Exploration programme and budget

The problem

Exploration money arrives in rounds, and each round has to buy the result that justifies the next. A programme written as one long list of activities hides that. It commits funds to late steps before the early ones have shown they are worth it, and it gives investors no clear point at which to judge progress.

What you send

Your targets (from drill targeting or your own), the funding you have and expect, and the practical limits: field season, access, permits and local contractor rates if you know them.

What we do

• Split the work into stages that each end in a decision: continue, change direction or stop
• State for each stage what it costs as a range, what it tests, and what result would justify the next stage
• Put the cheapest work that can remove a target first
• Lay out sampling grids, geophysical lines and collars on the map, checked against terrain and access
• Export field points for GPS, so the plan on paper is the plan on the ground

What you get

A programme document with stages, cost ranges and decision gates, a map of the planned work, and field files for handheld GPS.

Example: a three-stage plan (surface sampling, ground geophysics, first drilling) with a cost range per stage, the result that justifies moving to the next one, and field points exported for GPS.

What it cannot say

Costs are ranges built from the rates you provide and from published contractor figures; they are planning numbers, not quotations. Contractors' bids, weather and access will move them. The decision gates describe what would justify continuing; the decision itself remains yours.