what happened to this stock, page-12

I did not hold FCN but did reviewed the data for HC.

The mineralisation has a high variability in grade and width, you need to do a lot of drilling to prove it up. Sometimes it is best to get some idea of the economics and then start mining - Norseman only had a couple of years of reserves for 30 or so years. It was easier to mine it rather than prove it up. Then again you are now dealing with BHP, not exactly mr aggressive, more like mr succeed in spite of itself and I did work for them for 18 months in Asia.

The price has fallen recently because only 3 drill holes were completed in the past 3 months and one of these was reported in the previous qtr report. They will only be drilling another 3 holes at Olympia this qtr and they are deep holes and perhaps a bit more riskier.

A number of their other prospects (Coonamble, Sheparton and Racehourse/McDonald are gravity anomalies - very long shots. They must have (or had) a geophysicist on the board at some stage.

Given that it is the peak season for exploration field work there also appears to be some slowing down of field work - perhaps as a result of the BHP takeover.

G