[MUSIC PLAYING]
We've been drilling for over 15 years.
It's a very important thing for the mining planning.
We are able to make the geological modeling
by having these samples.
And then we can plan the mining activity.
Here, we have a sample of one of our very hard rock.
With this site, we are expecting to reach the ore
zone 300 meters deep.
And this is just some of the rocks we are passing through.
It's a very, very hard rock, very difficult to drill.
As soon as we reach the phlogopite schist,
we are going to have a sample of it.
They are going to have to send the sample for chemistry
analysis where we are going to see really the quality of what
we could get.
Chemical analysis tell us the quality
of the phlogopite schist.
If we really had a lot of metasomatic,
then we have the whole ingredients
for a good emerald formation.
We can even foresee if we're going
to have high-color emeralds or lower color,
lighter emeralds-- this kind of thing.
By doing my core drilling, we can really design the ore body.
And with the 3D geological model,
we can make the mine plan.
It's the beginning of everything mining.
This is about 1 and 1/2 inch-- about 1 and 1/2 inch.
Since we started, we already drilled over 15 kilometers.
And it's also very expensive thing.
It's a big investment, really.
1 meter of core drilling in market cost about $200.
So you can try to calculate how much money we spent.
And all the cores we have in our file
is the big asset of the mine.
It's the whole ore deposit that's going to be mined.
So it's ready to be checked by anybody
that wants to see the life of the mine
and foresee how many emeralds we can mine in the future.
No.
We've been drilling around.
We have some new mining sites.
They had some new ore concessions
that we've been also drilling.
We have areas in Capoeirana in the Nova Era mine.
We drill there, too.
So core drilling is the beginning of everything mining.
It's very difficult to make mining plan
without the core drilling.
Everything drilled.
Everything with lots of drilling.
When you have up to 10 meters deep--
when you have your up to 10 meters deep,
you can even make some other kind of sampling.
You go with the shovel-- make a bigger hole
and try to reach and sample.
Sometimes you really can make a bigger volume of sample,
and then you can even try to see emeralds in that.
But when it becomes deep, you need really
to make this kind of drilling.
And when we have the phlogopite schist,
there's such a lot of information
you can take out of it-- the chemical analysis, the touch,
the feeling of-- you can touch what is 300 meters deep.
And then the geologists can really
see the quality, the size of the ore.
And even some information regarding
how is the shape around.
If it's very folded, you're going
to see microfolds in the core-- all these kind of things--
if you have too many quartz.
If you have none of those, if you
have just some other mineral associated, or pegmatite,
closeby.
And you can also foresee the geomechanics of the mine.
You know what you're going to have just above your head
when you're mining the schist.
So you know if the rock that's above you, it's a hard rock
or it's going to fall on your head.
You need to make a support or something like that.
So just a key thing for mining planning.
And mining without planning before
is like hunting for gemstone in the darkness.
[MUSIC PLAYING]