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Funnily enough, I haven't lost money on this as I was in right at the beginning of the Angola operations. I have just checked and my first buy was on 25th August 2023 at 0.247p.

I might appear to be a bit p*ssed off because I was just expecting a good result and the share price to go to 2p or 3p or even 10p for a massive multi-bagger and a huge pay-day but that just hasn't happened (so far at least. Bring on KON-16!)

Yeah, another 6 months down the line and they will probably still "remain buoyant regarding the ongoing potential of our Angolan interests in the Kwanza Basin" even still with nothing to show for it except daft premium-priced placings.

Anyone lured in here by this dodgy placing is going to get what they deserve. Dorgy, dodgy, dodgy!!!

Dodgy placing at a premium largely by dodgy EXT (which is half-owned by Karam). Over half of the sum is coming from the directors.

A clear case of attempting to cover up the bad news with a light covering of jam.

So the original field flowed at a maximum of 17,250 bopd, of which TO-14 - which now appears to be officially empty of flowing oil - constituted up to 12,500, which leaves the other 6 wells flowing at less than 1000bopd each. I won't be expecting much from CRCL's 18% working interest, if it flows oil at all.

Operations have been ongoing now in Angola since the beginning of September 2023. That's over 7 months and this was always going to be a massive operation with no expenses spared by the state-owned oil corporation. I tell you now, CRCL will be facing a massive bill for all of this drilling and testing and one thing is certain and that is that the longer this has dragged on, the bigger the costs and the bigger the bill net to Corcel.

Here's my comment: production was halted in the 1990s when the oil ran out as the well filled with water. Nothing much has changed since then - though there was one theory floating around that the field was going to mysteriously refill itself with oil right to the brim and then reflow in tens of thousands of bopd - but it looks like that was just a theory.

KON-11 well T0-14 appears to be dead -and that was always the hottest of the original 7/9 wells so that in itself is not a very promising sign.

Plus the cost of all of this drilling and testing has to come into the equation at some stage. According to the latest presentation, each well is costing $2M net to CRCL, so there is already an outstanding bill of probably around £6M that will have to be paid at some stage. How are the finances?

Besides who takes 2 months to flow test a well? The answer is no one. Sonangol haven't got a clue. Testing takes a week or two.

I'm just thinking that MAYBE one or more Institutional Investors from the USA got involved in this at an early stage when the subscription price was very cheap and the number of shares quite high and now that the company has been listed on the London market they might have decided this is not what they wanted and are quickly selling out, albeit at a very good profit nonetheless.

If so, as soon as they are gone then the rise can begin.

Maybe next week. 20p/30p is very doable and far more pre-spud.

Ignoring the current status of other Helium explorers, particularly HE1 and Noble Helium, which are both a bit stuck in the Tanzanian wilderness where they have got bogged down with rig problems and endless placings as the costs have escalated out of all proportion dragging down their valuations with it, this is a breath of fresh air in a respects.

Fully funded, drill-ready and drilling an appraisal well rather than an exploration/discovery well.

I think it is just a matter of time before this takes off.

I am perplexed. I thought that this would be moving up fast. A 'cheap' IPO pricing, small m/cap, prospect drill ready, super-experienced management team, great jurisdiction, product in fashion and highly lucrative, etc, etc, etc. All this going for it and the share price has just got stuck.

Even HE1 rose sharply on their IPO in December 2020, despite no one knowing much about Helium at the time, from an IPO placing price of 2.84p to over 8p within the first week of dealing. That took the m/cap of HE1 up from the IPO £14.2M to over £40M, where it stayed for a couple of months before rising further to 20p pre-spud for a m/cap of over £100M. The m/cap here is still a paltry £12.8M.

Come on market!! Buck up!!

The few sellers will soon disappear when they see that this is going up fast. Then it will go up even faster!

"The Konkola West Project is targeting deep down-dip and along-strike extensions of the contiguous Lubambe-Mingomba-Konkola copper deposits to the east of the Licence and which extend north into the Musoshi mining complex in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Together these deposits comprise a 15 kilometres long continuous zone of mineralisation that contained a pre-mining endowment of over 775 million tonnes grading 2-3% copper. Konkola West is located approximately 2,000 metres southwest of the Mingomba deposit, which lies between the Konkola and Lubambe mines, and currently has a resource of 250 million tons at 3.8% copper."

