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That cannot be a coincidence.
Is it really likely those long term Randgold/Barrick employees suddenly got tired of working for the largest and most successful gold miner on the planet?
In other words Centamin shareholders need our board of directors to be honest regarding any SET UP for a takeover this implies. And since these hires are directly attributable to our new CEO I also have to question his level of involvement. As much as I respect him Mr Horgan hasn't
made any Centamin share purchases himself. So it begs the question - does he not see extreme undervalue in the current share price and/or is there something else going on?
Furthermore, the movement in the pit wall - while possibly a serious and legitimate concern - was never followed up by an independent report by a third party describing the options and/or risks of continuing to mine below that section. The resulting mega-waste removal project devastated the share price.
I brought up the issue before but it bears repeating - Centamin already has so much stockpiled ore to feed the mill we could have utilized our own fleet to deal with the overburden removal, albeit at a slower pace, at the very least negating a very expensive capital spend.
I suppose what I'm saying is that if a Barrick takeover does happen at this sub-pound valuation I think we'll all see in hindsight that the writing was on the (pit) wall, so to speak...
Here are the three Barrick hires of 2021
Pierre Kanku Mineral Resource Manager ( formerly of Randgold/Barrick from Sept 2011 - March 2021 )
Gustav Du Toit Sukari General Manager ( formerly of Randgold/Barrick from June 2016 - November 2021 )
Rolly Wasonga Chief Resources Geologist ( formerly of Randgold/Barrick from Feb 2012 - Feb 2021 )
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pierre-kanku-76b52b3a/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gustav-du-toit-b925808/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rolly-wasonga-251076105/
Additionally Centamin's group resource manager Craig Barker also worked for Barrick (Centamin hired him in late 2020) making him the fourth Barrick hire in about twelve months
https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-barker-a8469213/
Thanks CI
Always a couple of ways you can read the hires
1. CEY is a more preferable employer than Barrick
2. The hires seem to be fit for Francophone countries, does this bode well for moving the West African CEY story onwards and upwards?
3. The pit wall needed fixing. I suspect the "cut back" was a biproduct of the pit going deeper, which was going to get done anyhow? Inde experts do not do this. Tend to write reports. Make lots of recomendations. Cover their bottoms.
4. The pit wall failure was a geological failure (which does tend to happen in large pits, due to a lack of proper geotechical assessment, which again hints at the past "management" being substandard or optimisitic or both) and management failure. There are viable ways to map out 3d zones of weakness priro to mining (these were not done it appears) and monitor 24/7. No rocket science here, just sound business.
Yes, be great vote of confidence in himself and his company for the CEO to buy CEY shares.
Be interesting to see how the stockpiled ore impacts on the AISC? I suspect the impact will be to decrease the AISC at a time of calling and need?
best
the gnome
Hi Gnome,
Great post as usual!
My gradfather went through most of WW1,he would did'nt think much of the treccjs but he would'nt have thought much of outr leaders today eiher!
The last thee stooges at Sukari Josef, Youssef and Pardey ran things on baloney ,spoof & bullsh*t certainly not sound mining methodology or geology, they were in short Carpet Baggers running a 'Pyramis Scheme" and we got taken in!
Don ,what occured to me is which mine are they destined for?
Possibly Cote de Ivorie ?
Maybe.
Gnome..when you refer to AISC are you talking longer term ..
The company have already said that they expect AISC to go up to $ 1,275 to $ 1,425 in 2022 which will involve a significant whammy on profits unless gold increases up to average out at $ 1950 ish dollars for the whole year .
Lower AISC are projected for later years , but they are unlikely to be reliable given cost pressures
Never really understood the differrnce between “all-in sustaining costs” and “all-in costs” metrics but there is some very useful information at https://www.gold.org/about-gold/gold-supply/responsible-gold/all-in-costs
On another point I really do think LSE should add another category "Well F****d in the Opinion drop down menu.
Thanks CI
I am commenting on the stockpiles of ore they have paid to get onto the stockpile. To get them from the stockpile to the processing plant and through (etc), would not be a large cost, so AISC of doing this whenever they want, is not going to be a large number.
My thouht is that it is an optionality they have up their sleeve as to when they actually process the stockpiled ore, and it would be very useful for a host of reasons.
Business is often won or loss on having sufficient optionality to negotiatie whatever reality throws up at you.
So to me its a smart move to build this optionality in now, the future is uncertain from a number of perspectives...ploitics,virus, fed iraationality (continued)..etc. Most of the mining component of the future AISC has been paid for ...
You can read about definitions of AISC at
https://www.gold.org/about-gold/gold-supply/responsible-gold/all-in-costs
...
The US producer prices index (PPI) posted the biggest annual gain in at least 11 years on Tuesday with an eye-popping increase of 9.6 per cent for November, following an 8.8 per cent surge the previous month.
...
and in Oz the usual gross stupidity from the politicians.."off budget spending"...LOL
Some years ago, politicians discovered a pot of seemingly free taxpayer money known as “off-budget” spending that magically doesn’t detract from the budget bottom line.
Now, federal and state politicians are increasingly setting up special “investment” funds to deploy money to pet projects.
The charade is particularly popular around election time, as we already see from plans by the Coalition and Labor for climate, social housing and fast-rail spending in the lead up to next year’s federal poll.
Former federal Department of Finance deputy secretary and former NSW Parliamentary Budget Officer, Stephen Bartos, says, “ministers have the illusion that cash on the balance sheet is free money”.
While so-called “off-budget” capital spending still requires borrowing and adds to the public sector’s gross debt, it can avoid adding to the government’s annual budget deficit.
Conveniently, it does not necessarily worsen net debt if the “off-budget” asset is held in a fund purporting to be a commercial entity, which in theory could sell its assets to reduce debt.
We will end with poltical party investment Banks!?! ... and on the show goes....
best
the gnome