FDR: Financials and MD&A offer encouraging info tidbitsBefore I discuss gleanings from these latest filings, I should first correct an important omission from my commentary yesterday. As I compared FDR’s odyssey to a football game, I left out the role of social media like Stockhouse, CEO.ca, X/Twitter etc.
As the FDR “team” of retail and institutional investors, directed by its quarterback (Founders’ management), moves the football (stock price) downfield (higher), who is the “crowd” cheering in the stands? Anyone commenting online or talking up the stock to their friends in person. Plus anyone even merely reading about it online.
Note this includes negative commentary or complaints too – the total volume of commentary is what really counts, not whether everyone is positive. And if you think a crazy, motivated crowd doesn’t inspire the players to try even harder, you’ve never had the pleasure of being at a live sporting event.
Yes, the analogy does start to break down a little, since fans aren’t allowed to jump onto the field to try to carry the ball themselves. Some people involved with FDR could theoretically be filling nearly *all* the different roles I listed above. But it’s fun to try to imagine our expedition in new ways, and to better understand our particular place in it.
Now as to the FDR filings, here are a few things that leapt out at me.
For some reason, I had it in my mind the drill rigs cost $800,000 (combined). So seeing their price listed as only $584,000 (p7 of Financials, Note 4) was a nice surprise. An even shorter payback period, and therefore an even bigger demonstration of our management’s stinginess with (our) owners’ dollars.
Those historical auger samples? I assumed they were all essentially just scraping the surface (2-3 feet into ground at most). Turns out the first big batch ranged from 1 - 15 meters in depth (p5 of MD&A). 15 meters! An even better indication of what lies beneath. And I already thought it was pretty good. I seem to recall FDR listing somewhere how many meters of auger sampling had been done, but I can’t find it just now. With that figure and the total number of auger holes, we could calculate average depth per hole.
The geophysical survey details listed (p10 of MD&A) about the targets waiting at Buese versus Upper Antino confirm my strong suspicions about Buese hosting a materially bigger resource. And we shouldn’t have long to wait before actual drill results will show whether and just how much bigger Buese could be.
The progress toward completion of the first stage of the Option Agreement with Nana Resources is gratifying (p8 of Financials, Note 5). Looks like the exploration spending requirement will be met in a matter of months, just like the December slide deck suggests. It would be nice to read the full Option Agreement, but I suppose that might not be public – and perhaps that is as it should be.
All in all, what’s not to like? We are speeding toward what ought to be increasingly attention-grabbing drill results, with our treasury full and our administrative details in order. Here’s to a great New Year.