Thanks for the Kaiser report Chris. Here's my update...
Talked with Martyn Element today and got more info on the current and near furture activity.
Dijon - The rest of the samples put in for processing are sort of "missing". He corrected himself by saying it is not that they are lost but the results are very slow in coming. He doesn't expect them to turn up anything big, which is the same as Jack has said before.
The problem with Dijon seems to be the bedrock situation. They need a more expensive drill campaign in order to drill it properly. Around 200K. This is obviously more than they currently have. Because the first results proved that there is gold in the ground and the fact that they are so excited about the potential of the other newer properties, they feel that the money required to drill would be much better placed in developing these other properties.
I can understand this logic, it makes sense, but it is still makes me worry. Because Dijon is the most advanced property, we are almost going to be taking a step back in proving that there is indeed minable gold by shifting to less developed properties. If they succeed in attracting a JV partner who will pay for drilling, then it would turn out to be a smart move in the end.
Money - They are currently working on a small private placement which will give them enough funds to run until around February. This should be in place next week. They are keeping it small because of the low stock price. Then come February they hope to raise a lot more money (2-3 million) with a placement into stronger stock price (pie in the sky 0.75-1.00, more realistic 0.45 range)
Stock Price - Martyn and one of the other directors have been the big net sellers of the stock lately. They have been unloading their shares in preparation for getting them back at a lower cost during the private placement (because of the extra warrants or options that will be granted). This obviously sucks, but I do appreciate that he is upfront about what he is up to. Because of the price of gold lately and the fact that 2 guys have been unloading, I think the stock has held up very well indeed. Martyn said that they are both finished "dumping" (that's my word not his, just trying to get out a little frustration) so the price should start to head up now.
Staffing - Martyn is bringing in another financer who he has worked with in the past to help with Blue Ribbon and raising money.
Promotion - Martyn has been talking to a promotion house that deals with institutions called Judson Woods from Montreal (specifically Michael Judson). They seem agreeable to being paid via options so it shouldn't cost the company too much in hard cash. Has anyone heard about this company and their reputation? It would be very interesting to know.
Other than that he talked a little about interest from majors, but it has become my policy to discount any talk on this issue matter what the stock is. It always seems to bring up false hope because it is such an easy and seductive thing to tell investors. If it happens great, but no sense getting into a play riding on that hope.
Anyway, that is it for now. As always I welcome anyone to call Martyn and confirm that I didn't misunderstand or misrepresent anything that was said.
Yours,
Graham
Final comment: I'll be happy if we will see the stock hit and stay around 0.40 by the end of the year. Anyone else....? |
