Gold in the ground3 Apr 2026 16:15
Itās slightly worrying reading below the figures of 122g/t and I do hope people arenāt thinking that is remotely possible in Sunbeam for FCM? Very happy to be proven wrong.
For FCMās Roy prospect at Sunbeam (narrow quartz-vein style in Ontario, with visible gold in drill core over a 300m+ strike), the context leans toward underground-style thresholds rather than large open-pit operations.
⢠Open-pit bulk mining (low-cost, high-tonnage): Often viable at 0.5ā2.0 g/t Au but this requires very wide, continuous zonesātypically tens of metres thickāto justify the scale.
FCMās early drilling shows a ābroad mineralised packageā but with narrow, high-nugget quartz veins and shear zones (historical channel samples: 18.8 g/t over 0.3m, 6.27 g/t over 0.35m, etc.). Itās not set up for bulk low-grade open pit at this stage.
⢠Underground / narrow-vein mining (higher costs, selective extraction): Typically needs 3.0ā8.0+ g/t Au for economic viability, especially in early exploration where continuity, depth, and recovery arenāt yet proven. Comparable Ontario high-grade vein projects (e.g., West Red Lake Rowan resource) use cut-offs around 3.8 g/t Au for underground resources.
In gram-metres terms (grade Ć width)
For this style of deposit, a poor / sub-economic intercept would generally be under ~5 gram-metres (e.g., 5 g/t over 1m, or 2.5 g/t over 2m).
Anything consistently below 3ā4 gram-metres across the holes would struggle to keep the project as a strong āongoing concernā without significant more drilling or a major reratingāfunding and investor interest could dry up quickly in a micro-cap like FCM.
Minimum to maintain momentum: Hits around 5+ gram-metres in several intervals (ideally with some higher-grade shoots like 8ā15 g/t over 0.5ā2m) would be enough to justify follow-up work and keep the story alive, especially with the visible gold already logged and OJEP grant support.
CEO Marc Sale has flagged visible gold as potentially āin the order of an ounceā (~31 g/t) depending on sample lengthāso the market is priced for upside from that bar, not low-grade bulk tonnage.
Assays remain pending (as of early April 2026), with no new releases since the March 17 RNS confirming the second visible gold hit.
This is only what Iāve read, DYOR