supposed hand shakethe truth of it is there is no hand shake, strike rep's have approached richmont pleading to process gold via their mill, not going to happen. Richmont is pushing 850 tons a day already thru a 750 ton mill and there is not deal to be made. An offer was made to buy strike out at a devalued price based on the mess that crane and smith have mustered. the truth of the matter is, if you are not fully transparent with your financials you have something to hide, that being mismanagement, mis allocation of funds etc. Time for us as share holders to insist that they cut a deal and let someone regain the composure of this property. There needs to be one large player in this area, RIC/ CLINE/ AR /STK need to merge and have one super site at 20,000 tonnes a day, feeding this mill with open pit and under gound operations. we then have one of the strongest mines in canada with good grades, a mass of tonnage and good grades. It has to happen, its just a matter of if and when these juniors realize they are flogging a race horse without a budget.
Richmont in the centre of all of this hads the only operating mine, permits in place and functional, AR has a massive open pit potential and a very good cash flow as will be disclosed in today quarterly report. If AR opens a new mine, the staffing issues will be monsterous, RIC and AR wlling have a pissing match stealing each others staff, and trying to attract trained people to run the operation. A joint venture agreement makes the most sense, no one wants to share, but based on the location, time lines, this makes the most sense for anyone looking to blow some life into these pipe dreams. Do the math, look at the population of the area, mileage to Wawa, power line issues, permitting issues. Now look at RIC moves in the last 6 months, cancelled credit line, cancelled drilling contract to get at deep reserves,cash flow down to $15m from $60m. something is up people, either they are getting ready for a merger or they are in self protection mode.