"My hope is that they know we are a target waiting to be pounced on and they have not had enough time to prove up our resources in order to stave off an unfriendly offer."

The problem is that to get the sp up you have to prove you have something. To prove you have something means everybody knows about it including the big fish..... unless you plan to unleash a cataclysmic N.R. that states that last night you just happened to find 80billion tons of nickel at 17%.... when you actually were finding it over the last six months. Then it maybe looks like you were withholding material information from your shareholders and not reporting in a timely fashion. In the meantime comments like "super-saturated swamp land" and " this will take a lot of work" as opposed to "there is a lot of work ahead but with a find of this magnitude we can accomplish anything as it will pay great dividends" will be the order of the day.... er... is that order of the year.