Heffley Creek Property From posts on CEO.CA:
I will be interested to see how much the Company expended in the current quarter in the process to determine whether or not to make the final $15,000 payment so as to complete the Heffley property acquisition. I have been told the assessment conducted which concluded the Heffley property "no longer seemed viable in light of PLAN’s extensive evaluation of the property, which evaluation included the review by a seasoned geological consulting firm, a recent site visit by and consultations with three further geologists and another person with over 30 years of open pit mining experience, to name a few", was completed "in the current fiscal quarter".
If the cost of the recent assessment process adds up to more than $15,000, then I suggest we would have been better off to defer the assessment, pay Mr. Marlow his last $15,000 instalment, and park the now $447,828 exploration asset on the Balance Sheet until the Company was ready (and able from a cash flow perspective) to make a sound decision. Instead we are going to suffer the negative impact from a large one time write off at a time when the market price of PLAN shares is testing new lows. For me, with the information management has chosen to disclose to shareholders and potential investors to date, this is a real head scratcher. Always interested to know what others think - let's have a two way conversation here.
Again, if you are interested you can download the PLAN news releases that address the exciting progress that was eagerly reported in the months since the property was acquired (optioned) in February 2020. Check out these release dates:
February 24, 2020
July 30, 2020
August 5, 2020
August 17, 2020
October 28, 2020
December 18, 2020
It was clear from the information shared in the public releases that the exploration assessment work underway on the Heffley Creek Property was a significant focus of the Company's management team and consumed a not insignificant part of the overhead expensed in that year. Only the direct out-of-pocket costs were capitalized as Exploration Property assets.
The out-of-pocket costs expended on the Heffley Creek property by fiscal year were as follows:
Year ending April 30, 2020 $7,500 (initial cash payment to Marlow)
Year ending April 30, 2021 $184,985
Year ending April 30, 2022 $63,489
Year ending April 30, 2023 $166,354
Total Asset carrying value $432,828
Most of the work on this property in 2021 included completing detailed geological mapping as well as designing a drill program. Third party contractors were hired to assess the suitability of drill hole locations. PLAN submitted a full application to drill this property in early 2021, including posting a required performance bond with the BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation and notified First Nations in the area of our intentions. PLAN has received the approved Heffley Notice of Work Permit on April 25, 2022 from the Ministry. It is management’s intention to finish its exploration obligations to earn a 100% interest in this property on or before February 10, 2024. (MD&A August 29, 2022)
In Q3 2023 no further field sampling was conducted as this work finished in October as the winter season arrived early. A final report was prepared by a geologist. All of the $275,000 in exploration expenses required to earn a 100% interest in this property has now been incurred. In February 2023, the second last cash payment of $12,500 was made to the vendor. The Company expects to make the final $15,000 payment to the vendor to earn a 100% interest in this property in Q2 of fiscal 2024. No further work was done on this property in Q4 2023, but work commenced on this property after April 30, 2023 as we began to explore opportunities for carbon sequestration in the serpentinite mineralization that is prevalent on this property. (MD&A September 1, 2023)