Hey Gang,
I was also one of a few of our Agoraboard members to attend the AGM. I didn't see the NR until I arrived at the meeting so I didn't have too much time to digest it before the meeting began. Overall I felt it was in the ballpark of what I was expecting from a first RE (except of course for the grades which were lovely). The fact that the underground grades look economical is very good news and may wake the sleeping giants like OSK or AEM.
The first thing I noticed was the increased attention to detail with respect to the new corporate governance guidelines in place at GNH. The formal part of the meeting felt a bit like I was at a Ford Motor Company AGM, which, as boring as it was to listen to, really suggests that this company is taking itself and its future very seriously. I met our new CFO, who is largely responsible for the change in culture at GNH.
Following the Regular and Special Meeting proceedings Frank Candido said a few words regarding the future of the company. He spoke of how proud he was of the accomplishments of GNH in the last year. He mentioned that the majority of data included in the resource estimate was from a mere 19,000 metres of drilling and that this augured very well for future efforts to increase the resource at T1. He congratulated the whole team for their efforts and explained that this was merely the beginning of what he said we all know will one day be a mine.
He spoke candidly about the lack of money available for juniors at this time (not just GNH but all juniors) and the difficulties we would face as a result. But he seemed quite resolved to get the drills turning as soon as possible rather than stick his head in the sand. Of course he will need to convince the board of this.
Frank roughly mapped out what he caaled Plan A and Plan B phases of drilling. Plan A was the best case scenerio dream drill program if they happened to find $100 million on the doorstep of the office when they arrived at work today. Plan B was a more conservative proposal that cherry picked the highest priority holes from Plan A.
To summarize. The company feels that its best chance to begin to rise above the rest of their junior explorer peer group will be to continue to prove up Timmins 1/2/88 (and apparently they have identified a number of low risk holes to do so -please see my post from yesterday to get a feel for what they are thinking there), while at the same time moving the Champagne zone to resource status and using wildcat holes from their VTEM data to get more hits at Champagne. Frank was very excited about the possibility of multiple additional hits along the Champagne horizon based on comparison of their own drill data to the VTEM.
Watching Frank react to the selloff in real time yesterday afternoon was a bit like watching a man get kicked in the teeth. Knowing Frank as I do, I believe that he has a great pride in the accomplishments of the company, a great belief in the future of our properties, and that his business decisions are motivated primarily by a desire to bring GNH to the next level.
Lastly, Frank hinted there might be some more news on the not too distant horizon. I'll be watching for that.
It was a pleasure to see GleeGee, Deeter, and Plumber13 at the meeting and I think we all left with the assurance that GNH will not be disappearing from the radar at any point in the near future. I send my sincerest congratulations to everyone at GNH for reaching this important milestone and look forward to following their progress over the next 8-12 months.
Best,
Scott
