Frontier Research article from 2011Stockhouse being cranky , typical.
Here's an excerpt
Project Background & Company Overview
It is important at this stage of our discussion, to provide a little historical project background as context for the value proposition that Lion One represents. There are three critical puzzle pieces to this background story that converge to make the company, and its Tuvatu gold project, a compelling investment.
Slipping Into Obscurity
The first puzzle piece is one of those unique situations that we love in which a projects value is obscured by other events. Emperor owned and operated Vatukoula since 1958 along with exclusive interests in any surrounding deposits. In this context, Tuvatu was first discovered in 1987 and in the late 90’s Emperor made the decision to rapidly develop the deposit as an additional source of high-grade ore to feed their existing mill at Vatukoula.
By mid-2000, the company had completed extensive mine development work, including: Resource definition drilling totaling 87,000 meters and 605 drill holes, · Over 1,600 meters of underground access tunneling, and · A Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS). The DFS was positive, demonstrating a commercially viable underground gold mine. The report also provided JORC compliant initial reserves and resources totaling 809,000oz at impressive grades between 6.6 and 10.3 grams per tonne (g/t). Unfortunately a persistently low gold price (below US$300) led the board to shelve the project until gold prices strengthened.
In the meantime, Emperor ran into financial difficulties in the mid 2000’s, ultimately divesting of its Fijian assets and merging with another Australian explorer operating in Indonesia (Intrepid Mines Ltd.) in 2008. As a result of Emperor’s troubles, both Vatukoula and Tuvatu were briefly orphaned in a complex web of ownership changes. These ownership changes were resolved when the newly formed Lion One finally took full control of Tuvatu in the last half of 2010.
Nevertheless, the shelving of the project in 2000 combined with the disappearance of historic Emperor Mining caused Tuvatu to disappear from investor radar screens.
The Geology Story -
Unlocking Value Moving on to puzzle piece number two, Lion One has shrewdly acquired a gold project in which the greatest risk an explorer faces, namely ‘exploration risk’, has been removed. They know they have a gold deposit. The early work has already been done for them, including excavation of a lengthy underground access tunnel and a completed DFS with all of its detailed components. This is low cost exploration and gets them off to a great running start.