torrens drilling

Just had a quick talk with Straits regarding the status of the Torrens Drilling ... below, are the key points.

1. Apparently, since drilling was postponed well over one year ago due to Native Title issues, the one HUGE hurdle that will be overcome shortly is the beginning of a ONE GROUP hearing ... and it is supposedly scheduled in the Supreme Court for tomorrow (16 June, 2009).

2. The big problem that Straits faced over the past year with native title was the fact that there were up to 3 groups, with each group having many factions within it, and all resulting in overlapping proceedings.

3. Straits are very keen to recommence the drilling as they have up to 6 highly prospective anomalies that they wish to investigate.

4. And Straits wishes for Argonaut to take into consideration the time lost with all this native title delay (in terms of its $7m spend over 5 years to earn a 70% interest)

I suppose that while this is all very frustrating, it appears that progress is being made!