Up to 40 submissions awaiting assay is a lot of samples, there...

Up to 40 submissions awaiting assay is a lot of samples, there is no way they sitting on results, as the announcement says the delays are in the assay lab and outside STK's control or might possibly be just a logistics chain thing if roads are closed to road-trains or trucks.

More likely is that the assay lab they use is swamped with samples from other gold exploration companies or there has been some sort of equipment failure preventing sample prep or fire assays or staffing issue at the lab. I have even seen labs suffer from IT failures or computer network attacks from hackers that have meant significant delays in getting a lab up and going again so lots of various but plausible reasons why assays are delayed.

You are definitely overthinking it, but even if its circumstances outside STK's control it wouldn't be hard for them to say what the actual issue is.....