Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
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Sorry hit submit by accident - this share is no longer an investment but gambling in Solgold mgmt having competence
The more I read the messages below from fellow investors or payers of Solgold mgmt salaries - last year's 42-43p was the best exit price we were ever going to get and we should have sold and invested elsewhere - not nice to write this or read but I believe most would sell out at 42p now - mgmt promise gold or is it fools gold
They knew the SP would never hit £1, surely. Red may be a fantasist (city worker who doesn't understand A trades and gets excited about Christmas day trading in Canada? I think not, my friend....), and bubble is a simpleton (literally just the same 4 rampy catchphrases on repeat, trying to get attention from those he admires), but both knew in their heart of hearts that no one was going to pay £2.5-3bn for the licence holder at cascabel. Fort can scream 'tier 1' until he is blue in the face but a plot of jungle in an unstable jurisdiction isn't worth more than £1bn of anyone's money, eg 33p a share. Imagine trying to explain that you'd bought a dodgy PFS for £3bn to your shareholders?! You might as well tell them you've bought some magic beans...
Well I’m keeping mine ….. so conversely that must bode well?
Truth is it’ll take as long as it takes but someone will pay for what we have one day ….. if you don’t believe that you might as well pack up because the alternative ( production) is suicide
It feels like the little guy has already been shafted… and is now sat twitching nervously about getting it again and just wants out..
My guess is any decent price rise from here, as a result of whatever reason, will probably see a stampede to exit, meaning any rise will probably be very short lived.
If Red and Bubble, the staunch £1 plus cheerleaders were willing to exit circa 17p it doesn’t bode well.
There are different ways to make the price move upwards again, some based on fundamentals, some based on sentiment and expectation. Either way, the price is the price and that is the only thing that will eventually trigger a decision to buy, sell, hold or do nothing.
Now, on the fundamental level, I think it's not correct to state that there is a lack of meaningful action, the company has stated that it is reorganizing itself around more focussed priorities, advancing Cascabel (see SC's comments about negotiating with government for example and exploring various financing options) and with more disciplined cost management. This takes some time and it's made of many day to day activities that don't justify an RNS. OF course we could be sold just BS on these fronts and the reality might be that they are only cutting cost to survive longer while they look to negotiate a sale who knows really...
On the sentiment level, it's low and will likely stay low unless something fundamentally changes, we had too many false dawns and there is justifiable cynicism.
On the expectation level, that's where we tend to disagree. Each of us projects a view of the future based on one interpretation or another, and possibly on our individual aspirations.
All in all, too little known in reality and too much time to think about it all. Not a nice time, made worse by some posters.
GLA
*bored
I think the 'recommends' for my 'antagonistic' post probably just serve to highlight how totally board with Fort's ridiculous ramping other posters are. The man would claim going into administration as evidence of an imminent improvement in fortunes!
As I say, I'm genuinely pleased if realism is starting to set in for fort and others. Even rampy red is claiming to have sold some (fictitious) shares. It might lead to some actual discussion ahead of this year's AGM, as we seek to hoover up the tiny crumbs of information left behind by whoever is lead file at solg at the time, and work out which resolutions to support in order that the little guy doesn't get completely shafted.
Mind you, by then, the rampers will be back on full thrust and claiming there's megatons of jam tomorrow, if we just support their candidates
Guy who sets out a path for medium term development - 1 recommend
Guy who is antagonistic in pointing out a shift from a short term resolution - 5 recommends.
SolGold has really become so polarising. This has been caused by the persistent pressure from Cornerstone and their associates along with the complete lack of meaningful action from Solgold.
The possible non-event that is the strategic view isn't really helping either but this boils down to a band of shareholders who want out at the next possible juncture, so much so that some have taken exits or partial exits at a depressed price in the open market.
For what it's worth I don't mind Fort's plan, even if I'd question some of the figures. It would probably need an up front debt finance and an offtake to get even Porvenir moving, not to mention an exploitation licence and the other permits as necessary. Unfortunately, Ecuador seems to be on a par with the UK where beauracracy is concerned.
Thanks novice. Said I was met with a torrent of abuse. NEVER EVER SAID IT BOTHERED ME.
