Sorry about the late reply, i wasn't ignoring or omittin these queries.
ML up for expiry in 12months. Personally, i think they we're lucky to get that. typically you only get a ML when you can prove economically you can mine the deposit. usually post DFS and proof of finance etc etc. So the fact they have it is a massive bonus. If it is not renewed then they are in a similar boat to most companies and will go through the feasibility studies to indicate viability, then delineate capital cost to mine the deposit in turn re-submit ML.
Also, the 1M being only for open cut is very well known. Infact the delineate the difference between open cut resources and what quantity they feel will move the underground. They also indicated that everyone else has been attempting to present open cut options to no avail. So instead they're specifically targetting an underground strategy.
The drilling currently being performed is to determine/delineate that the resource infact extends into undrilled areas (tick) with the final drill results they will then be able to firm up future drill programs.
IMO, they are currently, and will include new drilling infromation into a new JORC which will be specifically for the underground component. From there, i imagine a second drill program will be planned to maximise the underground component. I recall management saying specifically they felt 500k oz in the underground component JORC resource was achieveable. at 3g/t or so this becomes very viable.
So what is has going for it is; a highly probably 500k oz underground resource, which if proven and post feasibility should render the renewal of the ML meaning a quick shift to production.
If people want to invest in a 20m gold explorer who is scratching 4-5m hits 150m underground at 2g/t then go ahead. But i'll taken a proven 1m OZ with an already decent underground component. MTC isn't drilling in hope to hit and extend, they are doing that. so the market cap IMV isn't reflective of the proven and sunken capital into the tenement.
There's also upside in the rest ofd the tenement, whilst there's no point is exploring and drilling elsewhere yet, they;'ve already stated that there are loads of other targets, but they see sturec as the near term production option and most likely for success in terms of a large underground resource at quite decent grades.
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. Still, I haven't found anything more prospective, only two others in Oz at 3x the market cap that's sort of interesting.
(20min delay)