Saying he was “unhappy” with the bill, the president explained that while the bill isn’t perfect, it includes several “hard-fought” defense spending increases (the largest on record) which push the defense budget to $700BN, and a pay-hike for the troops.

It is understandable to want to capture the exploration upside in Maritime’s portfolio and increase the overall combined Gold reserves to attract better financing, but there are other ways to capture the production upside without acquiring them.

There is a cost (in share dilution) to existing investors by bringing on board another company in increased carrying costs, personnel costs, and I’d add “opportunity costs” in letting other exploration targets (like Viking, Jackson’s Arm, and Tilt Cove remain sitting more dormant).

Personally I’d rather see Anaconda go full steam ahead on bringing Stog’er Tight, Argyle and Goldboro into production first, get a larger production profile and more revenues coming in and THEN go into acquisition mode.

There will always be something else to acquire down the road.

Regardless, if they get it all worked out on the acquisition of MAE then I wish the Anaconda team all the success they deserve.