General Chat, page-5574

On top of @wombat777's comment I would add that expanding laboratory capacity represents a major consideration for them given the highly cyclical nature of the exploration and mining industry.

NVA made an attempt to streamline one aspect of the process by in house prep of samples. This does not appear to have had much obvious impact.
What is needed for labs to expand? facilities, staff, materials, red tape etc which comes at probably a high cost and considerable time.
Then a crash in demand just as the facilities are ready?
Drilling companies, labs and exploration staff etc... have all experienced this if they are lucky enough to have been around long enough.
It is always going to be different this time around! Different but....?

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NVA are proving up a good resource base just west of Whistler.
I recently chatted with an ex Rio geo who worked on Whistler in 2003 or so. He liked the project at the time but it is still in the ground some 20 years later.
While there may not be any mining synergies the infrastructure needs (state road?) could be tripped by the combined size of the potential resources - along with a Donlin Creek gas pipeline?

While these deposits all look good, are IMO, the path to develop them will be difficult if recent US federal decisions are any indication of the will to develop. Gold is not something the Fed Reserve take a great shine to if anecdotal tales I have heard have any veracity. At least the Estelle and Whistler projects plus the road are, I believe, on state land which may be a positive. NIMBY unfortunately may come into play as a few influential stakeholders seem to have near veto powers for some areas.

ESG. The mining industry ignored aspects of this for too long turning places like Sudbury (Ont.) and Queenstown (Tas.) into moonscapes among the more obvious examples.

Seldom been easy to get a mine developed. Finding the resource, while not easy, is perhaps one of the easier aspects. Tick for NVA there.

While much of the above is a glass half full view, mines do get built and will into the future.