The technical verbiage in exploration updates can often overwhelm, sometimes leaving us with more questions than answers. But fortunately Jeremy Martin, Chief Executive of Horizonte Minerals prefers a less complicated style of writing, so it was with relative ease and interest we note the company's latest news release.
However as keen followers of resource stocks will note, explorers can be a cautious lot; preferring not to get investors overexcited at an early stage and leaving themselves hostage to fortune. That's why one always has read such updates extremely carefully, paying great attention to all the detail.
If you just gave the announcement a cursory glance at the time, then you could easily have missed some key points. So here are some thoughts.
Firstly, we recognise that investors are yearning for crystallisation of value, and with the Lontra Nickel project due a JORC resource calculation by mid 2010, this looks like it could now be on the way!
Work here has been delayed by rains which is disappointing, but short of acquiring an industrial strength umbrella the size of Hamburg, there's not much else the company could have done. We also note that, to complement drilling plans, the company have now engaged well respected lateritic Nickel expert, Roger Billington, which we see as a good endorsement for the project and will complement the successful metallurgical test work already undertaken to date.
In short, the company clearly views Lontra as a serious enough project and management are now demonstrating how they intend to work towards transforming it into a valuable asset.
This stage in Lontra's development is a somewhat reminiscent of African Eagle's progress with their Dutwa nickel project. With the scale of the resource potential and meticulous approach the company is taking, they may well achieve similar results with Lontra - at which point talk of value creation would be on a whole new scale.
Ah, but secondly there is Tangara, which many investors see as a bit of a dead duck. This is something we find rather anomalous. Before Tangara was farmed out to Troy Resources there had been a successful period of exploration by carried out Horizonte. Troy started off by focusing on new areas of the licence and before one starts to…