THERE YOU GO AGAIN. READING WHAT YOU WANT TO READ. NOT WHAT WAS SAID.
Anything to impress the big boys, a mate. SAD
I Wrote it in capitals for you, hopefully for you to understand.
Zero risk, Fort? Are you sure about that? Care to take another swing?! Utter tosh, with rampy maths thrown in for good measure. Who is this joker?
I do like how you've subtlety changed your tune though. Would be better if you were upfront about it, but still good to see you letting go of the 'imminent sale' rubbish you were spouting earlier in the year. And your talk of how they could be brought to production almost sounds like Quady.
Do you now finally conceed that I was right, and that solg won't be bought out any time soon, because there is no buyer? Or do I have to wait for Jan 1st 2024 for you to admit it?
Amateur.
There are no Tier 1 mines being developed in Ecuador at present. It's a mining infant in terms of the commercial sales. Mirador kicked off 4 years ago and has been steadily building higher production numbers with the next step up phase being muted recently.
I mentioned a year ago or more that I actually thought Tandy or Porvenir might be producing first ore well before Alpala. Why? Because it's easier to finance yet still very profitable. SOLG might be exploring the possibility of having two open pit easy profit mines producing in tandem. One in the South and one in the North. Meanwhile ongoing studies like mine shaft investigations can kick off at Alpala. These could take 2 years to complete and derisk the mine plan considerably.
It's simple really... if you can't finance a huge 25mt mine then what do you do? You go for a much smaller easy to mine project which can still deliver around 150koz gold and copper equivalent. Combined, on a mixed metal basis it could be around 250koz. That's £750m to £1bln market cap territory assuming 100% ENSA and moderate finance whether royalty or loan deals. Then you have Alpala Tier1 mine in the background steadily being derisked which is worth around another £75om based on previous market / share price reactions to the asset. So that's £1.5bln market cap and that's building on the low hanging fruits.
What's not to like about 50p a share with minimal dilution and risk involved.
Porvenir and Tandy could see us generating enough free cash flow to literally pre finance majority of mine shaft works and some. Alpala would effectively be 30% financed through the smaller folio developments.
I'd doubt we'd get that far as genuinely believe BHP or another will take us out well before we see first gold pour on Tandy or Porvenir. Both of which could be producing in 2 years time.
Lets see what they come up with but lets face it... Porvenir and Tandy are worth our current market cap right now and there's zero risk in project terms with seeing them developed. The market hasn't woken up to that idea as SOLG have yet to present it as plausible. And remember, Chinese are already very interested in Porvenir as it's their kind of mine as being close to their infrastructure.
"I was met with a torrent of abuse. But low and behold. Now look at the discontent."
You're a gentle sensitive soul needy, got to take that into consideration when dealing with Aussies , come on guys lets be as polite and well mannered as they are when posting here...
Fortissimo. How weird. I bought 600k worth of stock aswell. Would you believe it. Small world. I transfered mine to my flying pig, just incase he needs a wing replacement. I feel better about my purchase now. Knowing someone of your experience has also bought. Good luck mate. By the way how many have you now got. Must be millions mate
Ha, 'snap' Orth. Basically saying the same thing I believe.
He twice said 'remember, we're mine finders, not mine builders'.
And that was true when he said it. Does it mean we can't become mine builders? Absolutely not. Could this latest round of comments be a bluff to draw out a bid? Sure, but it's a less convincing bluff than DC's, so it wouldn't make much sense.
The current team at solg certainly won't be building a mine. But they could raise some more cash and employ some mine builders, if the numbers on a small cap-ex early extraction look suitable. Or they could seek a JV partner to do the same, with a ramp up towards big block as the carrot.
Whatever happens, it certainly isn't fast and smart, proving that BS might have been guilty of some premature BS...
The quote of us being mine finders, not mine builders was pretty off the cuff, but the statement had intent and was seen by many as an acceptance we don’t have the resources to build a giant block cave as a small junior explorer.. with no prior mine building experience.
However, IF…, we are having no fast and clever success with a sale or JV monetisation event, we have to continue down the route of pretending we can do it ourselves… and try to plan for it..
seems to me our bluff and puff has been ignored, and we are stuck.. until Bob can prove his worth and his big words.
