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Does seem like an odd appointment given less than impressive track record with other mining companies….the mind boggles
I have looked into ARCM this morning, you can’t blame the failings of a company on one man, it’s the nature of mining that 90% go to the wall, and we nearly went he same way, it takes an exceptional CEO to run the ship and Darren Bowden has proven himself to be the man who turned us around, I’m sure that will not change because of the Chairman, he will be under scrutiny in his appointment, and Darren Bowden will know whether he fits the role or not, so it’s business as usual as far as we are concerned, if you can’t see the massive opportunity in front of you with MTL, that hasn’t put a foot wrong in 4 years, and choose not to invest because of the new chairman, then that’s up to you, but my money follows Darren Bowden and his decisions.
Leehardcastle - I would suggest you research three companies with which NvS has been involved: Arc Minerals (where he and his board pay themselves nearly a million a year in order to preside over a shareprice crash from 8p to 1p and where they've just done a discounted placing with warrants to keep funding their gravy train), then I would look at Orosur Mining where he sits on the BOD and you can see the value destruction there. Finally his only really serious appointment over at Bumi (which, despite being the largest company at which he ever held such a senior role, is not even mentioned, I wonder why) and read the comments of the largest shareholder, Nat Rothschild, who helped to get him booted out of the company! Will have my fingers crossed for you, but am sorry to say that not touching with a ten foot pole anything NvS is involved with has helped prevent me from losing about 90% of the money I would've invested in the companies concerned when I did my research!
Harris, your not invested in MTL, ARC or ARS and your heart sank, thank you letting us know
My heart sank when I read about the new chairman. Looked at his previous performance at ARC and ARS and the time he’s been there the share price. On the face of it this does not look good for PIs. Time will tell.
DiamondGeazer, I think you need the luck invested in ARCM, you should swop your holdings for MTL, I've looked at the financials as a matter of interest and I wouldnt invest, its a dream company, its a slim chance of monatising its assets, where as MTL are about to grow its assets, no debt, no share dilution, just rapid cash generation and the journey is just about to get exciting, you have the fortunate timing to look into our comanies strenghts and decide for yourself, we are massivly undervalued, but as the cash flys in, we will react accordingly.
You can’t blame the chairman of ARC for the fact it produces no revenue, it’s like 90% of all companies, jam tomorrow, in the mean time the company releases new shares to raise funds to survive long enough to realise the potential, MTL are past all that and Darren Bowden drives the company, it’s the reason I’m so heavily invested in MTL because ARCs financial pain is typical of that kind of business, I could mention many I have been part of in the last 25 years that never realise any real financial revenue, long shots.
We are simply in another universe, Cash generation of $70 to $80 million per annum is a dream for explorers, but it’s a reality for us.
All this new Chairman needs to do is stay out of Darren's way. I'm sure Candy views Darren as the driving force behind this company and Darren's decisions should be final.
I am a long suffering shareholder of Arc Minerals, of which NvS is so-called Executive Chairman, which is appallingly run and in effect, a gravy train for the BoD, so I thought I would share some of our experience..
John Meyer is one of the most respected mining analysts in the City, and a doyen of small cap mining companies. he did an interview recently including commenting on about NvS and the Board of Arc, on sharepickers.com. I would recommend you go to 11 mins and 39 seconds and hear what he has to say. Unfortunately, he hits the nail right on the head. https://audioboom.com/posts/8474024-john-meyer-on-copper-lithium-atlantic-lithium-savannah-res-cornish-metals-jangada-mines-ar
I wish you luck; you're going to need it.
His performance at ARC (just look over on the chat board) has been atrocious. It's very easy to gain 'experience' when you are firmly in the revolving door Brigade. As a Chairman he won't be very much involved with the day to day running of the company, particularly seeing as though he's sitting in First Class on the AIM Gravy Train with multiple 'part time' extremely well remunerated Directorships/Chairmanships.
The only positive thing from that RNS is that for his free shares to be exercisable, the VWAP in the 30 days prior needs to be over 143% higher than on the day of his appointment. So if you are holding shares today, they will be nigh on 1.5 times higher when our new Chairman is able to cash in his first batch of free shares.
It's nothing but a revolving door at the top of these companies, success/failure, matters not, they will simply be 'recycled' into another company if and when they choose. Doesn't really matter to me who the Chairman is, it's Darren who holds the tiller so MTL is a good place to be while he does. I'll give the new fella time to see if he brings any connections that are helpful to MTL. Let's just hope we predominantly stick to GOLD and don't go off looking at dirt piles in Africa with 'potential'.
All the best
Before getting too excited, I respectfully suggest you check in on the ARCM board, and view the comments of it's shareholders in respect of NHS.
@Lee
Thanks for clarifying, I thought that the deal had gone through fully rather than awaiting further agreement in June. Still, I would hope getting more plots agreed now would be best if mine life in Runruno is not predicted to last, though stages 4 and 5 may still yield potential as well as additional site purchases.
I see this as a share to sit on for as long as gold has value to people if all goes to plan.
As we thought, this appointment confirms MTL is aiming high.
Good to see we have acquired a new chairman of such high quality, any one had experience of the companies Mr von Schirnding has worked for?
