Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
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One thing that seems forgotten in the Corporate world is they do not have sovereignty over the natural assets which is owned by the people of the country. They need to bide by the law of the land they operate in. In this case they were given to Dec 14 to negotiate and sign an amended agreement. They failed. What is the point of having a drop dead date in negotiations, when no one drops dead? I do not think this is a case of nationalisation, but rather corporate gamemanship and/or ineptitude or combination thereof, that went one step too far. I would like to see corporates be forced to obey the laws of the land. If they have not met expenditure committments, they lose the lease (etc) or whatever laws apply.
Rio:Guinea update...Rio Tinto, the second-largest Australian mining company, has faced a fresh setback in its push to develop the long-stalled Simandou iron ore project in Guinea after the West African nation’s government issued a stop-work order, July 2022
Guinea’s Mines Minister Moussa Magassouba wrote to Rio Tinto and China-backed SMB-Winning Consortium over the weekend, directing them to stop all work related to Simandou from 8am local time on Monday. The letter from the nation’s military rulers said the companies had shown an unacceptable “lack of willingness” to agree on a joint venture for funding the project’s transport infrastructure.
Rio's form: Rio-Tinto had been granted a mining project in 1997 over the Simandou Blocks 1,2,3 & 4, but did no
meaningful work on these assets. Therefore, in the summer of 2008, the Government of Guinea, required
Rio Tinto to retrocede half of its exploration perimeter – Blocks 1 & 2 - in compliance with the mining code
regulations.
In Nov. 2016, Rio Tinto admitted paying $10.5M (consulting fees LOL, nothing else to see here??) to Francois de Combret (Condé’s go-between) in order to secure its rights over Blocks 3 and 4 and improve its chances to recover Blocks 1 and 2. Rio Tinto fired senior employees who were involved in this payment as well as its head of legal and compliance. And what was the bit about Sam Walsh and his emails ...
https://icsid.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/parties_publications/C3765/Claimants%27%20Reply%20%28Redacted%20per%20PO8%29/Fact%20Exhibits/C-0326.PDF
CEY have done an exceptional job of getting and maintaining a social license to operate, and paying a great return to the people of Egypt, in sharp contrast to the above. Something that should be recognised. It certainly is by me
Enjoy the test cricket, Australia to win....
best
the gnome
Logic left Australia decades ago...
Burkino Faso has been a lost cause ,for many years IMO.
Could it be the Ausse Goverment is listening to prpagander from far away.
So it cut its trade prospects from others in that remote area.
Where it trade prospect were .
I am interested in the logic ,if there is any. In their decisons
Nothing rational about Australia. We take about 20-25 years to work through native title issues, with lawyers cleaning up big time at $850/hr (one must consider all views, and all outcomes, especially at this rate of pay) We are about to rule on retrospective compensation for access issues. Land access to do mineral exploration can delay starts, by years, and terms and codnitions of access are expensive and onerous.
To boot , Now the out-of-favour Gas sector is fighting for its future, with stark repercussions feared for the broader Australian economy. We elected a Labour party, better than the liberals but the bar is so low these days, its hardly a recomendation, who are proving once again they have no idea about how to run a modern economy. They have the little red book, which has provided a string of failed economies, but ... “Reckless free market intervention,” blasted the normally conservative ExxonMobil,
Despite the hundreds of billions of dollars of investment, billions in taxes and royalties, and thousands of jobs the industry has provided over the past decades, its prospects could hardly be bleaker under the Labour government’s radical package of gas measures rushed through Parliament this week.
Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher says the “Soviet-style” gas measures will hurt customers. Matt Jelonek
ExxonMobil, Shell and Mitsui have invested billions of dollars to create one of the world’s largest and most reliable sources of LNG – in demand the world over to keep the lights on through the transition to low-carbon energy – and which also supply gas to east coast domestic buyers...
and on the fiasco goes, and where it stops no one knows least of all the government.
Burkina Faso is in survival mode. They are resource poor landlocked country, which has been abused by their previous Colonial partners (France - and isnt there a magificent history of Francafrique??!!). No government is stepping in to help them, so what do they do? What do they pay with when they have no money? The "jihadists" are getting paid by drug laundering and human trafficking, solid cash flow businesses. And what is really known about the Wagner Group. Are they better or worse than any other group in that "trade"?
