RE: RE: RE: AXI PRI'm here until the bitter end (development at Roche Bay "postponed," promotion of Alaskan Iron Sands begins) or until the mine at Roche Bay opens. What I see, in my humble opinion, is a company not doing it the right way, and it's instructive to see this behavior right up close: scattered focus on multiple projects, constantly changing development plans, management unprepared for production, ambiguous relationships with partners, projects in difficult environments, etc.
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Since there were no drilling programs in 2009 and 2010, shouldn't AXI be drilling the crap out of Roche Bay? This is supposed to be a mine in 2015! The drilling seasons are short in the Arctic Circle, every season you have to make significant progress defining the resource. The 7500 meters of Roche Bay drilling scheduled for 2011 seems like a low number for a flagship project. Why not double the numbers of drills at Roche Bay instead of drilling at Tuktu and running magnetic airborne surveys at Alaskan Iron Sands?
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At Alderon's Kami project the winter drilling was 5000 meters, while the summer/fall program will be 26,000 meters of drilling. That's $13.5 million spent on 31,000 meters of drilling for the year. That's what a flagship project looks like. Alderon doesn't have secondary projects because it's a waste of precious time, focus and money.
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On the other hand, is AXI drilling at Tuktu because of the disappointing grades at Roche Bay? The April 6, 2011 Mineral Estimate for the C-zone shows relatively low percentages of iron and relatively high percentages of impurities. The iron grades at Tuktu look much, much better.