Its the nature of the mineralization/ore bodies of the region...

Its the nature of the mineralization/ore bodies of the region (or what is left of it). Scattered, spotty, irregular shaped, high strip ratio etc. These small scale multi satelitte deposits rarely ever work. That is unless the orebody and grades are homologous and strip ratio is like no greater then 3:1.

AME does hold highly prospective ground but the cost to adequately drill the prospect before being able to determine the optimal path/scale moving forward would cost in excess of $40million worth of drilling. Unless there is a takeover sometime soon.

AME would need to define in excess of 3moz of resource globally. That is around an additional 2Moz. At a discovery cost of $20/oz that is an additional $40mil that needs to be spent. Out of the 3moz, once optimized there might be 1moz of recoverable gold from an open pit.

IMO this is the main reason why westgold unloaded their position after they've taken a closer look into the data room. The project is just still undercooked for what they are after.

Given market cap and valuations are so beat up across all small caps, almost makes it impossible for AME to advance works properly. If sentiment in the sector doesn't improve, it'll take another 8 years to achieve that milestone & that is assuming the targets are there.