Firering Strategic Minerals: From explorer to producer. Watch the video here.
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Https://www.mining.com/adventus-salazar-delay-construction-of-ecuador-project/
This article gives you a practical idea of the groundwork required from mining companies to advance their projects, the bureaucracy and the variety of parties to negotiate with at each step of the way.
Even if (thankfully) SOLG was granted the 25 year renewal, unlike other companies that got blocked by the referendum, you can still see that SC's seemingly invisible daily grind is actually what is required to make Cascabel a digestible investment proposition. Who is going to deliver that if SC is voted out, just asking the impatient ones?
Thanks,TI. I suspect this explains why we haven't been able to do anything with any of our other concessions. Do you know how the land lies with regard to Porv?
Personally, I've never had any expectations for anything other than Cascabel, although I'd be delighted if they pulled something off.
Who is going to deliver that if SC is voted out, just asking the impatient ones?
Same question could be posed when Mather got the boot. Same question could be posed when Darryl got the boot.
CEO's come and go, they try their best and some deliver and some fail. The important thing is not to hold onto failing management. Always best to boot them and get new proven CV led management. Lets face it... Scott is not proven CEO material is he? He's done what exactly? Darryl was more experienced. But only reason he got the boot was because the CGP boys wanted free reign. That's crux of it.
Scott's not delivered a coherent plan and it's severly hammered the share price. Shareholders have been treated like mushrooms. The new website is terrible. Strewn with errors and weak.
Scott is the type of person that should be running a £10m small cap miner. Not a £600m miner with a tier1 asset. And that's not a dig directly at Scott as plenty of sharp CEO's running smaller caps. But he's a mine finder type of bloke. Not a Tier1 mining planner. That was Darryl.
But lets get real here... it's ultimately about Bob, Mather, Maxit running the show. There's not much room for an outsider with great ideas to turn this company around.
And to be honest... is the opportunity even there if the game plan is to sell out.
It's a shame that they did not spin out the exploration business as I reckon we'd have exploration underway now, fully funded and some exciting drills coming in. Meanwhile the remaining ENSA asset would be progressing but likely worth more than our current market cap and the exploration spin off probably worth $150m or more assuming some decent drill results. The irony is, the spun out exploration company could or might even be worth more than ENSA if successful with the dill bit as the market likes to mark up the froth on excitement rather than banked resources... well it did a while ago!
Totally agree with you Fort.
Cascabel could have been separated out, and the other concessions farmed out. 1 reason that hasn't been done is because either no one wanted to take on the concessions if they can't get permits, or solg want to sell the entire company. Scott has to earn his crust and not retain his job becaue we are scared of what might happen if he isnt there. No guarantees. We could wait another year and he still hasn't sold the company.
I don't buy the argument that SC is doing nothing. If we didn't understand it already, this article points out just how much work is required to get the permits etc. Simultaneously, he's running a strategic review which, although we haven't seen any evidence of progress just yet, is looking at many different options and involves numerous interested parties. And bear in mind, he doesn't have huge numbers of support staff around him.
SC is not sitting on his hands, he's busy trying to achieve what virtually all of us on here want.
Fort: "Lets face it... Scott is not proven CEO material is he? He's done what exactly?"
"Mr. Caldwell is a mining engineer with over 30 years experience building and operating gold and base metal mines worldwide. He is the current President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Allied Nevada Gold Corp. since September 2006 and also served as the Chief Financial Officer and Principal Accounting Officer for the company from September 2006 to April 2007. While under Mr. Caldwell’s tenure, Allied Nevada’s Hycroft gold mine was built and achieved commercial production in 2009.
From March 2003 to August 2006, Mr. Caldwell was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and Director of Kinross Gold Corp. and oversaw the La Coipa and Maricunga gold mine operations. He also served as the Senior Vice President of Surface Operations from June 1998 to March 2002."
I'm not some Caldwell fan-boy, I would also appreciate a lot more clarity and enhanced communications, and I'm equally displeased with the SP as everyone else, given I'm about 50% down on my investment now. But come on, to dismiss Caldwell's experience with a stroke of your keyboard seems rather short sighted to me. Out of Mather, Darryl and him, he's clearly got the most relevant experience. He's also the only one who has stated in no uncertain terms on several occasions that Solgold are mine finders not mine builders.
I agree with the Italian, the stuff he's doing right now (and on the ground, in Ecuador, unlike his predecessors) is not glamourous or sexy or exciting but it's obviously the necessary work that needs to be ground out in order to sell Cascabel.
