RE: RE : Board Appointment and drilling news12 Jan 2021 15:04
"Drilling Update
Drilling work has been progressing well. The Company currently has two diamond drill rigs at the Anzá project, the first of which commenced drilling operations on 15th November 2020.
To date, three holes have been completed and the rigs are currently well advanced on the 4th and 5th holes. Over 1,100 metres has been completed of the planned first phase of 2,400 metres, and over 1,000 samples have been submitted for analysis.
However, the Company has been informed that Covid-19 related staff shortages at the ALS laboratory in Lima, Peru, has resulted in a substantial increase in expected assay turnaround times, especially those related to fire assay, which is the primary assay method for gold. It was originally anticipated that assays could be returned in a matter of weeks, but current schedules suggest turnaround times of well over one month.
Given the time that samples have already been in the laboratory, it is expected that complete assays for the first hole should be available by the end of this month and results from these will be communicated to the market once they become available."
Progress isn't slow - it's very slow. Nearly 2 months (15th November 2020 until 12th January 2021) to drill 1100 metres - how slow is that!!!!!
Considering that in January 2017 - 18 months before the agreement was signed with Newmont - Orosur on their own planned:
"Next steps in Colombia
During 2017, the Company plans to undertake a 15,000m - 30,000m drilling campaign to:
Delineate maiden resources;
Further define and expand the potential mineralization for APTA;
Test mineralization in undrilled areas of the deposit where strong indications of economic gold occurrences exist; and
Commence initial drilling of nearby untested and highly prospective targets.
Upon completion of this drilling campaign, the Company intends to prepare and publish a maiden N.I. 43-101 compliant resource report for the Anzá project."
They got started on that and then the Newmont agreement turned up and since then virtually nothing has happened.
To create any value here, and I mean the sort of value that can be seen at GGP, the drilling needs to increase hugely.
Just to repeat, from the RNS dated 10th December 2020:
"Initial Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate for Havieron
The Inferred Mineral Resource is based on a total of 125 drill holes for a total of 126,643m of drilling as at 26 October 2020. Infill drilling has been ongoing since this date and further results will be announced as per the usual frequency."
Meanwhile Newmont have drilled a mere 3100 metres in the same amount of time. That is why OMI has a m/cap of under £40 Million while GGP has a m/cap of £1.45 Billion.
The management here are very weak. They are allowing Newmont to take the p*ss. They should tell them to get a move on.