Standard Assays and Sophisticated Assays
The public’s general understanding is that the assay value of a project is the value of the ore deposit within that particular project. This understanding is incorrect. There are in fact different kinds of assays and while they are a key component of determining value, they are not the true market valueof that reserve. This nuance is usually left out during discussions concerning the truth about assays resulting in uninformed understanding, resulting in wrong decisions. In order to understand the recoverable value of a project it is crucial to understand the critical details of the assays and the assay methods used. There are many ways to lose money relying solely on assay results where critical details are not properly addressed. It is therefore important to understand what SPM and 1027 consider the proper approach for the development of the project.
Much of the public thinks that a standard assay reflects the stated gold value of the sample being assayed. This is not always true. Standard assays are appropriate if the gold in the sample has been liberated, is not masked by other elements, and the interfering elements have been taken care of and the gold is not subject to volatilization. All conditions must be right and met before a standard assay will properly evaluate an ore sample.
Therefore, the key to a proper assay evaluation is sample preparation or what 1027 calls “pretreatment”. 1027’s definition of pretreatment is: what is done to the sample to prepare the sample to be assayed. There are thousands of pretreatment combinations that can be used. If gold is in the sample and the proper pretreatments have been performed, the assay will be accurate. However, it takes skill, and it takes a sample study before the proper pretreatment process can be identified. The exception occurs when standard assays are accurate without pretreatments which happens when the gold content of the sample is free gold, and the sample is not highly mineralized. An issue here is that most miners and developers do not want to pay for the study required to learn what pretreatments are needed to be applied before assaying. The general rule is opting for a standard assay using the standard way to prepare the assay. The results are that the assay of an ore sample containing gold is inaccurate as the assay does not show the proper quantity of gold in the sample. For maximizing the results of an assay sampling, a sophisticated assay will be required.
Sophisticated Assays are highly advanced assays that are designed to detect gold and platinum group metals missed by standard assays. These assays are used to determine the raw value of an ore sample without first doing an expensive metallurgical study to identify the needed pretreatment process. This is the main type of assay used in developing the Verbena Project. It is important to remember that these assays do not establish the extraction value of a project or its ore body. Instead, these assays provide an extraction target to strive for.
The two assays shown below were completed on the same ore sample taken from a test hole at a depth of 160″. The standard assay shows 110 PPM of gold, that is 110 grams of Gold per ton. The sophisticated assay shows 6.74 ounces of Gold per ton, that is 209.63 grams of Gold. Therefore, we see that the sample actually had over twice as much Gold as the standard assay showed.
