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Thanks for all your efforts- I really appreciate what you are doing and have stated on this board before that pi's have more prospective power than we will ever be given credit for. Time to break the mould, perhaps. GLA
Thanks for that. Looks like the lawyers are the only winners here.....again.
Not heard myself- so what does the letter say re court case etc?
Afternoon all. It is never easy for pi's to play the waiting game when so much is at stake and when we are the furthest from the discussions that roll on. I am not unduly concerned by the current situation and whilst some may see that as naive or complacent, my perspective comes from the political and economic importance of the Lace mine to this area of SA. Crucially, the mine is around 26% owned by the black empowerment group of SA and we need to remember that a significant number of jobs and the local economy depend on the development of Lace. Whilst the IDC may be pushing for a better deal at this stage, I believe political pressure will feature if there is any risk of the business going under. As others have said, no parties will benefit from DCP's collapse. Some of us made it clear at the last EGM that the board needs to take time to ensure that the business returned from suspension in a truly viable state. If that means we won't be trading for another 2-3 months, then so be it. The anticipated LOM is at least 20 years so a period of suspension at this stage, albeit hard to swallow, is not a long time in the big scheme of things. As Valency said in his last post, with most of the boxes already ticked on the BRP, adding the final pieces of the jigsaw should make it worth the wait. GLA.
I had a mail from Neil Riches yesterday that told investors to expect news on the MyClub listing and WGP legal case by the end of this week. I'll post a summary of his update when I receive it.
Although it was unnerving to read the words 'going concern' in the RNS, I've read through the details a couple of times and would make the following points. As we would expect, the BRP looks very thorough and sensibly phased. The pending meeting with unions is vital, but as Mister Positive has said, the mine work-force wants the project to succeed and to provide employment for years to come, so I would expect an agreement to be reached. A disappointing aspect for me is that I thought the water-pumping process and rig repair would have been well under way by now, but maybe this process had to wait to be given the go ahead through the BRP. I would anticipate that the board has already trawled DCP's institutional investors and already knows that £1 million can be raised by 19th Jan. Personally, I am pleased and relieved that the company is looking to raise capital through raising at a premium to the 2p closing price. 4p is better than I expected, but again, the directors would have been discussing this with key ii's to find out what they would be prepared to pay. A price almost double the closing price is the best news in the RNS imo. This will mean that the phase 1 placing will only need to be for 25 million shares- dilution, yes, but insignificant in the big scheme of things. Furthermore if the board only need to raise £3-5 million pounds to fund phase 2, a placing at 4p would imply a placing of up to 125 million shares ( upper amount) If my maths is correct, with 480,000,000 shares currently in issue, the new figure would total around 630 million. Whilst this again represents significant dilution from where we are now, a junior miner with less than 700 million shares in issue is a rare beast and would give us a market cap of around £25 million, a not unreasonable figure. Two more points- PL yet again, looks like he is willing to forego salary, preferring shares, which says to me that even in the current situation, the main man has confidence in the future of the mine. The other issue is timing- I am glad to hear that the board and De Loitte are stating they will not consider re-listing until phase 2 is well under way ( maybe June/July) Hopefully by then, mining operations will be in full swing and we can return to market with an sp of 4p minimum. One last wish; I forget which poster said this pre-Xmas (my apologies) but he/she did say that the board should raise lots of money this time around rather than cutting it fine again. I do hope the estimate for the second raising does allow for hold-ups, bad weather etc so that we have a contingency reserve that enables us to deal with those events and not suffer the carnage we suffered in late 2016! Keep in touch. All the best. Alligin.
I hope the complete silence since the meeting at the end of November is due to restrictions on all parties and let's hope 2017 proves to be the year that WGP shareholders see some reward for the years of disappointment. Have a great Christmas everyone.
Have a great Christmas everyone and thanks for all your input this year. We've navigated some bad news during that time and we can only hope our new board begins to deliver Lace's potential in 2017. Good luck.
It is good to hear that all the loan partners have agreed to give the board significant breathing space as part of the rescue plan, especially Ramala, who a number of us were very concerned about given the aggressive loan terms set out initially. Hopefully all the £40k bondholders will agree a deferment of repayments so that we can spend some months building production without immediate financial pressure. A critical issue in the next phase is whether or not organisations like IDC are prepared to enhance the loan that they made initially ie agree new terms, or whether the only means of securing additional funding is through a placing. My hope is that we see a combination of both so that any placing does not overly weaken the holdings of existing shareholders. I doubt the board will want to see 1 billion shares in issue but if no other funding streams are available, I guess they will have little choice. I feel a placing of 200 million shares will be nearer the mark, but we'll know in good time. GLA.
This indicates that the business rescue plan is progressing- it may well be that JWR disagreed with the way it is moving or he has been persuaded to go. There is no doubt that Paul Loudon has lacked proper support from the board generally and has had too much responsibility thrust upon him. We need a strong board in place, from a CFO to NE Directors, each of whom needs to actively earn their corn. I do hope the rescue plan addresses these issues and we re-launch with much improved capacity for leadership.
What you say stacks up and I guess we can only draw conclusions on overall quality and prices achieved when we have a couple of years under our belts. An issue to keep an eye on, though.
I share people's concerns re the quality of stones sold in the latest tender as this is the first time this issue has arisen. It would be useful to hear expert analysis of this situation as it has ramifications for us all going forward. If this is a blip. atypical of most of the kimberlite we will mine, fair enough, but if this is destined to be a regular issue then this will have a real impact on our income.
It's good to hear that Rio Tinto are bullish on the outlook for diamonds over the next few years but I would suggest we are far too small for their purposes. I have never believed the board would sell the Lace mine and given what has happened over the past few weeks, I'm even more convinced they want to proceed as a stand-alone, independent diamond producer. If the current re-structuring of debt and potential placing are successful, this would lead to far greater market confidence and a very viable business. It's worth remembering as well that the board have repeatedly stated their strategy of aggressive capital return so I think they have their minds set firmly on sustained production and returns for shareholders. Having said that, the fact that the current parcel of stones contains coloured stones may just further encourage a buyer and it will be interesting to see how the sale goes. We'll hear soon enough, I guess. CRB14, I agree with your comment about a jv company and two years or so ago, the timing would have been perfect, but now the re-structure is under way, I'm not sure if this suggestion is on the table.
Information generally comes from Neil Riches himself via mails to shareholders. Along with Wazza, I'll let you know whenever I hear of any developments.
The various parties are meeting in the US today to hopefully reach an out of court settlement. Wonder how long it will be before we hear the result of the meeting?
Good to see the news flow coming and it will be interesting to see what the current tender yields. Webmoor, in answer to your question, I'm sure DCP will continue to recover small stones from the tailings during this period, but these will not create much revenue. At least we have the tailings to fall back on, though.