Delay?18 Jan 2018 13:09
Delays can be frustrating, but I'm not seeing unnecessary delay here.
We can't just 'scratch it up', we need a mining permit. Before we can get a mining permit we need to define exactly where we intend to do the mining. To do that we have to complete the drilling/testing (now in progress). Before we could do that we needed a drill permit, which arrived around 11 December - drilling then began around Jan 3, which seems fairly quick off the mark to me.
There's also an unavoidable delay built into the testing, as there's a standard 28 day curing period for concrete. (OK it's possible to get preliminary results earlier.)
NB I'm no expert in this area, this is just my understanding of the process, based on the RNS's.