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Bargains are sometimes not all they first appear, ask yourself do you trust Fres anymore than CEY or any other mining company?
If so then good luck with your decision!
Hi Cowichan,
I can understand your frustration and agree in the past the board haven't behaved as they should have done towards shareholders and I agree entirely the promised information/resource updates you have continued to ask for should have been forthcoming long before now.
But I'm afraid "Flogging a dead horse " comes to mind as far as getting the support you need to pursue this, even if all our board member's joined the cause many,many more and funding for legal costs would still be needed,even then the system is loaded against small investors and the majority will never stick together to present the case by following the correct procedures.
As you point out some mining company will develop those reserves, but I really don't think Centamin have the will, possibly not even the right attributes or abilities to do it based on past record, let's face it they haven't exactly shown great professional ability in running the Sukari operation properly otherwise it wouldn't have been in danger of disappearing under a pile of waste.
How many times did Pardey mislead even deceive share holders about the Sukari grades, guidance and operational issues, I've certainly lost count, so why should we be expected to believe in these other potential reserves, how many more years and how many more millions of dollars to chuck into another money pit of promises?
I have really lost any confidence in Centamins intention or ability to develop these West African reserves, better that another miner takes them on.
That is of course just my opinion and I respect yours as you are well aware.
Gnome - you can attribute the initial discovery of Konkera to whomever you like - the local artisanals certainly were the first to dig & find gold - my point is Centamin has failed in:
1) keeping shareholders informed as to exactly what the issues to be sorted are in developing Konkera. The fact that you have to speculate is proof they are not doing their job. MrBond et al can apparently think of many reasons shareholders should be kept in the dark about development decisions but that's not the typical rationale of a competent investor. Why Centamin needs a resident chat board apologetic is certainly telling.
2) publishing a maiden resource for the large deposits surrounding Konkera i.e. Napelepera, Wadaradoo, etc. This failure is particularly appalling - especially as it is in the best interest of shareholders to attract the highest bidder for assets should they be jettisoned.
https://twitter.com/DonLawson_/status/1399797235747942401
One last thought - it never ceases to amaze me there are souls on this chat board who will gladly believe and repeat what amounts to conspiracy theories regarding the suppression of our share price by secret agents and/or devious market practices yet are unwilling to pursue questioning the BOD's withholding of key data on concessions we have paid for exploring as shareholders.
Thank you Mr Bond,
I really can't see the point in any of them now, whilst money and time has been spent on what might be in other areas of West Africa when what we do have the Sukari hasn't been managed properly and as a result is now in limp mode with Centamin's share price half of what it was around 12 months ago.
The situation in Eygpt and mining law for new concessions and the attitude towards investment from foriegn companies has changed dramatically from what it was when these other satellite exploration projects were started, opportunities that are easier to exploit in a known and more stable jurisdiction must weaken very considerably the Centamin business case for expanding into these other potentially unstable and unfamiliar Wests African regions.
So time to sell them to others or just cut the losses,mothball or dump them is most probably the best option.
But whatever getting Sukari firing on all cylinders should be the overriding priority in my opinion!
Mr T, with a life of mine of just 8 years, I would question this project.
AISC could go either way depending on Oil prices , war and many unseen problems.
So I would agree.
Much better look at other prospects first.
I can understand management staying quiet for more than one reason.
Especially if they plan off loading it.
If they get a licence, it could be very long and drawn out ,getting to a decent profitable production.
I am sure many will disagree, we all have our own views.
Disagreement is healthy, the right choice is difficult ,without management analysis.
You can be sure the BOD has been through the risks and benefits.
Mr Gnome, thank you for the benefit of your experience in these specialist exploration matters.
Forgive my limited understanding of these very specialised mining matters.
As a share holder in Centamin I must ask why on earth spend (or waste) so much money on what appears to be an a project with no return?
Why waste any more time and money on a project that is likely to be fraught with ongoing problems?
Sub contract the work out if a sizeable return is likely in a reasonable time scale, but not another 10 years!
If Sukari was running as it should, the outstanding issues were settled amicably and the outstanding details on the potential new concessions were all sorted then I might understand the justification in some of this other exploration, as it is I can see little justification in carrying on with any more of this pointless but expensive hole drilling!!
