This afternoon I have had a discussion with JP about the announcement this morning. I discussed what appeared to be a lack of explanatory information and mention of PGE's and findings.
The explanation is straightforward and I'll do my best to paraphrase it here. (I suggested to JP a little more elaboration in announcements might be appreciated by shareholders to fill in unknown gaps of information. People usually end up filling in the details themselves otherwise anyway - rightly?... or incorrectly!)
Firstly, by the time the ore was drilled and assayed here before leaving, it was not until October it arrived with XPF. Lockdowns have played their part as we know with time lost, probably particularly at the other end.
Given the size of the initial proposed Stricklands mine is small, it was hoped that the "oxidized disseminated sulphides" could be included in the process so as to utilize all the possible metals. However, when tested, leaving these "ods" in the mix
"spoiled" (my word) the resultant mix. The process could not be continued after that because the mix was no good. There was nothing wrong with the ore per se and no "bad results are being hidden" from shareholders ... It is purely a procedural/processing cause.
Once mixed, this process can't be reversed i.e. the "ods" cannot then be separated out ... That's the bad news .... Hence, a new batch of ingredients has to be provided and the whole testing process redone.
... The good news is that unwanted ingredients can be separated out at the beginning - before the process, so not causing "contamination". Testing can then be done. .... The reason there was no reference to cobalt, pge's etc. was because this testing part was not arrived at or possible to test, once the mix was spoiled .... It comes after that part so couldn't be done. The second part of the good news is JP is expecting very good outcomes on this testing front when it is done!
John does not believe the re-testing "cycle" will take as long to get redone. But, as stated, he is confident the testing will yield good results.
If shareholders want to sell their shares, good luck with finding the next miner with better territory, I say.
I suspect SGQ will have a small money-making mine operation
planned soon enough and will subsequently find enough massive sulphides to make a very nice cake eventually. When that mine produces its first dollar, I don't know, but as its reality draws closer, we will see this share price at a very different place to where it is today... That's of course assuming we don't strike a nice chunk of nickel metal in the meantime
Kip
(20min delay)