Neal, You and everyone here have a long list of legitimate reasons for skepticism regarding next steps and final outcomes for Naxos. However, one issue that has NEVER come up is tampering with samples. I'm sure you didn't mean to imply that this has been a problem, but that has never come up before and never been implied. What has been an issue is repeatability of tests, reliability of results, etc. which seem to be all technical issues.
Naxos is not in production because you can't go into production, small scale or not, until you have a process. And that process is the last bullet in the Naxos holster. The next time Naxos speaks to us about numbers will be its last chance to prove something is there. Once Naxos is satisfied that one of these labs does indeed have a repeatable, reliable method for assay or recovery, (let's hope the next round is recovery), THEN they can indeed go into low level production. Then they WILL be making an important statement if they don't or can't go into a pilot plant. But until there is a format for recovery that they can rely on, there can't be a pilot plant.
It will take quite a bit of data, verifiable data, to convince all those who have lost so much money on Naxos to truly believe again. We don't have that proof yet, but my logic tells me that letting J/L move on to other opportunities was a clear signal of a loss of confidence on the part of Naxos that J/L had anything unique to offer. It MAY, just may that is, signal that they have something better, and therefor didn't need J/L anymore.
That is yet to be seen and that is what we all are waiting for.
Neal, as difficult as it is to lose money on an investment, it is my belief, that, some mismanagement aside, Naxos was fooled as much as we were by the whole Ledoux debacle. Majors are now looking at complex ores more seriously and that is what Naxos always was and still is. The big question is does Naxos have the right people working on it this time to figure out the combination to unlock the key to FL.
Good luck to all of us.
Tom F. |
