Tomorrow, Tuesday August 7th completes 3 months drilling... Drilling was announced May 8th after a late Spring. The delay allowed NUG Geologists to refine their drill targets, a positive. 3 months seems like enough time for results from more than 1 hole. But that is above my pay grade. I am sure we're all looking forward to results soon.
To review, a February 13 press release recapped 2017's 42,700 ft [13,000 meter] drill program in 47 holes. In January, NUG announced N. Iceberg and Serena were connected. The 2017 program uncovered mineralization in the new Serena zone, discovery of the new VIO zone, & advancement of the Avocado zone. Geophysical surveys were conducted on the new Western Slope zone, west of Serena/Iceberg.
They announced a comparable 40,000 ft [12,000 meter] drill program for 2018, mentioning Serena, VIO, Avocado, and the Western Slope.
Two PR firms were hired this Spring according to Feb 13th, and March 27th press releases. Each was for six months, one ending August 15th, the other September 15th. Might we see more from each?
In April NUG announced John Budreski was joining the Board of Directors. It is interesting that the largest shareholder, Oceana has not named a Director. They own 16.2%, Barrick owns 10.9%, Tocqueville 9.7%. Budreski has a background in engineering, advancing businesses toward success, has experience with several royalty firms, and investment banking.
In May NUG announced 76 yr old Roger Steininger was retiring from day to day involvement, but would remain a director. Roger was a Founding Partner of NuLegacy.
On May 8th, they announced an initial phase of 15,000 ft drilling in about 12 holes. Two rigs were on site. Initially 2 holes were drilled in Avocado, and 3 step outs from Serena/N. Iceberg. Presumably this was in or toward the Western Slope zone. The drilling was an elaborate reverse circulation, followed by core drilling process.
Additionally geophysical tests were to be conducted on the VIO zone, with targets to be followed up by reverse circulation drilling later in the season. Results were announced, August 1st, so drilling could occur anytime now. The number of holes depends on the geophysical results. Four "lines" were revealed.
A director was granted 750,000 in options at CA$ 0.20 for 5 yrs. They didn't say, but a good guess would be new Director John Budreski.
On June 27th, 7 weeks later, a drilling update was announced on one of the Serena step out holes, SR18-01C was 365 ft / 112 meters North West of SR17-08C which assayed 32 meters of 2.05 g/t, including 3.2 meters of 14.74 g/t.
The new 2018 hole assayed 3.27 g/t over 15 meters, within 1.47 g/t over 51 meters. The press release said Phase 1 was 7 holes over 10,000 feet. May 8, Phase 1 was termed 15,000 ft in about 12 holes. The difference may include expected drilling in VIO targets developed from geophysical tests. 2 of the initial 7 were in Avocado, and 5 [not 3] were step outs from Serena/North Iceberg. We've heard back on 1 Serena setp out.
On July 5th, the Private Placement was announced. On July 10th an update announcing an insider swap of shares for units. Later we learned this was to accomodate a fund in Europe that required liquidity. On July 19th NUG updated that an initial tranche of 8.5 million units had closed. Management's were included, Oceana's and any others were not. The projected total was 15 million units, I believe 5.1 million remained.
On July 27th, Chairman Albert Matter released a Chairman's Chat that was not accompanied by a press release, but which referred to a Barrick news release from the day before about the Fourmile property, at the other end of the Cortez trend. I initially misunderstood his release. His point was to illustrate how highly prospective NUG's Red Hill property was, and he cited several examples. Reread it, clearly it was a "keep the faith friends" message, he has certainly not lost it.
On August 1st, the VIO geophysical results were announced. VIO was just announced last September 13th. Director Ed Cope commented that NUG had the good fortune & complexity of having the intersection of The Cortez Trend, and The Northern Nevada Rift. The analysis revealed four distince lines of chargeability, with the potential for bonanza grade gold and silver. I cannot do justice to the press release, and strongly encourage rereading it.
In summary, we have had steady news, including 2 releases in a quiet month like January. Just recently, on July 27th, Chairman Albert seized the opportunity to share how "prospective" he believed the Red Hill property is.
No doubt we'll have more news soon on these topics and others as we advance toward the news we all want. Now, if the price of gold would cooperate.
The fuse it lit.