The results of this drilling campaign are now well overdue. But why?
Rox has a history of delaying poor results, but this is most unlikely now.
This drilling campaign is very smart. It includes high-confidence drilling, targeting inferred gold near the stopes.
Some holes are very close to high-grade hits drawn from the archive of Youanmi historical drill results that Rox has digitalised.
Rox made sure that, at the very least, they would announce solid results to add significant gold to the mining plan.
The results are delayed because this is the announcement to attract funding and Rox has to get it right.
They need to raise capital soon, not for corporate costs, already funded for the next 10 months, but to advance the DFS rapidly.
If they get it right, Rox has a good chance to take advantage of the high price of gold and hit the sweet spot for developers next year (in production within 12 months).
To do that without excessive share dilution along the way, the share price needs to re-rate soon.
20 cps+ is realistic in the short term.
A re-rate requires results that are strongly evidence-based.
Rox has an unfortunate history to overcome on this score but is not going to make another half-baked announcement based on limited drilling.
The new CEO Phillip Wilding with Hawke’s Point appointment, Director Nathan Stoitis, will break with the “over promise and under deliver” record.
Rox is likely to have some very good hits that require further confirmation to convince sceptical instos to fund the project.
Rpx may well have discovered that Paddy’s Lode continues at depth or they could have promising results from the undrilled deep corridor between Paddy’s and Pollard.
But Rox is not going to guess at what they have found.
Instead, they are getting more data. Rox could even be undertaking extensional drilling or have Topdrill working 24/7 on a new hole.
They would certainly be getting expert technical analysis via Hawke’s Point.
This is the new Rox, after Hawke’s Point’s intervention and the upcoming announcement is important.
Rox needs to get this right. In his trademark methodical way, Wilding will release the results when he is confident they have.
(20min delay)