You said...

"Why is it that only one of the big drills is operating, if both are crewed and ready?

From the NI43-101 we know the expenditure of drilling is $ 400 per meter for the deeper holes. What could be the hold up?? Surely they know which way to point the drill bit. Why put this in the NR without any further explanation."

Now, knowing how much money it costs to operate drills down in the strato-mantle (sorry, strato nice guy :-} ), I would say it was prudent to get one drill bit down there and do some down hole crone stuff or whatever that technology is called BEFORE plugging away at this area without knowing "exactly where to point the bit"...

These holes are NOT cheap. Every hole that they drill costs more than you and I make in a couple of dozen years (OK, just talking about me, then...oh, and exaggerating a bit too). Wes says that they will have no problem spending the money that they need to before year's end so let't cut them a wee bit of slack and jump all over them if they have to give some of this PP money to the government for not spending it at the end of this year.

Now, personally, I would rather see them locate the ore bodies and then make them into pincushions. Secondly, are they planning to use both of these deep drills to "look for" ore or use one to "define the ore body" at depth? If they plan on using it for another 43-101 report, perhaps it is prudent to wait until they know exactly where they want to drill to get the infill drilling spot on. You have to remember that if this "pencil shaped" ore body as someone once mentioned it is only 40 - 50 meters in diameter, it would be pretty hard to stick a drill bit through the heart of it at, say, 1700 or 1800 meters depth, especially if angling the bit down at 77.3 degrees with an azimuth of 126.75 SE... Imagine if you found the one spot where it thinned out instead of getting wider and missed that hole..... that's a lot of moola out the window if they can't get the wedgies to work or lose the hole completely.

Just an opinion from someone who's waited for a few years now and is prepared to wait a few more :-{

God Bless all Noront Shareholders, especially Vermillion who ALWAYS makes me smile :-)

Herb