Geology & GeoMetallurgy

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RC Drilling Cost and Gold Fire Assay Price (3 replies)

(unknown)
8 years ago
(unknown) 8 years ago

Without giving away any confidential information, those of you who can, can you please provide you current best estimates of RC drilling costs per metre, and the cost of a 50 g gold fire assay for Australia - I know prices are more competitive due to the slump in the market and am interested in the spread

Hauptsturm
8 years ago
Hauptsturm 8 years ago
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To kick things off how realistic is this $150/m all-up cost in this article http://is.gd/csQ2Ml

(unknown)
8 years ago
(unknown) 8 years ago
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Depth cost

0-50m - $40/m
50-100m - $45/m
100-150m - $50/m
150-200m - $55/m
200-250m - $60/m
250-300m - $65/m

add approx $10-15/m for non drilling costs.

You could possibly +/- $5/m from above, dependent on your negotiation skills.
Au/Pt/Pd Fire assays should be around $9-10/sample.

Marshal Meru
8 years ago
Marshal Meru 8 years ago
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As regards the 50g gold fire assay, I came across the below text in a technical note from ALS, http://is.gd/WAXPlL 'Fire Assay Technical Note 2012'. Has anyone here come across this problem before?

"To cope with the ever increasing demand for gold assays, commercial laboratories have focused on increasing productivity through the introduction of larger furnaces, mechanical sample/flux mixing equipment and multi-pour systems. This has resulted in the standardisation of fire assay crucibles to a shape that allows efficient use of the furnace floor space. This, however, limits the ability of the laboratory to increase the amount of flux used where the higher flux to sample ratio is required.

Most commercial laboratories recommend the use of a 30 gram fire assay charge weight as this provides the best compromise between optimum gold recoveries and the potential for a poor fusion. ALS Minerals typically performs fire assay determinations using a flux to sample ratio of 5 – 6:1 to reduce the chance of a poor fusion and the resulting low precious metal recoveries.

Clients requesting higher charge weights on the grounds that this will provide a more statistically valid sample may well find that assay results on their internal QC samples will tend to have a negative bias, a bias that will be more pronounced when assaying a ‘difficult’ sample matrix. The more ‘difficult’ the sample matrix, the greater is the chance of a failed assay resulting in the laboratory having to repeat the assay at its own cost. This, combined with the need to maintain efficient turnaround times, drives the laboratory to always use its experience in estimating a fire assay charge weight that will maximise its chance of achieving a successful fusion."

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