rq said in his interview with jim puplava a while back that he expected he would be back in the mining industry within 6-12 months. his strength is in exploration, and he said he was looking for opportunities, trying to find the right situation, as in an under-utilized asset.

the company had said over and over that its emphasis was on silver, and there was no way it could bring snowfield/brucejack into production all by itself. i expected that someday when the price of gold was higher, they would either sell the asset, or joint venture with a major.

this deal looks like a joint venture with a startup company, in which they will have a large equity interest, and representation on its board, so they will have far more influence on the new company than they ever could if they had partnered with a major. we will learn the details soon enough, but those projects were never core assets, and were going to be monetized one way or the other.

there may be some pointed questions asked of management at the end of the next conference call, so stay tuned.