I'd watched that interview, and didn't have the same take on it, so I went back again. Link is here for those who haven't seen it:
LinkMy read was (and remains having gone back over it) that
if they are going to drill this summer, they'd have to be moving in equipment in the next month. The tone of this says to me that this is possible but unlikely - though obviously that would be good news.
Earlier in the interview he said two other things that are interesting.
First, he says that they are putting together syndicates to earn into the projects. This maybe explains why it is taking so much longer than they'd hoped - rather than having to talk to and agree terms with a single JV partner, you've got to get many parties on board.
Secondly, there's what may be a Freudian slip at 12:43 when describing why they've picked up Amer Lake:
"you've gotta have things happening... when one area's not worki- not a lot happening you can be working somewhere else, so it should create a very nice balance".
So my feeling would be that things are not progressing on the JV type deals as they'd have liked (which shouldn't be a controversial take since they had clearly intended to be drilling in the Canadian winter, which has finished) and this is a half-decent project that gives a source of news flow in the interim. JV news will come, but I'd be surprised if it is around the corner.
On a positive note, given the current market cap, a couple of million raised at a premium (due to the charity flow through model in Canada) to drill out a new project is probably value accretive and good news for the share price come Tuesday.