SM, you were not the only one who heard it being said.
I'm beginning to think that having now got their feet under the table, the Cornerstone boys have realized it is not a case of simply turning up and flogging the asset and that Caldwell is engaged in a process of "prettying" it up in order to move to eventual disposal. This will involve attaining the licences (absolutely critical) and coming up with a feasible plan for the mine, although a DFS is no more than a distant dream. He has bought himself time by cutting costs and has improved his credibility at government level by re-locating to Ecuador.
I believe the SR will see us spin-off the non-Cascabel assets and SC will remain at the helm in order to achieve the ambition of realizing value.
Thank you SharketMare.
I will watch it later tonight when relaxing.
All the best.
Hi Quady - it was at pre-PDAC during this presentation I believe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knXIt1Vqxhw
I don't have time to watch now myself and give you the exact time I'm afraid, but I believe the quote was "we are not mine builders".
Fort, no my remaining holding here was modest, best of luck with your ~£100k+ investment here.
SharketMare, where's your trade today? Minor volume today and you sold up? You obviously didn't have many shares then?
FWIIW, I've bought over 600k of stock since the Lasso news.
Remember, the strongest tool SOLG have to wave in front of a buyer is the 'go it alone tool'. The likes of BHP and others really don't like that one. Franco, Mitsui and Chinese like it though. Don't thinker a moment that talking of developing Alpala is a negative thing. If it resembles a JV deal and early profits via shallow mining at Tandy then it could be great news for all. And remember.... until SOLG actively filed out something major on the asset (and I mean more than a 1% or 2% royalty... then and only then will BHP start to make a move.
The last thing you want to do when selling an asset is look like you are stuffed and can't finance it it. SOLG can finance a smaller project... and that might be the way forwards. Like Mirador... start small and build higher. Derisk as you go. Trouble is predators out there won't like that one bit ... so it has several benefits and one is it draws out a buyer or bid.
Good morning SharketMare.
Please could you show me the official company announcement where Solgold said they were not going to build at Cascabel.
Truthfully I have missed that.
I know some on here tried to twist the meaning of the strategic review into we are looking for a buyer.
But that is not what Solgold have said.
I have always admitted that should we get fair value that we would probably sell.
However I have outlined in some detail why I didn't believe that would happen and that the most probable outcome was we went to production.
As more than a few of us realised at the time, things were far dysfunctional than we were being told.
I recall the heated debates on here at the time of the fateful AGM when Mather was eventually shown the door. A fair number of us voted against his re-election on the basis we'd had enough of the hubris and general tosh that was being dolled-out.
I admit to being initially taken-in by DC, but it didn't take long to realize he was a gold-plated waffler. His vast remuneration was one of the worst examples of excessive executive pay I've ever seen...and he has the brass neck to sue us!
I happen to believe we are now in a completely different era and, as it stands, I've got confidence that Caldwell will deliver something. As for what that something is, I've no idea. But thank god he's taken the role and I see his relocation to Ecuador as a really good thing.
"When I posted 3 or 4 weeks ago my concerns about these things, I also mentioned Albanian gangs causing major concerns. Drugs, extortion kidnappings.
This was copperpot reply.
I've just informed (by telephone) the Chinese Embassy in Quito of all this unruly behaviour by those Albanian chaps! I can honestly say that they were horrified by the reports from this bulletin board. They are looking at rescinding the 'Trade Agreement' promptly! Phew Cor Brimey, who took my call at the Embassy is still reeling from this breaking news! Mr Brimey commented......."how could we have been so dumb to sign a trade agreement"?
Things are looking rosy in the garden when all this stuff pops up!,
And I'm the idiot!!!!!!!!!!!
Quady, simply not true. The company stated recently that it was not planning to build a mine at Alpala. It stated a few months before that that gone were the days of aspiring to build a block cave mine in Ecuador. You choose to ignore these facts (you have never addressed them or acknowledged them) because they don't suit your blinkered narrative.
The tone has changed substantially with Caldwell now talking about development. And given the inevitable delays in reneging the IPA and the other agreement, and nothing being released for about 3 months, I'm going to invest elsewhere for the time being.
I have no intention of investing an a company that is looking to build a mine at Alpala. Too much risk involved for my liking.