Sorry for the delay in writing up some notes. Bit busy at work this morning.
Overall, a positive meeting - Stewart as expected is very bullish about the prospects for Variscan and, in particular, becoming a producer (within 24 months). He reiterated the strengths of the company that distinguishes it from other junior miners (including a granted mining licence, high grade deposits, investment already made in infrastructure on site and a strong social lience to restart mining (supported by political will)).
The share price is as much a source of frustration to him as it is to us. He primarily puts this down to a perception that Spain is seen as a difficult region to undertake mining activities (albeit he doesn't think so in our case), lumpy newsflow and a lack of broker support. He is meeting brokers whilst visiting and has hopes that the new director appointments will also help strengthen the local relationships and boost the share price in the longer term.
In terms of newsflow, he acknowledged things are progressing slower than he would like (partly due to challenges of operating with a Spanish bureaucracy) but they are doing their best to move forward against the activities in the quarterly.
He is expecting the drilling results from Buenahora to be reported pre-Christmas (but it didn't sound like they were imminent).
The Phase 3 undergrond infill and resource drilling at San Jose is taking place as we speak and will be completed pre-Christmas but results won't be out until next year. As these will help support the JORC Estimate and the JORC Estimate flows into the mine restart concept study, the delivery of these is likely to be Q1 2023.
So will be some news before Christmas but not everything we were hoping for.
I left the meeting positive about the future prospects and may even add a few more at these prices.
Hope that helps.
Iain
VAR Price at posting:
2.1¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