0.10p paid - make that 0.1032p. I think that around 0.16p/0.17p would be a good target pre-spud, which is where the share price was on the day the earn-in was announced. It could go higher though.

Then, of course, if the high-grade copper is there in abundance, where it should be, then the sky really is the limit. The m/cap is still only £2.5M - trifling - and in this scenario 1p or even 2p would easily be possible. 250M/tons of copper at 3.8% right next door!!

Maybe the only hope for this one will be in drilling KON-16 next year. At least if they hit oil it's guaranteed to still be there and not all used up like looks likely with KON-11. And CRCL are the operator so they might not take 4 months to drill a couple of wells to less than 1000 metres each and then struggle for another 3 to 4 months trying to get the oil to flow.

So much for state-owned Sonangol - they are pathetic at best.

It says that some of their drill holes are as deep as 1800m to 2000m. The earn-in with Tertiary is for a minimum of 2000m over 2 holes so I would assume that if they hit copper at depth they will continue drilling until it runs out. That could be 2 very big holes. Imagine what that would do to the share price and m/cap.

In fact, a tick-up is imminent, if not overdue, to 0.085p/0.095p as both the bid and ask are higher than the current prices.

And a very good mention.

The share price is starting to move in the right direction. 0.09p paid and I am getting quoted 0.935p to buy for 1M and 0.945p for 5M.

I'm very surprised that this hasn't kicked off by now. So many boxes are ticked: Helium exploration is huge on the AIM market, with HE1 the most traded and chatted about share on the index; they are operating in the USA, where they are drilling into a proven basin; very reasonable drill costs; experienced management who are happy to face the camera and answer questions; hugely over-subscribed IPO placing; small m/cap, etc etc.

Even Microsalt (SALT), who recently listed with a m/cap of £18.5M and an IPO placing of £3.1M and a share price of 43p (and a not-very exciting product), nearly doubled within the first 4 days and 3-bagged to £1.20p within the first 3 weeks.

This hasn't really started to move as yet which is a bit strange.

I think that one of the best of this whole host of podcasts was the one on the first day with both Bo Sears and Dave Minchin. I have included the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPBVtIHacJM

The reason I find this interesting is because they go into the figures a lot more, both for drilling and testing as well as some early ideas of how they could take a commercial discovery into production. It becomes quickly apparent that operating in the US is going to work out considerably cheaper than operating in Tanzania. It is hard to believe that so far Helium One has raised a total of £42.9M for just drilling costs and Noble Energy are not far behind with yet another discounted placing today. For a poor third-world country, Tanzania is proving to be an extremely expensive place to operate.

Anyway, drill costs in Montana are quoted as being around $2.5M (just over £2M) with a very good availability of rig choice. Coming from Dave Minchin that sounds extra special as he had more than his share of troubles over rigs in Tanzania.

More interesting though is the early and 'subject to making a commercial discovery' planned route to production. The best fast option is to build a Pressure Swing Absorption Plant, which is projected to cost between $12.5M and $15M. I seem to remember Dave Minchin proposing a similar plan for HE1 a year or so ago, though I am sure that the cost in Tanzania was projected to be about $50M, which seems to reflect the difference in costs between the US and Tanzania.

According to the podcast, such a plant could produce 55,000 mcf of compressed helium per annum, to sell at $550 per mcf with a $50 per mcf Opex cost. This will give a cash flow of around $25M before royalties and taxes and could be ready for first production by the end of 2025.

Dave Minchin adds that because of the rapid payback and high margin post appraisal, there would be various options for funding the plant (apart from an equity raise) which would include debt, leasing or pre-selling the helium. Of course, looking at the over-demand of the IPO placing raising the equity might not be much of a problem anyway.

(I can't believe that HE1 has raised £42.9M so far - that is almost the whole m/cap.)

Just got a call back from IG. They have now corrected the error. I have done a dummy trade and Stamp Duty is no longer being added to the buy price. They've said they will have to wait for the trades to settle before the refunds can be applied back on to all of the accounts affected. Cheers.

The main difference here is that HEX are talking about production from the off. They are quite confident that they will hit the Helium as this is a producing basin. With HE1 it was all about making a discovery and even that took several years.