Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
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Best to forget texts for the purpose of this exercise, texts get over used and for purposes that are inappropriate in all walks of life, also they are all to easily lost by all parties concerned.
Hi Candid,
I don't mean to state the obvious but save all your questions & any responses ,or not as the case may be to a file for future reference should they be required.
Yes I have discovered that .
Will do it today. .my texts were addressed to her
Let's see if my email , condensed into three short paragraphs will provide more success
email is the more appropriate way .
Please email your questions FAO
Alexandra Carse
Head of Corporate Communications
E: investor@centaminplc.com
Sorry my original post was too long , I will finish it here .
The other question that I didn't pose but which would emerge naturally from the ten year plan is what is the boards intentions regarding the $300 million cash war chest ...they are portraying it as a badge of honour it isn't ...the company only has a capital base of $1 billion and $300 million or 30% of that remains sat idly in a bank earning zero interest .. it could be put to better use . I am presuming its future use will be identified within the 10 year plan . A small overdraft wouldn't be a disaster if it was to fund future growth
One option for example , could be a decision to buy back some of its shares ...$300 million at the current share price (90 pence ) would enable it to buy back about 20% of its share capital base. This will certainly boost a short term growth in EPS , but it might also signal to the market (rightly or wrongly ) that the company was winding down its operations which would be unwise
Going back to my original point which was the future targeted production levels , This in my view, is the most important question of them all , because it determine everything that follows , but in order to answer it , they need to have a clear strategy for achieving it ..i.e. what proportion of future production will come from the optimal utilisation of their current 3 km footprint surrounding the Sukari operations , and how much beyond that, but within the surrounding larger footprint of their current licence , plus a strategy for the new footprint in the areas covered by the recent granting of new exploration licences
.
For the above reasons I would want to see their future production targets analysed between these separate segments .
I think that will be enough to be getting on with .
I can almost visualise their response...sorry we can't answer that because it's commercially sensitive information, and in a way it is ..but it will send a clear signal to the board that they have their work cut out to satisfy retail investors that they know what they are doing.
Thanks Mr T for this opportunity to father and collect all questions people have of the board .
I only have 3 questions which I sent in to the Board last week .
Goldgnome helpfully posted an email link which I will use to send the questions via email tomorrow .
My 3 questions were , which are all related to their ten year plan. (.they will certainly have one if they comply with standard practices of board requirements )
1. Future ambitions for growth.
As all as shareholders know is that they reset (reduced) production levels to between 400-450,000 ounces per year for the next 3 years. ..
What are their ambitions for years 4-10 of the plan regarding annual production levels ..are they planning to grow, remain the same or decline ..
Whenever I was a Finance Director prior to retirement, this was always my first question from day 1. I was always prepared for a fight with the operations director who wanted to keep his or her targets as low as possible to protect their survival .. the worst thing they could do was to make bold claims about what they could achieve ..my job was to press then on it and enlist the support of the CEO to do it.
Remember , my first comment on this board was that Centamin wasn't a growth company ..this will be their opportunity to prove me wrong ...
My approach would be to press for a doubling of current production levels from year 6..how they were going to achieve that would be up to them , but in my experience , once people are set a target , their focus becomes on achieving it. The other members of the board would join in the pressure that me and the CEO would exert. I haven't seen one statement identifying their what their future ambitions are .
2. The second question which would be thrown at their FD is, based on the productions levels contained within the 10 year plan ....
( a ). What is the targeted AISC ...and resulting EPS....this is the ultimate determining factor in whether or not the company is seeking growth. When all costs are added in to the equation , exploration costs , admin, PR, risk and regulatory etc etc ..what is the resulting EPS. yes I know that mining is a cyclical business which is why I would use the ' CAPE ' formula which stands for cyclically adjusted price earnings ratio , but since they obviously can't predict the share price then just stick with earnings. This ratio is calculated on a rolling basis over a 5-7 year period ...obviously what you want to see is this number rising using a steady state 'real value' of gold prices averaged out of the year of the plan ...
It should also include 2 other scenarios of maybe 25% and 50% higher and lower than the current price .
3. The final question is dividend policy ..at the moment the policy is to pay out 30% of operating cash flows in dividends ..how will this policy change with regards to their production targets .
One other question that I would like answered but which I didn't ask , is what is their future inte
Questions and answer thread for Centamin Retail Investors.
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