Mr T
the exploration was compromised, which can oftne be the case, when you are a junior and the brokers and analysts are barking (mad?) at you. having to manage an influx of 5-7 RC drill rigs, plus auger rigs, plus geochem sampling crews in locality which might be 1 or 2 bus stops from the end o the world is a tough thing to do. Personal experience.
best
the gnome
Hi Mr Gnome,
From you explanation it seems that the exploration was an a bit of a poorly run half baked effort that cost rather a lot and has delivered very little to date ?
Or have I misunderstood?
Thanks Cowichan...I happened to meet Caigen Wang of Tietto in Cape Town a few years ago just before the TIE IPO and invested at that time. The BOD has been strengthened since then with the arrival of Paul Kitto and the newsflow for the rest of 2021 will be interesting. Also invested here and looking for a decent return by the middle of 2022.
Thanks Cowichan
I would beg to differ. If one looks at the time lines of Ampella and the Batie discovery you will see
1. Batie was in fact detected before Paul Kitto joined Ampella by regional targeting off the country wide aeromagnetics, local geological knowledge provided by Dr Morour Francois Ouedrago who happened to have done his PhD in the area in 1987 during which he noted the structural controls and wide spread alteration associated with the gold occurrences that were detected originally by artisinal miners and then mined by the French in a small (think wheel barrows) way (1950's?), then follow up stream sediment sampling by Ampella pre-Kitto. Ampella had got ground in the area (2007) as one can see by their prospectus, but they could only get what was available at time of listing..it took a year or so) Paul got the prospect drilling going that led to the Konkera discovery, but without knowing the broader crustal scale target existed, where etc, the drills could have gone anywhere.
2. The fact that Batie mineralisation is refractory, appears not to be known long after a lot of money and time was spent by Ampella, and then even more by CEY. Note it was known by CEY when they bought it, but they did not regard it as a first order issue? (it maybe solvable with a new approach, new technology which can often be the way with such metallurgical issues, but soemtimes these can take decades!)
Begs the question why did it take so long to know this. To answer somewhat broadly, there is common industry practise to try and measure the total gold grade in a sample. Today we have new technology which does this more convincingly than previously..see link below
https://www.csiro.au/en/work-with-us/industries/mining-resources/sensing/photonassay-xray-gold-detection
However the new technology still has the old thinking embedded. It is not the total gold, it is the total extractable gold that a mining company makes money out of.
So what should have been done at lets say a JORC resource of 1 m ozs, is that a through GeoMet study should have been done...
The shortcoming can be addressed further down the track (far from ideal), if one has good quality geological logging, backed by such measurements as made by a portable XRF, so that a mineral zonation can be confidently established within the resource volume. The problem here is how to get consistent high quality geological observations in a rushed drill out in Africa. Common failure point...and on the story goes.
So I would not be so despairing of CEY bringing the Batie mineralisaiton into Mining.
Yes they did not cover themselves in glory in their exploration efforts (needed more exacting site based QA/QC is what I have heard through the bougainvillea's).
Issues
1. Met related, robust geomet model, recovery and process
2. Possibly strip ratio?
3. energy costs
4. Competitive ROI reurn on capital meeting corporate objectives.
Love to have a new updated JORC reso
If anyone is interested in what became of Ampella's top management after their West Africa deposits were purchased by Centamin in 2014... they're well on their way to actually building a mine in Cote D'Ivoire via Tietto minerals https://www.tietto.com/
How is it possible that the same CEO has made a brand new discovery in 2015, drilled it to a multi million ounce resource and permitted it through to the production stage while during the same timeframe Centamin's management has done NOTHING with Batie West except pay a yearly million dollar exploitation license fee, which by-the-way expires at the end of this year??
Thus my twitter post highlighting a mining company who actually lives the 'G' in ESG by providing clear and transparent communication with shareholders as to the state of their production pipeline. A graphic timeline to build Tietto's Cote D'Ivoire mine can be seen here: https://twitter.com/DonLawson_/status/1403387462169219077
In regards to keeping shareholders fully informed and also getting things done on the ground I think Paul Kitto puts Centamin's leadership to shame. Paul's CV
Paul has been Exploration Manager, West Africa for Newcrest Mining Ltd since 2015, and prior to that was CEO of Ampella Mining Ltd from 2008 until 2014 when Ampella was acquired by Centamin PLC. Paul led Ampella in discovering and growing the 3.25 million oz Konkera resource at the Batie West Project in Burkina Faso.
https://www.tietto.com/projects/abujar-cote-divoire/