I've owned companies that have been taken out having resources less than $3M
Sure, so have I Slim . . . but these are different times with many companies recently getting burned by escalating cap ex inflation on new developments, and also seeing contracting margins from higher fuel/energy costs.
For a couple/few million in at least indicated resource, preferably in proven/probable reserve lately it probably requires their belief in a lot of blue-sky upside still hidding in the prospect AND a low cap ex risk due to low-cost development (open pit, reasonable to low strip ratio).
These are times when companies do need to replace their depletion, yes, but they are also very shy about tying up capital in a long-term development before any return gets shown.
jmo
Think about Seabridge for a second. They have in one of their project 6.4 M oz reserves, and a little more than that indicated resource. All the reserve is within the defined pit boundaries. But the project is almost not economic because of the high cap ex and/or op ex due to the poor infrastructure way up north. That is 12 almost 13 M oz in that project per most recent NI 43-101 . . . that Courageous Lake project is said to be one of the largest known undeveloped gold deposits in Canada, but they are back to trying to find ways to improve the economics - more drilling, alternatives for energy, building a port to ship out concentrate (i.e. more cap ex) etc. The stock sold off fairly steeply when the prefeasibility came out, and that is despite the fact that it is the lessor/smaller of their projects.
AI
