very interesting read indeed....

here is the link to this SMH article of Nov 29 2010

http://www.smh.com.au/business/all-well-and-good-for-ukraine-junior-20101128-18cdw.html

here is an section from it.......i would suggest that we are not talking about a 5 year "life expectancy" of this mine but something more.....

RUBY IS GOLDThe near record gold prices are giving junior gold companies their best ever shot at establishing a cash flow by getting in to production.

And so it is with Cortona Resources. Any day now, the company will release a feasibility study into the development of its Dargues Reef gold project on the historic Majors Creek goldfield, some 60 kilometres east of Canberra.

The study is expected to confirm that Dargues will be a robust small-scale mine capable of churning out about 50,000 ounces a year at competitive cash costs of less than $650 an ounce, over an initial five- or six-year mine life, and after capital expenditure of $60-$70 million.

Given cash margins of more than $760 an ounce on current Australian dollar gold prices, Dargues Reef is shaping up as a nice earner for a company like Cortona with its share price of 18¢ for a (fully diluted) market capitalisation of $38 million.

But what would really get interest up in the Cortona story would be the potential for a longer mine life. Thanks to a concerted near-mine exploration effort, that might well be on the cards.

Last week Cortona reported more interesting gold hits at its Ruby Lode discovery, all of 150 metres north of the Dargues Reef deposit (1.44 million tonnes at 6.2 grams of gold a tonne for 287,000 contained ounces).

With hits like 12.6 metres at 9.9 grams of gold a tonne, 9 metres at 3.9 g/tonne and 6 metres at 3.5 g/tonne, Ruby Lode looks to have the makings of a significant new shallow gold deposit within easy striking distance of the underground development at Dargues Reef.

It is way too early for Cortona to have included anything from the discovery in the Dargues Reef feasibility study. But with two drilling rigs whirring away at Ruby Lode, the expectation is that the discovery - and potentially other near mine finds - will make Cortona's 2012 entry in the ranks of gold producers a longer term affair than the Dargues Reef feasibility will suggest.