SolGold Share Chat (SOLG)

Understandably Newcrest are hacked off they’re only going to hold roughly 15% of SolGold. The way things are developing they are being priced out of SolGold, they’ll never be in a position to buy the whole company. They did support SolGold pretty much from the beginning so can see why they’re disappointed. We need a third party to come on board and considering all the majors appear to be interested in us a placing at a premium shouldn’t be too difficult to pull off!

I think this shows Newcrest and BHP that we can get the finance and don’t need to go cap in hand...you won’t get this cheap and yes we can go all the way to production if need be :)

Yes addict - very obvious and rather impotent by Newcrest

OK some possibilities posted, how about this one. Nick Mather has kept his word, from when he took control. He promised max shareholder value, and he said Solgold is only for sale at full value. We have financing of 100 million dollars for 1% of smelter on Alpala, this goes to 150 million at 1.5%. We don't require any shareholder dilution. If offtake is valued at 100 million for 1% return at Alpala, with the PEA, does the value increase with the PFS. Even if it doesn't, can we attract the extra 2.7 billion at the same rate, thus we give up 28.5% of Alpala, for the construction of our mine. Job done. This means we own over 50% of a world class asset, with zero debt, just income. For me this is a much better solution, than continuous erosion of the value of our shares. Maybe we will get an offer, but I don't think so for all the reasons I have previously given. NM is firmly in control of our destiny. One thing that has changed, is that many posters did not believe that Solgold would obtain the money, to go it alone. I believe we now see they can.

Interestingly I think NM is wearying of the share price reaction

“Financing and feasibility will be good for project value and hence share value. The problem is that it doesnt translate into stock prices because the shareholders are inherently sellers always. They only buy to sell at a higher price later. If it doesn't go up quickly or enough after news they sell, creating a self fulfilling prophecy. Read the chat sites !

Nick Mather “

It looks and sound more like Newcrests view than BHP. They said a while that they would prefer to see SOLG move towards a MRE4. But as for the comments regarding Copper/gold resource not being Tier 1... that's just silly. Newcrest are busy (as seen by recent $1bln raised) and clearly don't have funds/time for SOLG right now and would prefer a chance to gain more equity in 4 or 5 months time. BHP are BHP. They delivered £45m and 45p so that was a sign of their interest. But for Newcrest to suggest that SOLG could go down the equity placing route is laughable. $2.7bln is not going to see shareholders do well via equity placing. It has to come from other sources/means. $150m stream finance is peanuts in grand scheme of things.

Clearly, Newcrest are pi55ed off that Franco are now involved. But that's the way it is. Next masterstroke by NM would be to get an equity placing sorted for £40m at say 35p+ levels with someone like Barrick or Rio. Now that really would ruffle some feathers and gain much needed cash for exploration across the rest of the folio.

I think the way forwards for NM from here has to be via fund raisers that do not involved BHP or Newcrest. So lets see a 3rd large investor like Barrick enter and lets crack on with the rest of the folio.

Yes but I’ve been thinking that for a very long time , I also don’t believe the standstill will make one iota of difference to them

Pad, interesting to see Newcrest attempt to play Alpala down - which is, of course, contrary to what they've said many times in the past. Transparent tactics.

DBW, surely it must be down to BHP?

Will this bring Newcrest and BHP together and force a joint move?

Who’s move is it now?

I wonder if this is all part of a really clever ploy by NM?
He's turned his back on BHP/NEW for two reasons; one, he doesn't want them t o get control on the cheap (by issuing more shares to them at today's stupid valuation) and two, he hopes that by really annoying them he'll force their hand - a bit like prodding a wasps nest.
Who knows? But whatever the rationale, I think this may act as the catalyst for what many of us have been waiting for.

Have just seen Pad's post, which supplies the source.
I guess this is what some of us have been saying for a while...these fellas are really fed-up with NM, which is great news.
Time to take the gloves off, lads. I'm all yours for £2 a share.

I n exchange for the $US100 million, Franco-Nevada wants a 1 per cent royalty on revenue generated by SolGold from its flagship Cascabel tenement, which contains the Alpala discovery.
Expensive streaming deals
Newcrest said such ''streaming'' deals were ultimately expensive.
''We are concerned about the potential for a $1 billion streaming deal as these types of deals tend to transfer the economics and potential upside to the streamers of what could be a prospective project,'' said the spokesman.
Franco-Nevada said it wanted to conduct "confirmatory due diligence" on SolGold's Ecuadorian acreage before formalising the $US100 million deal.
Pandemic lockdowns in Ecuador have made such a site visit impossible in recent weeks, but Franco-Nevada said it planned to conduct a visit once "travel restrictions" relating to the pandemic were relaxed.
Newcrest said it was comfortable with its existing investment in SolGold, but said the copper grades discovered to date were not good enough to warrant "tier one" status.
"We still think it is too early to assess if the Alpala project is 'tier one'. We have developed block caves before and know they take a long time to develop, particularly in greenfield projects,'' said the spokesman.
"We need to see a high-grade core to cover the upfront capital and we have not seen that yet in the drilling."
Mr Mather did not respond when asked via email why he preferred high-cost debt and royalties to an equity raising.

Takeover target SolGold has snubbed its two biggest shareholders and most likely suitors, BHP and Newcrest Mining, by signing up to a high-cost loan that has left the big miners ''concerned'' and ''disappointed''.

SolGold chief executive Nick Mather signed his company up to a $US15 million ($23 million), eight-month loan with interest rates of 12 per cent on Monday, despite the fact SolGold's flagship asset is years away from first production and the company has no other source of sustainable revenue.
The unorthodox move highlights the unofficial battle for control within SolGold, which has found an encouraging copper and gold deposit in the jungles of Ecuador.
SolGold has been largely funded by share placements to BHP and Newcrest over the past four years, and that approach has resulted in both big miners owning more than 14 per cent of SolGold.
BHP and Newcrest have both signalled they are willing to continue subscribing for shares, arguing that equity is the cheapest source of finance for a junior explorer.