What would you do...
the gnome
The Wagner Group was given a mine as payment for services in Burkina Faso, according to a Ghanian president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
On Wednesday President Akufo-Addo made the remarks at a U.S.-Africa summit in Washington D.C.
"Today, Russian mercenaries are on our northern border. Burkina Faso has now entered into an arrangement to go along with Mali in employing the Wagner forces there. I believe a mine in southern Burkina has been allocated to them as a form of payment for their services. Prime minister of Burkina Faso in the last 10 days has been in Moscow. And to have them operating on our northern border is particularly distressing for us in Ghana," said President Akufo-Addo.
The mine was not specified.
https://www.kitco.com/news/2022-12-15/Russian-mercenary-group-receives-African-mine-as-payment-Ghana-president.html
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WTF is going on in West Africa? Maybe hitting the pause button 'by default' in Cote D'Ivoire won't be a bad move - notwithstanding the $ spent and time wasted. Perhaps Centamin should diversify in Canada, Australia or some other rational state...
1970's Chile nationalizes US-owned mines forming Codelco, Chile’s state-owned giant
2011 Venezuela nationalizes energy, farming & mining including the Las Cristinas gold mine
2012 Argentina nationalizes 51 per cent of oil driller YPF SA from Repsol SA
2022 Mexico declares lithium as property of the state - forms LitioMx a state-owned miner responsible for managing exploration, exploitation, & refining of lithium
2022 Panama halts copper production at First Quantum Minerals Cobre copper mine - instructs commerce ministry to preserve the mine and take charge of maintenance. Looking to find a new partner to run the mine.
The government has a few names in mind and they’re likely to be large mining companies, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the information is private.
Interestingly in 2017, First Quantum boosted its ownership of the Cobre mine to 90 % . But last year, Panama’s Supreme Court ratified a lower court’s ruling that the current concession was unconstitutional.
More:
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/first-quantum-clings-to-hope-of-last-minute-panama-copper-deal-1.1860301
-------------------------------------->>>
My Thoughts: It's a wonder gold mines are not nationalized more often, especially in poorer developing nations
Looking good for this to close 110.....
Major European stock indices struggled for direction in the premarket trading on Friday with all eyes on the next batch of data releases slated for later today. Market participants will receive data on retail sales in Britain, the eurozone's trade balance and consumer price index, as well as the manufacturing and services sectors throughout Europe.
Interest rate hikes unveiled by the European Central Bank and Bank of England the day before rattled the markets, rekindling fears of a recession in the region.
Frankfurt's DAX was down by 0.12% and the CAC 40 slipped by 0.20% at 8:01 am CET. London's FTSE 100 was up by 0.10% at the same time.
The euro rose 0.28% versus the dollar to sell at $1.06553 at 7:59 am CET. The pound sterling pushed stronger against the American currency, gaining 0.28% to change hands to $1.22100.
Baha Breaking News (BBN) / AB
Be patient
For how long?
Forever
Happy Friday y’al
Enjoy your weekend
And all the best to you and everyone else on this great forum over Christmas and 2023! Well said too- I also forgot to add, start your pension from work age which I and my kids did and do- luckily now this is far more visible and mandated with offerings nowadays a (free money from your employer and ace tax break especially for higher rate tax payers) and great investment potential over lifetimes. Yes, on CEY, holding up very well- not heard anything yet though on capital structure review, that could move things as the narrative of how this will be very important.
Hi Steve. Very well said and almost exactly mirrors my own life experiences. I wasn't born with a spoon in my mouth .very far from it being born in a single bed flat above a sweet shop and the first 6 years of my life in a council house.
Both my children were bought up with a work ethic and aspiration and are now very successful in their own right. A little story but my daughter thought (and her friends) that we were awful parents demanding 20 percent from her wages for living costs with us her parents. However we banked every penny and revealed that when she set up house with her partner gave her 20.000 pounds towards their new home. Parents from heaven not hell.
