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Well, I got this wrong - more first stage reverse circulation drilling, rather than follow-up drilling on the first "River Pipe" discovery.
Evidently, James Campbell thinks the kimberlite body could be bigger than so far discovered. Which is great news, if the new drilling confirms it.
I can't help thinking that this is the lull before the storm here, and that it may be the moment to add to my holding. Maybe not today, but in the next week or so.

Hi Nimrod!
I don't think investing in any PGM miner is a mistake right now, (except for Norilsk Nickel, which has serious production issues).
However, my pick for the most undervalued PGM miner (outside of SLP, of course) has to be Tharisa (THS). Like SLP it has a very high percentage of rhodium in its prill split, and therefore the second highest basket price. (SLP is in first place).

Hi Antharry!
It looks like Vast were intending to split the business into two - one new company holding the Romanian mining assets (basically Baita Plai), and the other becoming a diamond explorer / possibly developer in Southern Africa. Everything pointed to that, including things like a new subsidiary company being set up in Botswana. But since then, a deafening silence. It may be that - given the continuing failure to get a licence from Zimbabwe - the diamond business is simply dead on arrival.

Yes, pretty extraordinary for a share to drop 10% as a results of a smallish SECONDARY placing.
I've used this drop as a buying opportunity for a share that I want to own long term.

IMO, it's too early to buy back in; the crisis hasn't arrived yet.
In essence, the key question is whether Ukraine is a truly independent country, or whether it is a Russian vassal state. If Ukraine agrees to defer to Russia in its international relations (i.e. no Nato, no EU etc.), and to make concessions regarding the Crimea and the Donbass, then I think Putin would be happy with that and back off. But Ukrainian society (which admires Europe, and which rather likes freedom and democracy) simply will not accept those terms.
So, IMO, there will be a test of strength before any resolution is reached. And, yes, the Ukrainian Army is in a better state than it was in 2014, but that is saying very little. It is no match for a determined Russian military offensive.
Looking at the disposition of forces, and especially the Russian concentration around Voronezh and the naval deployments, I'd guess the Russian attack plan is to use the Donbass front to pin the Ukrainian army in place. That would be followed by a strike towards Kharkov and the Dniepr and an amphibious assault on the Azov Sea coast near Mariopol, leading to the encirclement of the Ukrainian Army. Honestly, even if the Ukrainians know that is what is coming, they probably couldn't stop it.
Two quotes for you:
Herodotus (the father of history): "the strong take what they can and the weak suffer what they must."
Putin: "The strong push the weak against the wall and fcuk them up the ass." (This from an individual of minuscule stature who was viciously bullied as a child, before he decided the best way to do his own bullying was to join the biggest and baddest gang of them all, the KGB.)

Rhodium stable at $28,100/oz (JMAT). Iridium and ruthenium trading flat at their all time highs - $6,200/oz and $410/oz.
The Shares presentation last night was a bit of a mess technically-speaking, and Phoevos went over a lot of familiar ground as he pitched the company to new investors.
Some things that stuck in my mind:
It's clear that Salene Chrome is still an option going forwards. I don't know what the delay is in exercising the right to buy. Phoevos was clear that that it would produce a premium product that would command a price similar to Turkish chrome.
The messaging around setting up a smelting plant is getting more explicit - I feel we will hear more about this as soon as the Vulcan Plant is completed. I'm happy with this; it's a very good use of money.
Commissioning for the Vulcan Plant is scheduled for September.
Phoevos gave the impression of a CEO who is absolutely certain his company is undervalued. On one slide he quoted three anonymous analysts who had Tharisa's EV/EBITDA ratio at 1.7, 2.3, and 2.7 respectively. Even if you go with 2.7, that's still ridiculously low.

I've been one of the biggest skeptics about this company.
But even I realise that this morning's RNS is good news. It's remarkable that the share price has now dropped back to near its opening level.
I suppose you could argue that DD being approved isn't the same as having the money in the bank, and there's truth in that. But it's still a big step in the right direction.

Yes, the drilling should be wide bore drilling to enable enough kimberlite ore to be collected to estimate its diamond content.
It's amazing that the narrow bore drilling already done turned up so many diamonds (and of such quality). But from a statistical point of view, the sample is too small for the results to be regarded as significant.

I think we can see the outlines of the coming interim results now.
My take on it is that Tharisa is markedly undervalued based on the past half year's expected results. If the share price shot up 50% tomorrow, Tharisa would still be very cheap, even by South African standards.
As regards the future, the coming half year looks like it should be a substantial improvement over the half-year that has just finished. Importantly, the current PGM basket price is far higher than the average PGM basket price for the last 6 months. Not only that, but the current chrome price is also an improvement over the H1 average price, and it is realistic to expect slightly better production figures (due to seasonal factors). On the down side, production costs have likely increased (higher oil price, Eskom power price increase, wage increase with new 4 year deal), but this is not that significant when set against the huge increase in PGM prices. So if the market is a machine for discounting future earnings, then the THS share price should be at least double today's price.
So I remain convinced that the current share price is a false one, caused by determined selling by Fidelity and good old market inefficiency. THS could easily be trading in the 300p to 400p range by the end of the year.

RedPanda!
They are not going to issue the shares at 0.1p!
The shares have a nominal face value. £250,000 of shares at nominal value = 250 million shares at all. The shares will be issued at discount to current price, of course. But not at 0.1p.

