posted on
Mar 01, 2016 10:11AM
Fair enough but I do see things quite differently.
I'm sure that most of the team at noront is quite familiar with drilling operations by now. They could hire a drilling foreman/geologist and then hire drillers on a contract basis from there on...how do you think the majority of diamond core contractors operate? I get resumes every day from very qualified drilling technicians because the mining industry is so hurting. Most of whom have several companies listed on their resume because it's all contract basis. I've personally been subbed out to operate rigs on a few occasions...it's worked out very well. As far as overhead...this is a multibillion dollar project...spending a million to save 20+ and being able to move faster on exploration activities is just a wise business decision. It would tell me that they're serious about exploration and intend to make swiss cheese of the deposits. Unless anyone here thinks that we have enough information about what's in the ground, those rigs should be turning non stop. By owning their own equipment this could be a cost effective reality and we'd have frequent news releases of new discoveries.
...Or they can pay premium rates with bogged down timelines for the next 20 years.
Cheers