IMO, and I would bet, we were drilling long before Aug 17th. Look at the excerpt below from the May 17th release where they say drilling will be in conjunction with trenching.

The trenching program has been designed to confirm the direction, size and continuity of the mineralized structures and to delineate additional drilling targets. In conjunction with the trenching program, St. Elias will be commencing its 2011 drilling program. In an effort to increase the pace of trenching, the Company will utilize both local labor and mechanized trenching methods.

Lori has been vague in every release to do with drilling and has not given an exact date when drilling started. I would say she purposely left the date open for speculation. The big drills were to arrive mid Oct, but what if we don,t need them? This is only speculation on my part, but the present drills could most likely hit the 500m depth of the anomaly. If one or more of these 400-500 m holes had consistant grades and ended in mineralization with high gold grades, we may not need the deep drills yet. There may be enough info on hand at that point to entertain an offer.

Kherson mentioned royalties the other weekend and he was shunned. What if he is partly right? What if a deal will be made for the first 500 m verticle depth as a cash dividend paid up front? It would take years for the buyer to get to the 600m level, leaving considerable dollars tied up, with interest payments on top and a long payback period to justify to their shareholders. The best deal would probably be a lump sum paid for the top 500m and royalty payments paid in the form of dividends starting 2 -3 years after the first processing, for the aquisitor. For us it may not be so bad, we would get a lump sum up front of lets say $50 per share, we keep our shares and start to draw a dividend a few years down the road.There would be no need to sell your shares, because you would have cash from the first dividend. All the while this is happening, we are extremely cashed up and are agressively proving up Vilcoro for our next sale. The kitty is cashed up to the tune of maybe $60 million, enabling us to aquire another prospective property in Peru, and drill the new claims at the same time.

All speculation on my part, but I see a possibilty there.