Think this might a bit of a game changer for Darlot so I’ve put...

Think this might a bit of a game changer for Darlot so I’ve put in a bit of extra research on the CIO/Barrick/Red 5 JV.
Starts out on 28th Feb 2011 when CIO entered into a farm in agreement with Barrick Gold in which CIO can earn a 51% interest over selected exploration permits by spending $450,000 within 24 months of the signing of the agreement. They could Earn a further 19% if they spend another $250,000 within the following 12 months. Everything went fine as CIO fulfilled the $450,000 spend by the end of Feb 2013 and got their 51%. CIO continued their exploration program to earn their extra 19%. Wheels appeared to fall off the wagon when Barrick sold Darlot to Goldfields in Oct 2013. In their March Q report, tabled on 30th May 2014, CIO claimed their 70% stake as they fulfilled their $250,000 spend by end of Feb 2014. IMO while the first part of the earn in agreement (51%)was formalised by Barrick the second part (70%) wasn’t.
By the end of 2014 CIO had ceased all drilling on its Barrick/CIO JV leases. They did however continued to claim their 70% interest. No further drilling was undertaken by CIO over the JV leases to Oct 2017 when Darlot changed ownership to Red 5. All Red 5 documentation, from the change over date onwards, has always stated that Red 5 has a 49% interest over the JV leases. This indicates to me that CIO, legally, only has a 51% claim over the JV leases. CIO restarted their drilling program in the last Q of 2019 still stating that they have a 70% ownership over the JV leases.
IMO the Endeavour/Mermaid prospect could be a rich source of abundant, cheap, shallow, high grade, open pit ore for Darlot. In 2014 CIO declared an exploration target of between 750,000 oz and 1,500,000 oz for this prospect. While this was only a target it did show confidence in the quality of their drilling results to date. This has been reinforced by the new drilling results declared since the restart. Will be an interesting space to watch.