A 'Positive' ScenarioA scenario placing this week's news in a 'positive' light is not easy but i'll try.
Maybe Gary Thompson didn't think it through! Maybe he's real good at this geology stuff but indifferent to optics. After all, he chose to spend his professional life relating to rocks not people.
Maybe this week it just really showed.
With assays pending to announce a 3 million share placement priced at or barely above market prices was beyond dumb. Private placements, bought deals by insiders, industry big wigs and such, are offered at below market prices. Public placements above market price are strictly for retail schmucks. No incentive to buy...duh.
It's hard not to feel the naked contempt implicit in such an offer. It's hard not to think in such terms.
Expectations for these assays were sky-high and the announcement drove the share price further below the price of the offerings lowest tier.
Investors concluded that if the assays were any good the offering price would have been much higher.
So, in light of this behaviour, here we are expecting the worst.
What if, i thought, Gary Thompson was not being (choose your expletive) and was just being oblivious, wrapped up in assay wishes and dreams with the rest of us? What if he wasn't tipping his hand that the assays were bad? What if he wasn't grabbing what cash he could before the 'bad' news got out?
What if he genuinely doesn't know what is in those assays? What if his plan all along was to fund next year's budget in November and pulled the trigger oblivious to the message it sent?
Could be. It looks pretty dumb from here. Or worse. But he has done other things that indicate he marches to the beat of a different drum.
This whole 'portfolio' of four viable exploration properties he has spent 8 years assembling is unusual. So is the approach to exploration he demonstrated this year.
Hole 150 followed by 22 holes at Atlin and then 13 at Thorn. Of Thorn's 13 two stepouts were reported and a third #162 is pending. Otherwise 32 holes were drilled nowhere near paydirt #150.
I consider this astonishing. Any other company would have shelved Atlin, cancelled the Thorn holes 3.5 kilometers from #150 and gone crazy drilling in the obvious place near the first killer hole in eight years!
Not this guy. After #150 was announced in July he just drilled where he said he would.
Obviously if he hits paydirt with the remaining assays all will be forgiven.
So that's my 'positive' spin on this week's announcement. Being oblivious Gary Thompson was unaware of the potential negative effects of this placement. He doesn't think in those terms.
So i'll try to keep an open mind about the motives--could be anything with this guy--behind this weeks buzzkill of an announcement and do what i would be doing regardless and wait for those assays.
Cheers.