"I have been in other junior mining plays and EVERYTIME a drilling program started it was PR'd."
Yes, in most cases, a junior miner will announce a drilling program. That's as much for PR purposes as anything else. It is not so all of the time. As I pointed out the other day, if there is no announcement about drilling, there does not have to be a PR on the results IF THEY IS BAD, as no "material change" comes out of it. There are and have been companies that have been under a black cloud of failed drilling programs and have been criticized for being too promotional beforehand. In these cases, the companies have stopped regular notices about the start of drilling programs, so they don't then have to make PRs about further failures.
Now in this case, why would a drilling program be underway at present without having been announced first - and I'm not saying this is the case?
1) LBSR is under a black cloud for failure to sufficiently advance it's properties over the years - for whatever reasons -, and for having experienced a "death spiral". It has also been associated with shady characters out of questionable European financial centers. Announcing a drilling program now might draw more negative attention than positive, given the history here.
2) A drilling program with a successful result now would confirm ZTEM and allow all parties to more fully play their cards. Letting the public in on the start of drilling, would raise a lot of questions and perhaps bring unwanted interest by parties who may not be welcome. By that, I mean stealth schemes to steal away Big Chunk on the cheap, before initial drilling can prove what we very strongly suspect is buried there.
This is not to say that 3rd party offers can be prevented now, just that they would be less likely. If there will be 3rd party interest following good drill results, it/they should be less "pirate-like".
3) And not to suggest anything unethical or that sharing insider information is going on, but keeping quite about drilling allows friends of the various interests/companies to take positions before new breaks. Such can go on without spilling the beans on drilling, just from sharing what we longs here already know.
4) It is possible that positive drill results will drive a lot more interest in Big Chuck if it is suddenly and unexpectedly released on the market.
5) A near miss on the target can be made without any ill effects, while drills are moved.
6) May be more reasons here, but you get the idea.
What I'm saying is, it is possible that drilling is underway. I'm not convinced, but will keep an open mind to the idea.
Can any of your quality DD researchers come up with drilling permits on Big Chunk? I don't know how there can be drilling without that.
VP in AZ