"I can't remember how much drilling that hole in the middle of nowhere in Alaska cost. Anybody? $150,000?"

Naw, a heck of a lot more than that! They had to build a camp for the drillers before work began, remember? And the camp was not exactly next door to the dilling site either.

Time was lost in building the camp, flying in personnel and equipment, food, etc., preparing the site, ...and then drilling got cut short by the early arrival of winter. Had winter not come early, perhaps NDM would not have called the loan when the did, or additional core results may have generated other options compared to letting go of those claims.