Great to see some old acquaintances, colleagues and friends at PDAC 2023 this month. I hope to see you all and more at Expomin Chile 27th-27th April.
PDAC 2023
Progradex
Progradex EL850CS Sampling System Video
(Video courtesy of Mincon West Africa)
The Heroes of the 33 Trapped Miners
A bit of history for you. The guys I’m with here work for a Chilean drilling company called Terraservice. This is the company that found the 33 trapped miners in the Chilean mining disaster a few years ago. The guy on the far left, Eduardo Hurtado, was the drilling supervisor on the actual hole that found them. He has since been involved as an advisor in the Hollywood film that was made [The 33] about the story and Terraservice’s drill rigs and equipment were used in the making of the film. The Chilean flag below is the actual flag that was flown on top of the rig during the rescue operation. It has been signed by all of the 33 rescued and now hangs in Terraservice’s reception in Copiapo.
I am privileged and honoured to say that Eduardo and his team, including the driller that drilled the miracle hole, will be helping me next week at Barrick’s Alturas Project in an exploration drilling programme to find gold. I am confident that, with Terraservice’s track record of finding the impossible, locating gold is going to be relatively easy.
– Toby Day
Successful Atacama, Chile Test with Barrick
Phase 1 Trials of the Progradex PGX1350T Sampling System for Barrick Chile have been deemed successful in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile. The system will now mobilise to Barrick’s Alturas Project, 5200m above sea level, with drilling contractor Terraservice for gold exploration.
The premium Progradex system has been selected on the basis of its unique ability to collect and sample the coarse and fines particulate (100% recovery for sampling) along with its other unique ability to provide around 400 complete cross-sectional slices of the interval in the sample bag per metre drilled, securing a complete cross-section of the interval in the sample bag every 2.5mm drilled including the fines.
Since the release of the Progradex PGX Series product line in 2010, 7% more gold is found as a direct result of sampling the fines that was previously lost from an RC chip sample. Only a Progradex sampling system can provide total sampling representivity,
Results are verified by a growing number of independent scientific papers worldwide.
Simple fact. No other sampling system on the global market has the ability to collect the fines for sampling or the representivity of prehomogenised, mechanically layered (blended) sample duplicates than a Progradex Sampling System.
Indisputable Evidence – The Necessity of Fines in a Sample
Click on the link to read an amazing and enlightening paper written by Ben Reid of Evolution Mining on the importance of fines collection in an RC Grade Control sample to achieve mine to mill reconciliation. Compiled with years of RC Grade Control data and verified by mine to mill reconciliation, the same must surely apply to RC exploration.
A Fine Looking Sample – The Importance of Fines in Grade Control Sampling to Mine to Mill Reconciliation – S2_1215_Ben_Reid
To The Apex^
In collaboration with Driconeq and drilling project management company Geolorn Ltd, Progradex has supplied an EL850CS RC sampling package to leading independent drilling contractor, Apex Drilling Services for drill sampling programmes within the UK.
The package was initially successfully tested in the coalfields of South Wales and is now providing quality sampling support in limestone quarrying marking a new era for the drilling industry and RC sampling concept in the UK.
New Scientific Paper
Get free early access to a new paper by Dr G. Lyman, I. Robertson & T. Day, “The Simple Facts about Sampling Gold Ores” which will be presented by co-author, Dr Geoff Lyman at next month’s 13th AusIMM Mill Operators’ Conference 2016, October 10th-12th 2016 in Perth, Western Australia.
Click on the link below to download the paper: