Q&A with Lee - ... announced drill results had delays of 7 months on Pulacayo and 2 months on Paca. Lee: Regarding the drill results, we encountered many issues in 2021 which resulted in several months’ delay:
1. Drill equipment failures and broken rods which required ordering and receiving new parts from China that took several months;
2. Contract driller errors. Three of the holes were drilled with wrong offset, and two holes were aborted due to either ground conditions or equipment issues.
3. Bolivia imposed several months of lock down where fuel is not available and work is prohibited.
4. Our entire office of staff and geologists got sick from the pandemic
5. Mandatory one week rest between each vaccine shot
6. Rain season caused mud slide of the roads that haul drill equipment
7. Much of Bolivia is on holiday from Christmas to Carnival in February
8 The labshave repeatedly promised assay results, and failed to deliver
To address the issue, the company took several proactive actions, including:
1. The company brought on US geologist to stay full time Bolivia to supervise drilling, after company's VP South America operation stepped down in December 2021 as he declined to travel to Bolivia on several requests since summer 2021
2. The company informed the driller of unacceptable work standards and some of the work were not be invoiced
3. The company managed to secure a new driller for the Triunfo project. We negotiated the best rates however still at a premium due to inflation
- how can the CEO of Flying Nickel combine a full time job as the VP Geo at ELEF?
Lee:
Dan Oosterman is well qualified to manage both roles for one salary, there is no double dip.
Silver Elephant has been actively recruiting for a new VP, Exploration since September 2021. This is a challenge as the job requires fluency in both Spanish and English, ability to work majority of the time in Bolivia with a PGeo qualification. We have interviewed several candidates, including one individual who accepted the role but then backed out
- why so small drill program in 2021 comparing with other explorers in Bolivia
Lee:
A. The drill results have been announced
B. The company already delineated 107 million oz silver of indicated resource based on 96,000 meters of drilling since 1998
C. The company hasn’t generated enough exploration targets as we had completed geophysics, mapping, and sampling program in 2021
One my question remains unanswered: how can an explorer operate effectively if CEO of this explorer is located 360 days per year in China, VP Geo in Canada, VP Operations in Spain and thus exploration and drill works are without oversight.
It's no wonder ELEF couldn't drill a single significant hole in last 7 years.