Here's a few thoughts for a slow Sunday.
Before the Barrick bid, Arps Veladero results were rather slow in coming. And drilling was confined to mainly three scattered targets. Barrick has their rich prospect to the west still in the preliminary proving stage filled with sulphide ore that's relatively expensive to refine. Barricks property is mainly in Chile and they are now doing some expensive tunneling to see how big it is, this mineralization runs deep into the mountain.
How nice it might be to start this project mining relatively cheap to refine oxide ore that Arp has close to the surface in Amable. Might even be a lot easier to set up the mining and refining plant in Argentina, might get it close to both mines then. Might even be able to get the two countries under bidding each other on taxes, power supply, etc., etc.
But Arp isn't drilling fast enough to prove up the resource. Barrick is ready to make the big decisions this year, what to do. Whammo, stink bid time. Guess what? It worked. Arp starts drilling that oxide rich Amable area like there's no tomorrow. Results are flying. Barrick has a win-win situation for itself. The bid has cost them nothing yet, they might have got Arp for a song (particulary all that land in the unexplored, volcanic rich belt), and they are getting excellent results from Arp.
Now what. If they really want Arp without a hassle, they could pay more dollars, or they could let shareholders of Arp continue to participate in the excellent prospects of Arps landholdings by giving us a share purchase buyout. I'd settle for one Barrick for one Arp. How about the rest of you?
Barrick, raise the bid!
russett |
