You're welcome. For the record, I am not a geologist. I am a chemist, and I have taught myself geology, particularly focussing on geochemistry. I am flattered to be seen by anyone as being a geologist.
I've heard rumours, but what I'm about to say is unconfirmed. Not too long ago, there was a discrepancy discovered between the claim records maintained by the government, and the actual claim stakes on the ground. The government map was shifted by a couple of hundred metres, or something similar in magnitude. If somebody flew some geophysical surveys, and had the results plotted on a government map, then when it came time to find those positions on the ground, they'd be off by a couple of hundred metres because the claim boundaries on the maps were shifted by that amount. So, if that's the case, and looking at the collar positions drilled by Probe during these earlier JVs, I'd have to say that it appears as if there's a good chance that he was drilling at the right targets, but from the wrong place. If this hypothesis is true, then missing the targets wasn't even Probe's fault. But life sucks some times.
About the map. As a composite of multiple geophysical methods, the particular map you're speaking of is very complex. The limitation for me in trying to interpret such a map is that all the fine detail is not presented. The maps Mr. Palmer looks are much larger, and have all the detail he could ask for. He would not select drill targets, for example, using only a map such as he's publicly released.
Now, the most surprising thing to my eye is that the gravity anomaly trend line (dashed yellow) barely enters the Probe claim block. Chromite ore is very dense, and it actually increases the surface gravitational force above it. But, as I say, that trend line is not continued across this property, even though a reasonable assumption might be that Black Label and Big Daddy are part of a continuous band. Also, the mag map (the background colour contours) appears to be less intense across the property, but that could be an artefact, because there appear to be boundary lines between each of the FWR and SPQ mag features, and the Probe features. Most surprising of all is that two EM surveys have indicated a significant EM trend coincident with the magnetic high. Chromite does not respond to EM survey techniques, so it's very difficult to interpret that particular map. Where I want to see chromite, I'm seeing something inconsistent with chromite. I would much prefer to see each set of data (gravity, mag, two EM methods) separately mapped.
Now, what does provide an EM response (i.e. conductor), and a magnetic high? Pretty much any of the sulphide mineralization would do that, including some that are not economic. And other things that are not sulphides, either. It's reasonable to assume similarities between deposits in a district, though, so it is reasonable to consider the JV block above Big Daddy as prospective for Ni/Cu sulphides and/or PGE. The blocks nearer to Eagle 1 would have similar prospectivity.
I'm actually looking forward to the drilling of the Victory block. I'm a little bit confused about what's really there, however. I've seen mention of ultramafics (hole 27), but Palmer has modelled at least a portion of Victory as a Noranda-style VMS trend (mafic/felsic type), with multiple lenses. Now, it's far too early to get truly excited about that, because once again we only have geophysics. EM conductors do not directly equate to economic ore. Very seldom do they, in fact. But hey, that's why we're in junior exploration, non?
Lar
