By focusing on these key competitive elements and pursuing strategic acquisitions, the Company has, within the last three years, increased its competitiveness, expanded its existing markets and penetrated new markets without substantially increasing its overhead. Growth opportunities, whether internally or through acquisitions, will be assessed on the basis of these factors.  Organic Growth Opportunities. Management believes that there are numerous opportunities that can be leveraged using the Company’s solid operating platform and provide further organic growth including: (i) continued geographic expansion into areas of intense underground drilling, such as the R ed L ake district in Ontario and the A thabasca Basin in Saskatchewan, and areas where there is a demand for surface drilling, such as western Canada, the United States, Mexico and South America; (ii) leveraging of existing relationships to promote and cross-sell the Company’s drilling capabilities; (iii) continued focus on expanding the amount of specialized drilling; (iv) leveraging of the Company’s position as a market leader to attract new customers; and (v) focus on exploiting favourable trends within the mining industry to attract new projects.  Consolidation Opportunities. In addition to its strong organic growth, the Company believes that there are many consolidation opportunities available to it. The drilling services industry is highly fragmented and the Company is aware of many small regional, domestic and international competitors, many of whom offer unique specialized drilling services that may be attractive investments. Three acquisitions have been successfully integrated since January 31, 2007, including the acquisition of Orbit by Garant in January 2007, the acquisition of the reverse circulation drilling business carried on by Drift in April 2007 and the acquisition of R A Mecatech Ltd. in December 2007. The Company intends to continue to pursue acquisition opportunities that will enable it to expand its international operations, leverage its overhead and expand the scope of drilling services offered to its clients.  Infrastructure to Support Growth. Management intends to leverage the Company’s large drill base and ability to add capacity by producing new drills to grow its business. The 85 underground drills owned by the Company include 63 electric hydraulic drills and 22 air drills. The Company has 25 hydraulic surface drills, two conventional surface drills and four surface reverse-circulation rigs. The Company’s drill portfolio includes all seven underground drills and three of the four surface drills that the Company committed to add in the current fiscal year. The Board of Directors recently approved the fiscal 2009 capital budget, which plans for the addition of 18 drills to the Company’s existing fleet. The Company regularly refurbishes its drills every five to seven years in order to continually extend their useful life. 9