Your own text answered your question "This is a gold play and should be kept that way".

Right now the focus appropriately is on Hercules. By extension that means there is no focus and therefore little or no value given the assets held as Caribou or the Otish.

I suspect where some people get confused is the use of the terminology "split". The creation of other companies is usually more of a "split off" or really an off shoot.

Have been through this process before, the most recently with Shear Minerals(SRM) a diamond exploration company splitting off Kaminak Gold (KAM).

What occurred was that existing shareholders of SRM received KAM at a rate of 1 for 4. So that 10,000 SRM resulted in the addition of 2500 KAM. There was no reduction in SRM holdings(as in numbers of shares) and the KAM was distributed as per an IPO with the issuer absorbing distribution costs.

At the end of the exercise there was some adjustment of prices but at the time the total value of the two was greater than the initial value of one. Since that time of course each has progressed/regressed according to the market and I quote this example as not being a "super successful" one but more as an explanation of the process.

For those wondering about tax implications, the company issued information about the proportionate value of the "split off" so that a portion of the initial investment would be assigned to the New Company. There was no capital gain impact until such time as there was actual disposition of any of the assets (individual investor selling either SRM or KAM shares)

There may of course be other ways of accomplishing this but as I mentioned I have been through the identical process a couple of times so it may well be the industry standard.

Onward and Upward