I spoke with Chris at the mining show. He told me that they did not expect to get more than 4 holes due to the melting ice conditions. They need the ice to serve as base for the drill to keep the drills from sinking into the swamp. Much like the principal behind an ice fishing hut. Get it off the ice before it sinks. To get it off the ice you need to bring in the trucks.
If the ice has held up then it makes sense to continue drilling while the frozen conditions allow. I think the drilling season is only 3-5 months at Kidd. Remember, once the thaw occurs there will be no drilling a Kidd. Getting every extra drill hole that they can may accellerate the development of Kidd by 1/2 a year or more which is great and which the company is likely trying to do.
My point is that the motivation for extra drill holes right now is the fortunate availability of time. I am overjoyed that mother nature is cooperating in this fashion. We should not however, read any more into it than that until the lab and Chris have time to review the core samples. It should also be noted that the company is only obligated to issue a release if there has been a 'material' change to their business. Adding a drill rig or doubling up the shift is not a 'material' change. In fact, I would say that issuing a release for such an event would be a sign of desperation by the company management. I think the management knows what they have here and that knowledge makes them sufficiently confident so as to avoid issuing realeases every time a truck drives up the road - so to speak. I take this to be a good indicator.
What I like is that there is such a bounty of many real 'material changes' to look forward to in the next weeks and months. All kinds of drill results to look forward to from Kidd, Destor and TPW. TPW, and I believe Destor as well, are drillable year round because they do not suffer from the same soft ground conditions as Kidd. I'm keeping an eye on Destor. This may surprise the market in a very nice way.
Finally, I think Chris should by now understand that his specialty is geology and that the publicity / investor relations should be left to those that are good at getting the story out - with his approval of course. His job is to provide the story by hitting the targets. Hopefully he will listen to his advisors on how that story is to be told. His publicists should not tell him where to drill and he should grant them some slack within the realm of publicity provided of course that everything is kept above board.
E-xtended
X-trata
S-upply
