CapT,

Quite a few good points you raised. Some comments on what you said:

"This sounds good except for one item. Any spend at all in the high grade zone will require financial input from the 50 % JV partner. If Dave P goes ahead and builds a ramp...with my already diluted share position...I won't be happy. He will need 50 / 50 funding to continue to what is perceived as pre-mine development."

1. Financial input from the JV partner: This will require 50% input from the JV partner, but only if PRB want to start to build a mine. Digging up a ramp does not necessarily mean preparation for a UG mine operation. If the main purpose is to facilitate the "exploration", e.g. poking around with probes, sensors, etc and doing some exploratory drilling, then this should be qualified as an activity for spending part of the $26M.

2. BFS: A mine development/building would be seriously considered after a BFS has shown the mine would be economically viable. For PRB a BFS is not yet an item for active discussion.

As a side note, if the engineers are clever enough, the can cretainly design an "exploration" ramp which could be easily modified as a ramp for mining, later, when the BFS is available to support the economics? As a start, make it wide enough for mechanized equipment to move in an out easily.

3. Oz available from ramp digging: "Ramp for continued exploration will also take out some ounces along the way...say 6 metres wide x 200 metres on the hypotenuse...20,000 to 30,000 ounces ? or more." This is an interesting point. If PRB get a pile of ore out of this ramp, there are a few options for its use.

- used as bulk samples for the BFS preparation; or

- Au could be extracted, by a third party...just truck the ore to some processing facility in the area to get the yellow stuff out. As an example, with a profit margin of say $1000/oz, 30koz would yield $30M . Even at $500/oz profit margin, the income would be ~$15M, which is quite a significant sum for PRB treasury. It may turn out that digging up this "exploration" ramp can be a profitable activity...And that, presumably, will make you happy?

goldhunter