Drills and drill crewsAL - you said:
I didn't think a junior gold exploration-stage company would arrange to purchase or rent their own drills and then try to hire hire drill crews separately.
Sometimes that does happen
Instead, I thought the gold company hires a drilling company and the drilling company provides both the drill(s) and the crew(s) neeed to operate it, with the gold company and drilling company establishing a contract re.term and total compensation....?
What usually happens
It seems that, unless NFG is paying for the rentals of any idle drills sitting on their property without drillers/crews to operate them, a drilling company would only want to deliver a drill to a site and leave it there if they can also provide the crew to begin operations and earn money
Sometimes the drilling company will charge Standby if their drills are sitting idle, but in the case where the drilling company can't find crew to operate them, the exploration company wouldn't be responsible for paying Standby.
A good driller is very hard to find these days, but 'green' helpers are a dime a dozen. Green helpers generally catch on pretty quickly, but for sure an experienced helper makes a difference on efficiency of operations.
Drilling companies across the country are vying for the good drillers by offering higher and higher wages and bonuses. Those higher costs get passed on to the exploration company. It's a 'Driller's Market', and they make very good money.