My experience of dealing with regulators and govt bodies in frontier markets is that it is a slow, inefficient and frustrating process. Often even the simplest of requests for approval take months or years, needing to be constantly re-submitted and pushed along with multiple face to face meetings to go over the same materials, with no officials willing to make a decision. I don't think we should underestimate what a big achievement agreeing the heads of terms of the exploitation agreement is, especially in the current politically unstable environment in Ecuador.
Fort, I can only assume from your 12:13 post that you've sold out and no longer hold...
I'm only joking of course. That would be ridiculous.
As you can see, it's quite easy to hold and be realistic. Next time, don't bash others for doing similar.
In terms of your point, I think you missed TheItalian's. TI is referring to those people like Eloro who want rid of Scott and also expect a sale in Q1 2024. If you do the former you can kiss the latter goodbye as it will take SOLG 3-6 months to recruit this proven CEO you speak of.
If people want our pronto, it HAS to be Scott. If people are happy to wait until 2025 or even later, then vote against Scott. That's the dynamic.
Allied Nevada Gold Corp filed for bankruptcy after Scott left. Not sure that's a great example. I think all his CV shows is that he's been good buddies with Bob and Maxit et al.
And thus no surprise to see them stick him into the CEO role. But sorry... I haven't seen anything from Scott that makes me think he knows what he is doing at all. If he did know what he was doing, the PFS update would be out this quarter and not planned for a quarter after the AGM and even that is unlikely to happen IMHO.
Would Chinese increase their investment and Ecuador gov sign those permits if they had no confidence in his work? Redesigning such a complicated mine plan takes time and it has to be 100% valid as any interested party will scrutinize it to look for any holes. This is solgold's / Scott's last chance to find someone interested. Let's give him time to complete his work.
Eloro, it's not just Scott and co. Mather's team before and Darryl were all taking about looking at deals on the regionals. It's been going on now for 2 years and they've drilled closed to zero, farmed out zero and by looks of things it's cost $10m just to hold the licences. At a time when licence blocks in Ecuador are rare as hen-teeth... our current SOLG BoD's seem to struggle to get even the simpliest or most junior of deals done. The market would go bonkers if we signed an earn-in agreement with Barrick or Rio to drill some of our high value concessions. Ecuador gov would be chuffed too.
Perhaps that's all lined up for when the new President gets his feet or her feet under the table in 11 days time?
Scott can have my vote at the AGM but ONLY once he's given me a very clear idea of what I am voting him in for another 12months for? They need to deliver the outcome of the Strategic review before the AGM. If they don't... then I'm not voting for them. I want that outcome. I want to see them deliver what they promised. Is that too much to ask?
Careful..... your starting to sound like me Fort... the rose tinted glasses have gone..
As far as SOLG management are concerned, appearances haven't correlated with the share price and that can distort things for us.
Looking at the replies Scott and Bob have shared with members of this board and reading between the lines of them, it's clear that they considered. SOLG pre-merger to be a collosal cluster**** with a good share price. Not surprising when you consider the relationship back then.
They are now saying, or appear to be, that the SP has weakened but the company has transformed for the better behind the scenes.
How do we test that theory? It's difficult for sure but I think it boils down to whether you think Scott has sat in his office for 12 months or actually achieved things. The EA was undoubtedly a step forward and ideally we want to see further discussions with the new government tied up post run-off. It also sounds like progress is being made with the tailings plan and port arrangements.
Anyone holding stock at the upcoming AGM has two simple thought trains to focus on. One being the amended mine plan and operational plan scheduled in Q1 and the other being the ability of Bob and Dan to bring something home in the year.
For me, I'm backing them on the basis that they are now in pole position to deliver for all SOLG shareholders and when I pull everything together, I think this team is the one to get it done.
Fort, just on a personal note, do you now accept the AGM will happen this year? And that you were wrong to criticize my understanding of the timeline? It's just you got a bit heated on the matter and tried to assert you intellectual dominance, but now it seems you're saying I was right and you were wrong. Can you confirm this? No need to apologize.
Fort, we are in agreement. The previous management wasted time. Scott has been critical of them. Hence, better is expected from him after his statement. Deliver an outcome, or get booted.
Bozi, I understand what are saying about Scott needing to remain to increase our chances of a sale. What is bothering me about that is given his lack lustre performance so far, I fear that we could make it to 2025 and still haven't had a bid. By then it will be too late to say we should have acted sooner. On ceo.ca someone posted that a class action was brought against him at one of his previous job. That implies that he has form for underachieving. I am willing to wait and see what he delivers by the AGM. I agree with Fort, get a jv on one or more of the other concessions, then he would have redeemed himself. I did not hold back in my emails.
For the first time in a long time Bozi I agree with you 100%. Excellent post!
