Aside from being the ulimate insider job it does indicate that they are evolving as an exploration company and recognizing that t hey need to buy the talent they lack.

I ran the Eastern operation of a drill company after my time in the field as a geologist and before going for my MBA. Lost holes, burnt bits, mechanical failures are all part of the learning experience BUT by now they should have a good grasp of the ground conditions and know how they can handle them. I'm am not however surprised that the rate of drilling is slow. Our crews used to call 200-300 metre holes dream holes (rig move and case on first shift, 4 to 6 shifts of good drilling and then move on). Most geologists , drillers, and companies have lots of experience with these mid-length holes. Not so much experience on long holes or geotechnical holes.

Long holes and geotechnical holes are a different beats. After 300 metres its starts to take longer and longer to pull that string of drill rod out for bit changes, recovering the core takes longer and things genearly are slower as you have to take up the stress on the drill rods slower when starting drilling again. Add to that the amount of time and the volume of mud you have to pump when ground conditions are so so at depth and it can get very slow. For geotechnical holes most are drilled under tight conditions that restrict the number of metre per hour so better contrl over the direction of the hole can be maintained (these ones are suppose to go exactly where they are targeted vs close).