There's a real "no news is better than bad news" culture amongst...

There's a real "no news is better than bad news" culture amongst the low end of the market because they know they can get away with it.Trouble is Aim now has such a bad track record over the last year or so that "no news IS bad news"

As far as the box cut goes I thought they were going to do some shotcreteing,but then this may have been Scott Lowe being a bit optimistic as to whats available in BFaso.I suppose if DRA have got to the stage where they might bring in a small concrete plant for the plant footings it might allow for such work.This is the kind of thing Id like to know about.If holders have to pay for such work(via the company capex) then they SHOULD know about such things with a spec to producer play.Its better to be informed,good or bad.Puts everyone in the picture.

The more these sorts of things get behind the less chance they will still be in a job come the next AGM as they will not attain the level of project advance that the contractors require before they start on site.

The offtake/s issue really is a major bug-bear but its hard to see them being able to finalise these without the correct numbers in the 43-101.Yes there is the POSSIBILITY that the delay in signing up these offtakes is related to some kind of concentrate for debt deal I suppose but to be quite honest one would have thought they would have said so if the case.Such negotiations can be sensitive(or thats the explanation the companies usually give for not disclosing such info.

Of course there's always the conspiracy view that by not anncing such info creates doubt in the markets perception of the company which then lets those that might be offtake related to get set for some of the gain that will inevitably take place once the offtakes are confirmed.But then this is probably looking for positives where there are really only negatives given the time keeping abilities of these guys.