RE: 25RSDD002 Timeline15 Oct 2025 09:55
What we know is that hole 2 has encountered an exciting combination of Mineralsied, breccia and alteration zones.
Those are exactly what we want to see, but are extremely
challenging and time consuming to drill for the following reasons.
π Mineralised zones: Often quartz- or sulfide-rich β very hard and abrasive β slower penetration, more bit wear and changes.
π Breccia zones: Broken, mixed rock β unstable hole walls, poor core recovery β need for casing, triple-tube, or slower drilling.
π Altered zones: Frequent lithology changes β constant adjustment of drilling parameters and tool selection.
All will likely need a lower ROP and more bit changes and sampling to avoid Caving or Core loss - all pretty standard stuff when drilling through those complex types of mineralsied ground - but slows the process down somewhat.
Loss of drilling fluids in the Brecciated zones, and to some extent in the altered rocks, will also have to be monitored closely with the voids, veins and fractures etc. Again standard stuff but takes time, particularly if casing etc.
So any guesswork on how many metres that are doing per shift is just that - a guess.
The longer 992 takes, the better as it likely means that we are either going a lot deeper or still encountering the exciting multiple zones and the drilling has slowed done somewhat - probably both.