I was pinned him with razor sharp questions, basically I could sense he couldn't answer my questions logically, because he's just not allowed to talk.

If he is not allowed to talk then I surmise that it could only mean one thing .. they have an agreement or they are in the process of finalizing one. It just doesn't make any sense to waste a season of exploration for just 5-10M in further dilution so I don't really buy that line as well. As the saying also goes time is money and wasted time is wasted opportunity cost.

Sure, spending money on the US properties may get a bigger bang down the road but we are talking much further down the road as in several years to get it explored to the point of being bought. We can do the exploration on our SC lands right now and get the payback very soon. I am talking about opportunity cost and time value of an investment here. Imho, it would not be wasted money to continue the exploration unless...they already have an agreement in place to be finalized with legal paperwork. My 2 cents.