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With a more recent rather cynical suggestion from an un named poster that CB’s arguable large pay rise over at XTR was in the same ball park as his options total for his latest raise here.
Hugely speculative of course, but it does show some ability of how he can rob Peter to pay Paul.
It depends how you look at it, it will not be in CB’s best interest to r@pe one of his own companies of it’s an assets and allow that company to flounder. It may be at a detriment to shareholders but could ultimately give that lifeline ‘if needed’ that simply wouldn’t exist if were a standalone facing years of project stagnation where having no credible value added through project development inactivity will attract any take up of fund raising, even if it wanted to.
We have seen support across group level in a loan from GLR to XTR for £48k reported in XTR full report. With a more recent
If what you say is true Howezap, that the companies are managed with the right people in place and the strength of the companies will allow it to survive in the next few years then the only people who will get shafted will be the PIs.
All assets across the group of companies are managed individually with the right people in place with the necessary skill sets. Is highly unlikely CB has any day to day operational involvement of the various companies.
Having a group of companies, may seem excessive but gives those companies a lifeline for critical financial support when other options are depleted. There will be a certain strength at group level to keep the companies without a revenue ticking over so imo surviving the next couple of years should not be a concern.
The only conclusion I can see here is that CB is hoping that the assets will be worth something and is looking to sell up. The problem with this theory though is I don’t think that money is CBs main motivating factor. Yes, he has an immediate need for money but at 80 years old with lots of companies to manage - I think he probably has sufficient resources to retire. The questions I have is what is the quality of the team like at bzt, what is the successor policy? Copper mines are taking a long time to get into commission. If you think that we are heading for a bull run on copper in the next two years - how can bzt survive and capitalise from this.
Welcome to AIM
Haha, Mankayan is just another angle for him to ramp with. If it was so vaulable, the SP wouldnt be on the floor.
Colin Bird’s AIM record (as of Nov 23):
Time he became CEO of BZT- SP 0.5….now 0.03 (almost 95% down)
Time he became CEO of XTR- SP 10...now 1
Time he became CEO of Galileo 7.38...now 1.2
A lot of money has been paid by private investors to fund these ‘companies’ but the more interesting question is how much money has been squeezed from these companies to pay to Mr Colin Bird, over these periods?
MrT. I consider myself a serious investor but this is not a serious investment. It's just a fun punt. You are taking my suggestion of a private individual making a bid too literally. Certainly a small/medium sized mining company could have shown an interest. But nothing since Goldfields over a decade ago. Everyone's losing or lost money here but it goes with the territory for small AIM miners . I suppose you can hang on to the hope of recovering something but how long do you wait.?Shareholders should be massively frustrated by this self-serving man in charge who has no real interest in looking after his shareholders
Silver,
Come on, if you are a serious investor or trader for that matter you know as well as I, individuals do not pop up to buy AIM listed outfits!! Jesus there are hundreds akin to bzt!
Firstly they have to build a stake, once they have a controlling interest then they can move a motion to change the board and either take over or introduce their own choices. Even then it has to be put to the shareholders for them to consider the proposal.
Now bzt is controlled by Bird and I believe the Sanderson family who loaned the cash last year?
A competitor may make a move if they consider the project or assets are worth investing in or just want to swallow up a similar company.
Neither will happen here although it is only valued at 2m. I can bet the house, any sort of an offer for bzt and the sp would be double digits in a flash.
Bird needs to get his actvyogether here and pretty quick, but, he has bought more time with a good raise.
I believe the cost to get a mine up and running would be circa 5M as Bird would utilise his other companies for certain aspect of the project, this was mentioned in a call by the shareholder group sometime ago.
Mr T
'Fraid I'm with silverknight. This duck is a dead as it gets.
Perhaps it's possible to recoup some losses by buying at the rock bottom price and selling on a spike, but that's going to be like wading through treacle with the number of holders under water.
MrT. If it is so cheap even a (fairly) well heeled individual could make an offer. None has materialised. Why is that? Well Mr Bird has no credibility for a start. Remember him saying in 2018 that Mankayan alone was worth $90 million? We owned all of it and look what happened. I haven't seen any clear projections as to what Hope will cost to bring to production, where the money's coming from and a clear time frame to start mining. He makes it up as he goes along. Be careful to differentiate between what you want to happen and what s actually happening. Still gamblers out there willing to take a punt.
Silver
>2M isn't cheap!!!!
It's cheap as chips as far as I'm concerned!
CB has sunk the sp to disastrous lows. His one and only achievement.
Now he needs to turn it around pretty damp quick and align the value with the prospects and projects!!!
Mr T
No. The share price is low but the company is not cheap. People said it was cheap when the sp was .5p. Bird has just been buying time for years (very successfully from his viewpoint). When will it run out?
I have accumulated another 5 million shares which is being shown as a sell. I do think the company is cheap but dilution is our biggest omen.
every
thanks for the update. you may be right, perhaps they do monitor this board? if only to offer up excuses should anyone take it upon themselves to actually enquire "just what is going on"
i certainly agree we should be having mankayan updates and plenty should be going on ffs!! if not why not??
so it appears the question you raised has been answered which is a plus point?
i agree there has been a lack of news on the hope situation, there does need to be more information coming through here.
maybe the shareholders group are reading this and think it is time to contact cb and give him a grilling on why he has so far overseen the decimation of the sp over the past 18 months???
the company is now worth jack **** to put it bluntly, one has to ask why?? and how?
i still hark back to the fact.we raised 800k which to my mind means, there is life!!! if it had been a paltry 250k then i would have said, is the fat lady being readied?
mr t
Silver,
Things should be happening with mankayan, like I said cresent have been doing the community work. They were supposed to be talking to financiers regarding financing the PFS, did they get it? Who’s conducting the study? There SHOULD be a lot going on, if not then why not
Mr T,
Funnily enough after my post I received an email from the company clarifying if they were undertaking PFS of DFS studies. ( so they clearly monitor this board) here is the reply I received.
