I have just received this from Steve in answer to some of this...

I have just received this from Steve in answer to some of this morning's posts. I hope it helps those posters and others with similar concerns. The emphasis is my doing.
Just reinforces my view that we HC readers should not be worrying, or even commenting, on the technicalities. Steve is all over it for us. Trust him.

"There are many companies drilling salt lakes currently in Argentina which means good drillers are spread over a wide area.

If the drilling had gone well in Dec/Jan, we would have found either hard halite (salt) with little brines or lots of sediments, saturated, but with little brine.
In each case, a bad result. But so far we don't have results.

Here we actually have intersected the target that explorers want - brine rich sands - but they are challenging.

The majority of drilling problems are due to poor drilling conditions - which make geologists happy and drillers angry.

Results will come soon - but the Chinese want a big area play like this, almost regardless of the results, as long as there is lithium

To a certain extent, if we were drilling an outcropping gold deposit, a couple of drillholes can prove it.
Even a few holes into a pegmatite will provide an idea of what they are like for grade.

But these salt lakes are huge. Just the main area of Kachi is 25km x 12 km. One drillhole measures 6 inches across and goes down 150-300m deep.
The other hole were are on is 6000metres away (6km) to the south east of the first main hole we are redrilling.
The good thing is that with a few holes its possible to get an idea of what is going on.
It took Orocobre the first 5 years of drilling to learn what they needed to do at Olaroz.
Thankfully we know a lot more about drilling brine salt lakes and where to target than we did in the mid 2000's.

... and the reason for presentations rather than drill results was to show the gap in valuations and the value proposition."