Yes some strong and reasonably shallow results from Laura and...

Yes some strong and reasonably shallow results from Laura and Jennifer NE and a couple of infills at Jennifer confirming the core of that shoot is solidly mineralised (the planned hole below hole 401 could help expand the core of this shoot quite a little).

If the broader mineralisation at Rebecca had any real oxide component to it I'd say we could have been looking at a goer and one big cash cow of a pit. Unfortunately the economics will be more tricky as the mineralisation is largely hosted in fresh rock and there is a reasonable amount of stripping to do before cashflows can be produced from any of the mineralised areas. The company either needs to get lucky with some oxide ore (which is probably unlikely seeing what has been up-earthed so far) or they just need to find much more shallower fresh higher grade mineralisation such as been indicated by recent drilling.

Unfortunately it is a tough time for explorers and developers, despite the buoyant gold price, as the market has largely abandoned them (and for good reasons). They really need to "properly" prove the viability of their projects before sending investors down rabbit holes of failed mine developments like we have seen a string of recently. I wonder if AOP can resist the temptation of following many of the other gold developers down failing pathways. I'd say probably not because if they pull the pin on this project they are left with practically nothing and the prospect of starting again. That's the problem with the sector, people won't let go of their projects because for directors and promotors they are jobs and cash cows no matter whether they succeed or fail. It shouldn't be up to the investor to figure out if a project is a goer or not, it should be up to the process. Failing projects just shouldn't get funded but they do because humans put greed up before pride and honour and look after their own little patches, their own vested interests and these projects/companies are built from a whole bunch off individual vested interests, that's why they are failing more often than not, because they shouldn't have been given the go ahead in the first place. Bank funded projects should be far more investable (derisked) than "non-funded" projects but alas they are not as we have seen. Investors should be able to differentiate between the risk of owning various gold projects based on the level of due diligence done and the feasibility level achieved and especially once banking feasibility has been completed but alas this is not happening either, take the recent cases of GCY and DCN. Without this sort of derisking structure what are investors left with? Answer: One big ugly roulette wheel, place your bets. You might as well go to the casino as the results are much swifter and the pain or joy comes at a commensurate speed. Better than being bled dry slowly by vested interests in gold projects who just move on when their stories get exposed as being full of holes.

Not saying that Rebecca is necessarily one of these projects or AOP is one of these companies but if I have learnt anything in the last year is that grade still remains king and you actually need a lot of things to be "right" with your gold deposit to make money from it, ie two wrongs don't make a right as we all know, but a right and wrong don't necessarily make a right, what you actually need is two or more rights !! Esh