Bozi must have bought back in... that great trading or investing if he sold out in the 20's and re-entered in the 10's. Absolutely fabulous call. But unfortunately, he didn't. He just sat on his stock and grumbled a bit or... alot!
FWIIW, I think there will be a corporate event or big news event in Q1 24 but it won't involve any promised PFS's. I think that's a ruse to be honest. Having spoken to a number of industry experts of late, no one wants to paint today's inflation numbers and high interest rates into a new PFS. It effectively makes it read very poorly. Better to wait until interest rates fall and inflation falls. Then bake those numbers in. No idea who Scott or Bob think they are communicating to these days but any savvy investor does not want to see a PFS in Q1 24. It won't be pretty. So only thing I can imagine is that post Ecuador elections, post Tailings investigations etc and post final red tape from the Gov... we should see ENSA deal or offer tabled in Q1 or earlier. And then promises of updated PFS's fade away as no longer relevant.
Like I said before, there's no way Ecuador gov would commit to red tape cutting and the $75m phased payments if they didn't know or think SOLG had a partner or buyer ready to take it on.
Forget updated PFS's... you won't see one again here imho... but you should see a sale/monetisation event as there really is no alternative now.
10.82 to back to under 10.30 this is crazy price
I've told you Fort I'm no great trader.
The difference between me and you however is that I raise points while the stock is a much higher price, thus giving shareholders things to think about and discuss.
You meanwhile, ramped the living hell out of SOLG all the way down and then only start to moan when it goes sub 10p.
One of us spots issues ahead of time and the other... well I don't know what it is you're doing exactly.
I'd say the last week or so for me has added greater clarity around SOLG following a disappointing period and all things considered, I'm in a more comfortable place with my investment.
well that's a relief bozi. glad you're content and comfortable with the company and share price at sub 10p.
i'd be kicking myself if i didn't act on my fears and concerns over the stock like you. fancy calling it right but not actually backing it up with selling your holding?? surely you can see the irony in this?? unless of course you didn't really believe what you were spouting? i have to admit (and happy to) i thought this year was the year that solg got a monetisation event away. such a great asset and copper shortage looming you'd think tier1 copper assets would be flying off the shelves. problem is... there are not many of them. even barrick are entertaining the idea of seeking copper in the highly volatile hills of ****stan!! the places and risk some big miners go to hey?
so no... i'm not felling guilty one bit about calling this year wrong as i've stuck with and lowered average price ahead of what should end up a happy story. i'd be absolutely gutted if i saw all the pittfalls when the price was 32p+ and failed to follow my foresight.
as i said... i've been balanced for sometime now but you are the one that's been ultra negative. and now with sp at sub 10p and company looking like it's on its knees with reducing opportunities to raise further funds... you're content and happy?
serious bozi... just admit it... you're not invested here and instead are just having a laugh at long termers expense?
Without turning this into a personal battle Fort, life is not all about being a smart Alec where money is concerned. I'm not desperate to buy the bottom and sell the top like some are. I've invested, sometimes I'll be too early. That's how this game goes.
I've also had a pretty good run on some other stocks, the ones you sought to ridicule me over, so you know I can't complain.
The main thing now is that SOLG recovers and we also do very well. I commend those buying now and hope they will be rewarded, you included. My point of view is that Scott is best placed to deliver that even taking into account the misgivings I've had in recent weeks and months. To vote him out now makes zero sense to me. ATB.
The only thing Scott has achieved since he took over is a circa 70% decrease in the share price. Since he wont tell us anything that is going on or tell us what the plan or strategy is going forward, what else do we have to judge him on?
70% might be a bit exaggerated, but you get my point.
This is not ARS Stevie. The disappointment there is not transferable to solg. This is going to be sold, most likely to the Chinese, but if Willem is to be believed, the Saudis might be interested here too. 6 months to sell, I can wait. ARS on the other hand, Manini has dropped the ball from the Aeturnum days.
Interesting action on TSX last night …. Very unusual and all kicked off at 1pm their time with no volume prior
Something or nothing I guess ??
https://www.google.com/finance/quote/SOLG:TSE?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjyxaCb7eCBAxWNW0EAHarwB_oQ3ecFegQIFRAc
Could be nothing but I recall about 750k volume a while back just before the sp got pushed down or drifted down to where we are now. Thought that looked 'insightful' cough cough but it was the higher volume selling that occured after July 2022 when clearly someone got wind of the CGP / SOLG merger plans that raised my interest in the first place. Certainly an area to watch as someone with possibly inside knowledge (imho) is trading there. Anyone know anyone that has loads of SOLG stock and is Canadian or holds SOLG on TSX. lol!