‘Whilst some jurisdictions require a full JORC compliant Prefeasibility study and/ or Feasibility studies be submitted to the mining department Namibia does not. This is why the Company has not committed to producing a full JORC-compliant Prefeasibility study and/ or Feasibility study. This does not mean that the Company has not been undertaking work and studies in relation to Modifying Factors (see definition below) to support the submissions to the Namibian Ministry and for the Company’s own assessment and development of the Hope and Gorob project some of this ongoing work was referred to in the 4 December 2023 RNS.
FYI using JORC terminology the Modifying Factors that are used to convert Mineral Resources to Mineral Reserves include but are not restricted to mining, processing, metallurgical, infrastructure, economic, marketing, legal, environmental social and government factors’
Whilst the resource update was good from Addison there were a few points that bothered me- mostly that they would need 3500m of drilling because of the poor smeared data from previous drilling and that parts of the model were based off 1 drill hole.
Colin says a mine can be in production in 2024- but do you also remember when he said to the shareholders group that ‘we would be mining in 2023’ or ‘ we could expect a trade sale or ipo of mankayan in early 2023’ so unfortunately I’m sceptical.
I think the biggest problem with this company is transparency and updates or lack there of. If you do the research you can see that cresent are doing community work in mankayan- why not disclose this to shareholders. The epl 7170 in Namibia expired and they are doing the work necessary to get it renewed- why not inform shareholders. I think this is the reason they didn’t use the previous fund raise for drilling because there is a target on epl 7170 but it expired.
There are plenty of companies on aim who lay out what they are going to do and then give regular updates on how it’s progressing- most of Bezants updates this year have been placings or issuing shares for fees. If their projects are really that good they would be promoting them for everyone to see. Perhaps they don’t want everyone’s eyes on them? Just a thought
No point in issuing quarterly reports on Mankayan when nothing is happening
Every
Fully agree with you on Mankayan. I have said repeatedly that there is no reason whatsoever for bzt not to issue quarterly updates. For God's sake we have a Director on the ground there. So what the F is he doing!
Surely he is capable of putting together updates! Perhaps he is incapable?
I made this point at the last shareholder call to CB when I was asked for points to be raised?
Nothing happened, as expected?
We really need multiple voices on this and other points if we are to get any replies.
Mr T
Every
The October RNS, the report from Addison confirmed the JORC to support an open pit mine. Further drilling was mentioned to both uplift current estimates for copper production and also include Gold recourses which were ignored in the study produced by Addison.
Therefore that says that a mine will be financially viable not withstanding, the resource estimate will only go up!!!
Yes I agree a DFS will also be required and other hurdles will need to be cleared also.
My point is CB has been banging on about this for 18 months and now says a mine can be up and in production in 2024!
I believe if these investors didn't believe that, then there is no way they would have chucked nearly a million quid at this!!! They could have bought the bloody thing outright instead!
I share your doubts but I don't think we can dismiss the prospect of a mine in 2024 until it is crystal clear CB is talking claptrap!!!
Mr T
Mr T,
Surely the company would have to carry out a DFS to be able to take to a finance house to get the financing?
From the April fundraise they said the proceeds were for studies and for financing- ( and drilling that didn’t happen) in yesterday’s rns they said the fund raise was for studies and financing again. I did email the company to clarify if they are undertaking a PFS or a DFS and I haven’t received a reply.
I have sent multiple emails actually- I was receiving reply’s but in my previous email I said it would be in bezants best interest to release the PFS for mankayan because I was told they may not release it unless IDM make it public, I also said shareholders should be updated on mankayan Atleast quarterly. I don’t think they appreciated my comments.
To be honest I don’t think the ore body at hope is economic at these copper prices and the company knows it- so they need more tonnes and a higher copper price. It was my understanding that you needed a DFS and actual mining reserves that have been proven to be economic to extract. Bezant don’t have either without substantial more drilling.
Silver
I am confident that if we saw some positive updates firstly on Hope, the sp will be up towards .05 easily, if there were to be a financing announcement regarding Hope then it would head towards .10!!
Now. CB has been inferring that he has been in discussions regarding financing this project for 18 months now. If we are to believe him, I admit a big if!!! then the wait surrounding the licence should have provided ample opportunity to put the financing in place in short order!! Should ot not!! I know we are placing this all on CB telling the truth?
So I will not sell until licence news is put, pointless to do do really!!!
Lets see if we can get some positives from this mess.
Mr T
Prickly. Perhaps some of us have died of old age .
Mr T
There are many long termers on this BB who bought in years ago for various reasons. I was sold on the platinum mine and alluvial bonanza in Columbia. Many came in on the Mankayan options triumph when BZT awarded its few shareholders (in those days) a substantial payout.. Since then there have been countless false dawns and it is possible we have just seen another one with the latest dilution. I have invested in most of CB's companies. Mainly drawn in by his copper fervour. Sadly we have yet to see any copper mined in any of his stable and until we do I doubt if this or any other share will recover. He talks of starting up Hope Gorob in 2024 with a target of 8m tonnes PA. If this happens with the outside financing he has promised then this share will increase dramatically. There are other projects of course but Hop e is the only one where we can be sure of making it happen. But will he deliver? I am running out of mananas.
MrT. I do admire your eternal optimism.
By 7/8 to break even I presume you mean .07 to .08p? That seems like a huge chasm right now.
Mankayan was the reason I bought in here in the first place and shareholders have been regally shafted over how it's reached the current situation. I've written off my relatively small (thank God) investment here but still curious how it will pan out.
Hope your holding isn't too big!