Hi Lucky!
Essentially, THS have 14 year life of mine as an open pit, and 40 years underground. Output and profitability from the mine should increase with the Project Vulcan plant ($50m capex, now being built, produces ultra-cheap chrome from tailings), with improved PGMs grades and recoveries (200K oz PGM per year targeted), and with taking PGM smelting and refining in-house (work in progress, but this should increase PGM revenues by 15%). Longer term, Tharisa have the massive Karo deposit (96m oz PGMs) in Zimbabwe to develop, and maybe other plans as well.
SLP have a shorter mine life at their current operations - it's blurry, but think 8 to 10 years. Their main development asset is Volspruit, and we're waiting to hear what they plan to do with that.
It's a fair question to ask what SLP are planning to do with their ever increasing cash pile. With Tharisa we more or less know the answer to where the free cash will be invested.

This comes from the Twitter feed of Michael MacKay, who I met a couple of times back in the day. He's a good guy, but you need to allow for the fact that he is strongly pro-Ukrainian and that he can miss the wood for the trees.
IMO, the true crisis is still some way off. The Russians are still only "preparing the ground". At some point (next month?) serious military pressure will be applied by Putin, and political demands will be issued (essentially, for Ukraine to become a client state of Russia). It's then that the excrement will go down.

Hi Lucky!
Tharisa vs. Sylvania is a really complex comparison.
In essence, SLP is a PGMs only producer and it has very low costs. It also has spent very little on capex for some years.
Tharisa is a substantially bigger operation. It produces both PGMs and chrome and has higher costs. It has a longer Life of Mine and it also spends much larger amounts on capex, which means that it has clearer growth potential going forwards.
Both are well-managed, highly profitable, dividend paying companies. Both have very high (world-leading) percentages of rhodium in their prill splits, meaning they benefit fully from the current rhodium boom. Both are (IMO) very undervalued.
Given current pricing (i.e. there are decent profits to be made on chrome, and super-profits on PGMs) I believe Tharisa offers more upside. But I'm invested in SLP as well.

For those interested, Phoevos is giving an investor presentation today at 6.30.
Details and registration here:
www.sharesmagazine.co.uk/events/event/shares-investor-evening--webinar-130421

www.kitco.com/news/2021-04-12/Russian-mining-giant-Nornickel-resumed-production-at-flooded-mine.html
On the up side, Nornickel have managed to bring some production back from one of the flooded mines. (FWIW, I still have doubts about the long term future of these mines). On the down side, their concentrator is still offline and it will be out of action for some time to come.

This is how Proactive tells the same story as the RNS!

"Tharisa PLC (LON:THS) produced 35,000 ounces of platinum group elements during the second quarter to 31 March 2021, an increase of 11.5% year-on-year.

Chrome concentrate production was up 15.5% to 358,400 tonnes year-on-year, and specialty chrome production was up 11.8% to 85,600 tonnes.

Quarter-on-quarter results were lower, as mining volume was impacted by exceptionally high seasonal rainfall, with severe lightning storms impacting in-pit operation time.

During the period the price of the average platinum group metal basket increased by 37.1% to US$3,290 per ounce. The price is up by 80.5% when set against the comparable quarter in 2020.

At the end of the quarter Tharisa had a cash balance of US$73.1mln and debt of US$41.7mln, resulting in a positive net cash position of US$31.4mln.

The company expects to produce between 155,000 and 165,000 ounces of PGMs and 1.45mln tonnes of chrome concentrates for the full year.

"Tharisa's second quarter performance saw an exceptional safety performance underpinned by solid production in what is traditionally our weakest quarter of the year,” said chief executive Phoevos Pouroulis.

“With the much higher commodity prices, Tharisa was able to convert production into cashflow, shown in our increased net cash balance, this while we are entering the major capital phase for the Vulcan plant which remains on track for construction to be completed this financial year.”

I think this is what I meant yesterday about the market being human and lazy. It always prefers to hear a good story, no matter how fanciful, to doing its maths homework.
If you look at the big picture, Tharisa is doing exceptionally well, and it is incredibly cheap. But today will all be about a broken rotor and some lightning storms leading to the loss of about 3K of hoped-for PGM production. (Though, God knows, I should know from SLP this quarter is always the "down" quarter for a South African miner due to holidays and weather).
I've bought a few more shares at 142p this morning. Looking to buy more, especially if it gets silly, in the way that SLP has gotten silly on results days in the past.
Finally, since FXPO has been mentioned as being tipped in the Daily Mail, I'd add that this is a really bad recommendation FXPO's assets fall in the half of Ukraine that Russia regards as "theirs". Their armed forces are massing on the Ukrainian border. I don't know what the outcome will be of all this sabre rattling, but the crisis hasn't arrived yet (I'd think it will come in May). At some point fear of the total loss of its producing assets will hit FXPO, and its share price will slump accordingly. Then MIGHT be the time to buy, if you are very brave. But definitely not today.

https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/metals/031221-feature-analysts-deliberate-whether-auto-manufacturers-can-tolerate-high-rhodium-prices

Hi Ragnar!
On the funds still selling, I think you should have said fund (singular), as in Fidelity. IMO, they look to be selling down to zero. At a very rough guess, I think they must have just over 2% left to go. One big liquidity day might be enough to finish them off.
Whatever else, there is now no problem with liquidity here!

The last quarterlies also included a line about net cash position. If they update that number, that will also be a big giveaway.
That said, I believe the markets are profoundly human - that is more than a little lazy. So even though we'll be able to guesstimate the interim results from the information published tomorrow, I expect that the market will wait to see the interim results (due in May) before rerating this stock fully. There is probably an opportunity in that!