Some facts here Daz about the previous drilling campaign at Fort Cady (for reference see prev announcements): 1. On 8 August 2017 (a week after ABR IPO'd) they announced a 23-hole 9,500 metre drilling campaign. 2. They had three drill rigs on site and drilling within six weeks. They had five rigs within eight weeks. 3. They had initial progress announced within four weeks, and the first run of assays within 12 weeks of drilling. 4. They had fortnightly updates after that. 5. They had maiden JORC resource estimate within 16 weeks. 6. They delivered scoping study two weeks later. 7. They completed drill campaign three weeks later (here's one example of my point that there is no nexus between completion of drilling and a feasibility study) 8. They announced a resource upgrade two weeks later (refer example above).
The start to finish time for the 2017 drilling campaign from commencement of drilling to final assays was five months.The 2017 campaign was twice the scale of the current campaign. And from memory, the 2017 campaign had delays.
Some facts about the current drilling campaign (see quarterly and latest announcement): 1. 8-10 holes to be drilled. 2. Based on averages for the previous campaign, 4,000-5,000 metre campaign, half the size of the 2017 campaign. 3. Drilling is outside previously controlled areas, underpinned by three land acquisitions. 4. Planning has already been completed, it's drill ready.
Some facts about the purpose behind drilling and the current resource estimate: 1. This drilling is about expanding the size of the resource for the purposes of extending the mine life (as stated in prev announcements and investor webinar). 2. The revised DFS is not dependent on this drilling campaign. The new DFS is already underway (see original announcement in May and my subsequent posts). 3. ABR was only permitted to drill within the areas they drilled back in 2017, not outside that. They are drilling now because they can through recent land acquisitions. (See prospectus, SS and DFS, and my previous posts on this). 4. All four previous resource estimates of contained boric acid are within 10% of each other. (Refer to the prospectus on IPO and the subsequent SS and DFS).
So my opinion based on the above:
The resource estimate is reliable, as shown in multiple studies, also noting that there is a proven and probable reserve of 41mmt, and 58.5mmt measured and indicated, of a total resource estimate of 161mmt
I estimate six months for this drilling campaign, factoring in current delays at the lab level
I expect regular newsflow from this campaign, as is standard for any campaign
The revised DFS will be completed before the drilling campaign is finished (see my previous posts on this, as well as above)
So Daz, based on all of the above, do you have anything to back these claims you've made: 1. The resource is "not enough anymore". 2. The drilling campaign will take "a year" (56 weeks). 3. ABR's purpose for drilling is because they are not "confident of the original resource".
