From the Caesar report [20 May] ... a quoted response from Adam [see page-19 of the PDF]:
"The ultimate drill plan will be guided by success in the early stages, but from
what we know based on past drilling and the IP survey results, it looks like 80-
100 km of core will be a great start, but we could see greater numbers. A
compliant resource can be calculated in stages, with the first estimate done with
a smaller number of holes concentrated in a specific area. I’ll guess that you’ll
see the calculation of a resource done at Santo Tomas in stages, with the first
once possible with after the initial +/- 12-20 holes."
Hmmm ... this is interesting; something that, previously, from the Company, I had not heard/read:
[1] ultimate drill plan will be guided by early success: yes, this is logical, and, with positive results, it would be a good "problem" to have: with good early results, OCO will do more drilling. My perspective is that OCO has been doing very well at reading the geological "tea leaves" --- that is, making correct interpretations of the subsurface --- and that such success will continue into the drilling/coring/assays efforts ... and that, as a result, the drilling program may very well be expanding beyond 100km.
[2] 80km-100km, or, even greater numbers of drilling/coring/assays: these greater numbers would not surprise me, at all, particularly when Adam continues to comment that the commercial mineralization may extend both laterally and well below 1000m in depth. I do not believe that he says such things casually; rather, that OCO has much evidence to support this. [Hmmm ... what does the Braziles 3D-IP report have in store for OCO investors?]
[3] compliant resource estimates done in traunches, perhaps, the first after 12-20 holes: in a very positive way, this comment is very curious to me. [I am not at all familiar with the legal and technical requirement details of defining and constructing an NI-43-101 compliant resource doc.] Again, I suspect that Adam is not at all speaking casually; further, that I suspect OCO has already formulated various drilling scenarios --- that is, for the new drilling to compliment historical drill holes and new chargeability anomalies --- as to how they are going to fully define the compliant resource ... as such will depend on the early-stage drilling results. So, in at least one of these scenarios, OCO may be able to produce "small-area" NI-43-101 docs with the first 12-20 holes; where, if true, this suggests to me that OCO may very well have some compliant resources results, for some parts of the ST project, before the end of this year, yes?