July 9 Press Release:
OntaREEo summed it up fairly well when he said:
"It was a grand slam, triple double, hat trick, 99-yard TD, hole-in-one, triple play, 400-yard game, 100-foot swish, 300-point game, 75-yard field goal, perfect game, 6 bullseyes, 18-under par, a 3-minute mile, a perfect 10!"
The unbelievable aspect to the PR is the "balls to the wall" - "petal to the metal" shift in this company's pace. Up to this point, the Keevil machine was making good progress in bringing the Nemegosenda property to a fair market value. The Pre-NI 43-101 report was completed in May and efforts to start the much anticipated drilling program took an additional 5 months to get started. The addition of Alan Hawke in June was a real boost to the company. I believe the instigating factor for this monumental shift in the company's pace came not only from the great D Zone initial drill results, but also from Alan's analysis of the SE zone and its even greater Niobium resource.
I was anticipating the NI release and then a "digesting" period for the company to evaluate the market reaction to the report and then a private placement for a drill program further into the D Zone or a SE Zone program. I expected one or the other and we wound up getting both:
" The program will involve further diamond drilling to continue to expand on the mineralized niobium resource in the D Zone. In addition the Company plans to commence drilling in the South East Zone, located some 1500m south-east from the D Zone."
Next big shocker was the pre-feasibilty announcement:
"A further aspect of this program will entail beginning metallurgical studies. SGS Lakefield Research Ltd. has been retained to conduct a Proof of concept program, which will focus on the recovery of niobium compounds.....The investigation should be considered as a scoping or pre-feasibility study to establish a baseline flowsheet for targeted product recovery."
If this wasn't enough, the gold play is moving forward:
"As well as the exploration program planned for Nemegosenda, Sarissa will also conduct further exploration at its Shining Tree gold property in the townships of Asquith and Churchill in the Shining Tree district of northern Ontario."
So my big question is what has changed to facilitate such an increased intensity? Could there be a company/group that desperately wants what Nemegosenda has in the ground and is willing to fund the exploration work/mining expenses for an exclusive on the resources? Or has the recent drilling results and Se Zone data demanded and allowed the Keevil crew the confidence to launch ahead on all cylinders?
This is the most exciting time in this company's history. We are about to get a mining acceptable report that will define our first bankable resource. I expect the very minimum to be over $2 BILLION and that would be one great start. The much more exciting prospects lie in the immediate future. As we will be getting expanded resource data on D Zone and the prolific SE Zone from the newly started drilling programs. We already know from past PR's that the outlined resource from historical data is the following:
A) Zone D; "Drill hole intersections, with a weighted average grade of 0.43%, are located within a surface area of some 76,250 square metres and to a depth of at least 200m."
76,200 sq m X 200 m = 15,250,000 cu m X 2.8 m/tonne = 42,700,000 tonnes X .43% Ni/tonne = 183,610 tonnes Niobium X 2204.6 lbs/tonne = 404,786,606 lbs. Niobium
B) SE Zone: "Sarissa has checked the reports, maps and sections from this area and have calculated that there is a potential resource with a weighted average grade of some 0.35% Nb2O5 within this block of 250m x 700m x 200m."
250m X 700m X 200m = 35,000,000 cu m X 2.8 tonnes/m = 98,000,000 tonnes X .35% Niobium = 343,000 tonnes Ni X 2204.6lbs/tonne = 756,177,800 lbs. Niobium.
The total Nemgosenda preliminary outlined resource is 1,160,964,406 lbs. of Niobium with a lot of blue sky left in the SE Zone as Alan believes that there could be close to 200,000,000 tons of .35 Niobium present. The present estimate would have a market value of in excess of $23 Billion dollars without any REE calculations.
We also know that the company has strategically announced the hiring of an audit. This makes sense as we finally have put value into the company with the completion of the NI 43-101. I expect we go on a Canadian exchange and also remain for the present time listed on the Pinks. I believe the next move will be to the AMEX when the stock qualifies, which could be as soon as 2010.
So what I once thought would be a good place to take some profits - the release of the NI 43-101 - I believe hallmarks the start of a great stock run - not an intermediate high. This initial National Instrument is the stepping stone to a lot of great and exciting events that will be coming down the pike this year. Great times now and into 2010.
As for the stock, all I know is that we have a long way to go before we are fairly valued and that value will be growing as our drill program proves up more resource. Good investing all and do take advantage of any dips....Jim
