Hope De Jongs Not In Over His Head What a disaster this weeks been. First, in mid September, De Jong stated that the RE would come out in early to mid October. Monday’s the last day of October. How can De Jong be so far off in his Colorado statements less than 30 days from when the RE was supposed to be issued? Did the team preparing the RE give De Jong a bad projection or is their work incompetent and needs to be revised? Second, De Jong been bragging for months at all the presentations he’s made about how Integra is fully funded until late next year and no debt and everything’s great. Then the bombshell with Eastmain. If Integra is fully funded for another year why would you sell the stock now? What do you gain? There is explanation, so everyones left guessing? You can agree or disagree but the SP is on its way to the sixty some odd cents level with no big drop in the gold price.
On another issue, the dilution this year has been incredible. Supposedly, the funds are being spent to get to the point of issuing a FS for Triangle which will make it less costly to raise funds to go into production ($40 million to develop a ramp and drill Triangle to death not counting what a FS will cost). Let me ask you a few questions. What if the FS is a dud and Triangle can’t be mined economically? What does the company do then. You say you don’t believe Triangle is a dud. Well management must believe it’s a possibility that Triangle is a dud because they’re going all the way to an FS before even considering production.
The latest drilling results show higher grades and greater widths in C1, C2 and C4. IMO, this guarantees that Triangle can be mined successfully. As more and more great results come in from the massive drilling of C1 and C2, it becomes clear that a full scale FS for Triangle is a waste of money. The ramp is almost to edge of C1 and C1. They could have the bulk samples processed in Q1 2017 either through the mill (which would be smart- 20,000 tons at 8 gpt produces $8.5 million in revenue, which would cover a lot of the costs of mill start up and bulk sample processing) or though an outside company. The company is going to incur the costs to get the bulk samples out of the ground and processed, whether it’s in Q1 or Q3. I believe Integra currently has enough money to get the mill running and process bulk samples in Q1. The Triangle ramp can handle moving 1,500 to 1,700 tpd per De Jong’s statements. Rent the trucks and equipment for a month and in 15 working days or less you have your 20,000 ton bulk samples. The company currently drilling the ramp is moving a lot more than 1,500 tons of rock a day. Have that company haul the mined ore to the mill for a fee.
IMO, the upcoming RE and PEA is a waste of money. The PEA will be based on speculation as to what’s there and what will actually come out of the mill at the end and the later you issue the RE, the more M & I you have. Delay the PEA until after the bulk samples are processed and you will know how many gpt will come out of the mill. You can use the PEA at that point to get your production CA .
I’m hoping that this delay in the RE and raising additional cash indicates that management is now planning to move up the whole process to start full scale production around the middle of 2017. If not, it’s going to be a long and expensive slog for no good purpose.