He seems highly experienced.
The Abra tenement purchase is agreed in principle but not paid for yet, it’s being left till the June AGM to get full shareholder approval, and it’s being done like that for simplicity as the major shareholders loan to the company will have been fully paid down and so the major shareholders become just that, major shareholders and not financiers.
Other than running costs of the mine all spare cash had to pay down the loan, it actually leaves us in a very unique position, most companies have debt even when profitable, we will be debt free and extremely profitable, enough so to make numerous acquisitions without taking on new debt.
@leehardcastle
Agreed with the statement, but all cash profits is after capital expenditure. Asset purchase would still go ahead before cash profits used to address remainder of the debt pile, as has already been demonstrated with Abra tenement purchase
@CV
I have a similar suspicion that a further purchase may be in the pipeline as well, and that MTL's value is being kept low so purchases are kept more reasonable. People are encouraged to raise the price and be stubborn until you get the higher one when a company is valued at a lot of money. The small market cap can have some strategic use
Hi CV,
We will 100% debt free as it’s an agreement with the terms of the loan, we have to use all cash profits to pay down the loan to zero, as clarified in the recent Darren Bowden interview.
Darren Bowden with agreement of the major shareholders have decided to grow the market cap through low cost acquisition's and build a war chest of cash, no share dilution, the next year alone will generate at least $70 million before tax, with possible tax credits accumulated from previous tax loss periods, we may get keep most of the profit for a decent period, initial plans to grow the business via the Abra tenement of which I have a sneaky feeling Darren knows is gold and copper rich, YMC have a drill rig on site and you can bet it’s been busy sampling already, I doubt this acquisition is a stab in the dark.
The 2 billion market cap aspiration is based on multiple incomes and longevity, and I’m positive he has it all planed out, by next month at the latest he and his team turned a loss making MTL with a huge debt of $130 million into a debt free cash generating machine, I’m sure building the business will be a breeze by comparison to the head aches he took on 4 years ago.
Our current valuation has a lot of catching up to do just on current income, I can’t imagine what effect a decent new gold find will do.
My personal view as a long term holding is MTL will not be debt free anytime soon. I think a reasonable size purchase will be made to extend our future beyond 20 years plus.
I’m a long term holding with over 5 million shares and see huge gains in the future.
DYOR and MTL and Darren Bowdon is the future.
CV
Small mistake in my maths, to be accurate, $14.3 million was paid of the debt in 2023 Q1, so if we have an additional $5.25 million free flow cash from both a higher gold price and lower interest amount, $14.3 plus $5.25 = $19.55 million that could be paid off the loan if all other parameters remained the same, with $0.9 million in the bank at the start of the quarter, we could actually pay down the remaining $19.8 million and be debt free from our Q1 production.
The possibility of clearing the debt in 2024 Q1 is based on the 2023 Q1 results:
2023 Q1 results:
Gold sold - 21,442 ounces at an average realised gold price of US$1,887 per ounce.
Gold revenue of US$40.5 million.
Positive free cash flow of US$17.8 million
Mezzanine debt repayments of US$14.3 million
Net debt as at 31 March 2023 was US$69 million.
Gold production of 21,299 ounces recovered from 546Kt at a head grade of 1.30g/t.
Gold recovery was 93.4%
Darren Bowden told us the average gold grade remaining in the 4 years LOM is 1.29g that’s about the same as 2023 Q1 grade of 130g/t
Assuming the 1.30g/t last year produced over a 21k ounce quarter, its clear we can achieve the same this Q1, but at an increased average gold price of $2075 an ounce it could create a $43.5 million income, an extra $3 million, debt interest on $19.8 million is only $0.35 million for the 3 months, where as last year it was $2.6 million on the $69 million outstanding, that’s another $2.25 million in our pockets, so $5.25 million extra free flow cash more than 2023 Q1 which was $14.5 million would give us $19.75 million free flow cash this quarter if all the other parameters were equal, enough to clear the loan.
Wouldn’t that be fantastic news? It’s certainly possible.
Good afternoon everyone, it definitely looking brighter on this side with the paying off of the debt. Also there is still information to come on the reduction of interest rate that was agreed on the rest of the loan. Hopefully we will also get some clarity on if it did happen or not as final payment may be adjusted by this.
Cheers Lee. With all that is going on in the world there seems to be agreement that gold will remain at a $2150 base level for the near future, and even mention of $2500 by summer. Interest rates could be cut later in the year too.
If the April update could combine the zero or near-zero debt with more updates and news on the recent acquisitions it could be lift-off big time for the SP.
Have a good weekend everyone. Interesting times.
Gold has averaged $2060 this quarter so far, but the next 2 weeks should raise our average to around $2075 if gold stays around the $2150 dollar area, that extra income may be enough to pay off the debt in Q1, 20k ounces would generate $41.5 million income, is that enough before costs to pay down the $19.8 million outstanding? It will be bloody close, but if it’s not quiet there, it will be a matter of when in April, what a milestone.
Indeed ..... quite a rare event actually, witnessing a junior productive gold miner achieve debt-free status & then seeing just how quickly the cash pile builds once the debt-chains are cast off - particularly at a time of new record all time highs in the price of gold.