Classic "chicken and egg" conundrum there. I have seen thousands...

Classic "chicken and egg" conundrum there. I have seen thousands of arguments such as these, and sometimes even from high level management, seems to imply that you can't walk and chew gum at the same time. If you cant afford to drill and prove up future ore resources then you can't afford to own a mine in the first place.

Lets say they stop exploration and resource drilling tomorrow, fire all the staff and get the rigs off site at no cost. Sure they could spend more time and effort and get the mine and mill performing better, things are great1 look at that AISC cost now! High fives all around! look at the ounces flow, then everyone gets a little carried away and people start talking dividends and mergers and acquisituions. Then one day the mine shift boss sheepishly has to come in to report that all the pits and mines are empty and the ROM pad has no more ore on it. Now you need to find all the rigs and staff you fired 6-12 months ago and spend more money to catch up with your resource drilling.....

If you don't drill it - it doesn't count as a resource/reserve, if you don't have a resource or reserve then you have an empty mill stranded out in the middle of nowhere, no profits or gold to be had in that is there?