Regarding housing . NHS. G.P. surgeries etc etc. If any body is interested look up population increase in this country since 1998. To avoid bias get the figures from the E.U figures which were monitored for budget contribution by them and not from UK figures . An increase of 6.5 million population since that date. Have we funded our infra structure to cope . No no no . I live in an area where it seems every field has development on it . I have no problem with that except a massive percentage is 3 or 4 bed detached properties with a starting figure of 4 or 500.000. Where can starters on the ladder going to get a start?
However getting back to CEY absolutely delighted with the smooth increase in SP. Bodes very well for the future progress as support structures in the share price to my mind is most encouraging.
Happy festive season to all on this elucid and concise forum.
Bob
I always said and keep saying- get a job, then a house then worry about the rest- this is your primary financial goal- my parents said the same to me 35Years ago...
Massive housing shortage in 2007/8, exponentially greater massive housing shortage now due to increased population, and housing each year since not even keeping up with each years rise so revenue greater gap in demand and supply- rental rates rising massively faster than mortgage rates over that time. U.K. interest rate was 5.75 in 2007, now 3.5%. House demand will continue to rise over the years guaranteed - answer this question- we have one of the worse state pensions in Europe- how is someone supposed to afford the rent when they can no longer work and are a pensioner? This is why people
In the U.K. want, and have to buy their own property- plus rental is more expensive than borrowing to buy for those that can, plus housing on this tiny island will always be simply not equalling demand and forever the gap will get greater- this is why I have a home, another property and helped my kids buy there's - you can always rent a room out of you have financial issues and so on
Steve absolutely right and its different to the 1970's as well. We have Governments that have borrowed at astronomical high levels, high inflation, low productivity and growth, a move away from globalisation, a vastly older work force and population demography in many developed economies with all the uncertainties of climate changes and energy transition. All these things together make the current situation different. Still higher interest rates may likely tank the housing market other than rental.
Comparing now to 2007/8 is like comparing apples and oranges- completely different set of circumstances.
Can see this closing above 110....
Yesterday, Centamin life could change in an instant.
https://twitter.com/barrickgold/status/1603141738146701312?s=46&t=Ud3_ongIE4HH-pjYxFk5CQ
Not sure how the FED is modelling a 0.5% positive GDP in 2023. Q1 is looking to hit -2.5% GDP with another 0.25% or 0.5% rate hike. Inflation rate is also not going anywhere and if they do what they say they are going to do then GDP goes minus 5% into Q2. Equity prices would tank in that scenario. Crashing growth with inflation high is a stagflation last seen in the the 1970's. The key question today is whether the USA market believes in the FED or not. The initial reaction is not to fight the FED and let them make their huge mistake and destroy whatever fragments of confidence that remain. Hence why gold and CEY are down. We now await the degree of conviction State side. I
My opinion- I am not sure what to believe myself. The first domino to fall State side is the housing market like it did in 2007/08.
Major European stock exchanges traded lower in the premarket on Thursday as investors awaited the newest policy moves from the European Central Bank and the Bank of England to be revealed.
Yesterday, the Federal Reserve decided to raise its key interest rate by half of a percentage point. Fed Chair Jerome Powell underscored that the central bank has no plans to change its 2% inflation target goal.
The DAX fell 0.35% at 7:13 am CET, while the CAC 40 declined 0.36% simultaneously. The FTSE 100 dipped 0.14% at the same time.
The euro was down 0.24% against the dollar at 7:15 am CET, selling for 1.06541. The pound traded 0.27% lower versus the greenback and went for 1.23900 at the same time.
Baha Breaking News (BBN) / AY
So what is your personal opinon Tornadotony.
Another M2 picture
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/money-supply-m2#:~:text=Money%20Supply%20M2%20in%20the%20United%20States%20averaged,of%20286.60%20USD%20Billion%20in%20January%20of%201959.
Courtesy of zero hedge. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2022-12-14/jpm-countries-see-cpi-exceed-5-it-takes-around-10-years-cpi-fall-back-2
Look at the the M2 graph.
In the same way there was suspicion over a year ago than inflation was just transitory, there is equal suspicion on the Jerome's hawkish stance based on recent inflation drops... so say the markets
And after the panic , life cotinues as normal.