 29.69 gpt PGM and certainly not the world's richest Pd mine. Of course, we both know that average grades mined are also dependent on other factors like mining cost and dilution.

Sticking with North American Palladium

DaveW,
Mineral deposits can be highly irregular - a hole 10 feet away might show very different grades. Determining ore reserves requires considerable drilling and sampling, and sometimes requires underground drifting. I'm generalizing here because different types of mineral deposits and even deposits of the same type all have there own individual quirks. High grade intercepts can be interesting, but have little value in estimating the grade of a mineral deposit. Ore reserve calculations require the collection of a vast amount of data as well as geostatistical analysis. PALs drill hole results are interesting, but this probably represents less than 1% of the data needed to determine if this mineralization is economic (ie can become a mine). Mark obviously does not realize this, hence my comment.
By the way, I am a mineral exploration geologist by profession.

Sticking with North American Palladium

Mark,
Your comment about only needing one drill hole "in the richest part of the center of the ore body" is totally, completely wrong. You obviously know absolutely nothing about mineral exploration or ore reserve calculations. Goggle "nugget effect" and krieging to see how incredibly ignorant you are. Shame on you for misleading other investors.