Of course it's difficult to raise funds. Not a news flash. We've been pretty good at demonstrating that for quite a while. But our time to succeed is not unlimited. Things happen. Once again- I think we have to take things into our own hands. Yes, we could wait for something to come of ESB- but that depends on Washington- and I don't care if it's Trump, or Zinke or Congress- that's never a good bet. The paradox is that it's unlikely that we can attract funds without at least some drill results- or at least have a higher PPS which would make funding easier- but, of course, we can't drill without funds. A dilemma. An effort to fund through private placement fell woefully short of the $1-2 milllion goal for the planned 10 hole campaign. And the company has been unwilling to risk all on a "cheapo" one hole shot- and, with good reason- although it seems this was successful at Big Chunk. Hence, the palty funds that were raised were, I assume, used to keep the lights on while treading water- a necessity- but not something that would create much enthusiasm for another big push for private placement funds. 

Instead- I would propose something in between. Since $1 million plus seems unattainable- I would suggest something more modest- namely- a 2 or 3 hole preliminary drill program. This automatically doubles or triples the odds of success over a 1 hole effort- and, although it is not enough to prove out the economic viability of HM- its purpose would be that any success would hopefully then attract the funds needed to complete a full program of mapping. Achieving the $2-300+ K funds needed would be much more realistically attainable from our cadre of investors. If funds were to be segregated and guarenteed to be earmarked for drilling, I'm sure a few dozen of our  investors would be willing to put in funds- along with, I would hope- some Directors.

I think this is realistically doable- and could possibly break through our long endured impass.