RE:Strathcona, Snowden dynamics, etcDisagree. You are assuming Strathcona would risk their entire business credibility to temporarily hamper their competition until the "truth comes out". That does not add up at all.
Snowden will disagree with Strathcona, since it's their previously published resource estimate that stands to be extremely wrong and they won't be making many short lists to work on mining projects in the future if they are wrong.
Strathcona pulling out has put a huge stain on PVG and if Strathcona is wrong they won't be making many short lists to work on mining projects in the future. This is not a move that would have been done in haste and they must be pretty confident in their position to do this.
PVG of course will not agree that they don't have a mineral resource under any circumstances as the company ceases to have a reason to exist if they do.
The only party of the three that doesn't have a vested interest to protect with their stated position is Strathcona. Furthermore, Strathcona isn't just resigning and leaving, they are calling out PVG management and Snowden. This is a massive legal risk that they've taken on. The only legitimate explanation for that I can come up with, especially since they have no pre-existing interest here, is that they are distancing themselves from what they believe will be a fiasco. By publicly calling out PVG Management and Snowden they are protecting their future business interests, because to be associated or having facilitated the fiasco they think is coming would destroy their business credibility.
Here's how I think this ends:
- Strathcona is right - the resource is not economically feasible. I know they didn't explicitly say this, but that's how I interpret their statements that have been published.
- Snowden's resource estimate is not terribly far off. The minerals are there, but it's just not economically feasible to extract them on any kind of scale. They save face because their estimate was more or less accurate and they are committed to proving that by mining the entire bulk sample. Remember, it was never Snowden's responsibility to estimate economic feasibility, just size and grades. Mining the entire bulk sample will provide them their exit strategy.
- PVG suffers death by liquidity as they won't be able to raise another dime irrespesctive of if the deposit is economically feasible.
- PVG shareholders end up bagging groceries.
Red flags all over this one. Enter at your own risk.