Qalibashi, I wonder what Biswas actually wanted when he said he wanted a long term solution that suited existing shareholders?
The funding package is non-dilutive, so what could be better?
And where did you see the comment about them being pished-off with the package? And would New actually have dipped into their pockets? I doubt it. As far as I'm concerned, they'll be out of the picture soon - especially after his comments today about Hav.

Takeover target SolGold has snubbed its two biggest shareholders and most likely suitors, BHP and Newcrest Mining, by signing up to a high-cost loan that has left the big miners ''concerned'' and ''disappointed'
SolGold chief executive Nick Mather signed his company up to a $US15 million ($23 million), eight-month loan with interest rates of 12 per cent on Monday, despite the fact SolGold's flagship asset is years away from first production and the company has no other source of sustainable revenue.
The unorthodox move highlights the unofficial battle for control within SolGold, which has found an encouraging copper and gold deposit in the jungles of Ecuador.
SolGold has been largely funded by share placements to BHP and Newcrest over the past four years, and that approach has resulted in both big miners owning more than 14 per cent of SolGold.
BHP and Newcrest have both signalled they are willing to continue subscribing for shares, arguing that equity is the cheapest source of finance for a junior explorer.

But Mr Mather has bypassed those offers and sought alternative sources of finance for six months now.
The tensions were on display in November, when SolGold allowed BHP to subscribe for just $US22 million worth of new shares, a sum that would have funded SolGold for barely three months based on its rate of spend in 2019.
That November decision backfired on the outbreak of the coronavirus, which has delayed and complicated Mr Mather's plan to replenish SolGold's dwindling cash reserves with a major fundraising initiative in the early months of 2020.
Newcrest chief Sandeep Biswas has two prospects in Ecuador.

Newcrest urges SolGold to avoid 'short term' funding fix
But Mr Mather's financing plans took a step forward with Monday night's $US15 million loan, which will be provided by resources industry financier Franco-Nevada.
The loan appears to be the opposite of what Newcrest chief executive Sandeep Biswas called for in February, when he urged SolGold to avoid "short-term fixes" in favour of a long-term solution that suited existing shareholders.
A Newcrest spokesman confirmed the company was unimpressed by the debt decision.
"We are disappointed they did not approach their supportive, existing shareholders for funding,'' he said.
The high-cost loan may be the start of something bigger, with SolGold saying Franco-Nevada was considering providing a further $US100 million, subject to further due diligence.
In exchange for the $US100 million, Franco-Nevada wants a 1 per cent royalty on revenue generated by SolGold from its flagship Cascabel tenement, which contains the Alpala disc

The Australian Financial Review is aware of four SolGold shareholders who believe Mr Mather is keen to avoid a situation where BHP and Newcrest's collective stakes in SolGold grow to exceed 50 per cent, the threshold that could allow the big miners to control the company on matters of common interest.
SolGold's finance manager, Ingo Hofmaier, provided some insights into the company's thinking in a statement on Monday, describing the Franco-Nevada offer as "competitive".
"SolGold received and considered a broad range of funding options and the decision to proceed with Franco-Nevada is based on various factors, including the size of investment, the permanent nature of this financing, Franco-Nevada's experience and understanding of Latin America and the competitive cost of capital,'' he said in a statement.
''In SolGold's opinion, a 1 per cent to 1.5 per cent net smelter return will not constrain the debt capacity of the project. On the contrary, we believe this financing increases the confidence in SolGold's ability to fund the development.''

As SOLG - prove up the project to PFS quickly then to BFS quickly within the initial $100m cost.

If successful, then the $52m owed by CGP will allow the 50% buy back of the NSR giving SOLG an even better deal at only a NSR of 0.5%

But Mr Mather's financing plans took a step forward with Monday night's $US15 million loan, which will be provided by resources industry financier Franco-Nevada.
The loan appears to be the opposite of what Newcrest chief executive Sandeep Biswas called for in February, when he urged SolGold to avoid "short-term fixes" in favour of a long-term solution that suited existing shareholders.
A Newcrest spokesman confirmed the company was unimpressed by the debt decision.
"We are disappointed they did not approach their supportive, existing shareholders for funding,'' he said.

Interesting thoughts addicknt. I have never been a businessman, so i don't understand how business minds think.

But I think i can see that the 'mix' of things going on here is maybe starting to hot up, and maybe something will 'give' sooner rather than later?

if you were BHP?
You're not going to be remotely interested in seeing SOLG develop as an independent company and have zero wish to be a minority shareholder.
You'd probably be pleased Mather didn't knock on the door asking for more cash and are equally pleased he's pulled off a non-dilutive funding package.
But, are you really interested in seeing all that cash and, by definition, liability, appear on the balance sheet?
Do you really need the company to spend $150m on a DFS, when you don't need it? You have your own internal resources to complete the process and will not be requiring any bank support.
So, do you bid before the full amount of interim funding hits the balance sheet, or are you content to have it sitting there knowing you'll have to deal with it when you finally take full control?

Both today and yesterday late sell AT’s

Today at 16.29.58

So staged it’s nauseating.

Interesting article in the AFR today about solgold, anyone read it? I have screenshotted it if anyone interested that can’t get passed the payment ask

Myself and another investor also made a telegram chat page if anyone fancies discussing where people think this is going in future,

https://t.me/solgold

Probably reading too much into this but interesting they’ve put the next webinar back a few days. Maybe BHP have been on the phone to Nick since the funding news was announced asking him what’s your final price!?