Member Info for bandit1

I would also be keen to read the agreement if it is publicly available. The 19.9% figure is due to the Canadian jurisdiction ( UK takeover code 29.9%) which is the max holding before a mandatory offer needs to be made. If the September 2023 stand still figure is in the 2018 agreement and must remain in the new JV agreement then I would hope that Brad and our Chairman are able to protect us all and force MM’s hand. In other words if they try to string us along for months, I would suggest that the JV should be shelved and we look for other partners. I am sure there will be some miners already in Colombia who may like to partner with us despite the current challenges. We are priced for worst case which is that we allow MM to do nothing or say nothing for months and we simply wither on the vine. Our BOD must be acutely aware that this must not be allowed to happen or we all lose.

Yes and as we all know, this is what happens when you fail to deliver time and time again. Options are to sell now believing that this deal won’t happen and preserve capital or to stay invested in the vain hope that OF can get this over the line at some point next year without being sued by creditors. Some retail investors have had clearly enough but the drop, as always, is much harder than you would expect given the relatively modest volume we have seen today. Bottom line is that there are almost no buyers out there - why would you? Perhaps Toscafund will lend the company a few million bucks if they are confident that the deal will be done!

The positive here is that the Board are keeping shareholders updated, despite delays on all fronts. The negative is that this is clearly squeezing cash flow in a major way,. It does seem that by switching financing provider to use another source which we now learn may invest in SLE has piled on even more pressure but one can only assume this will be worthwhile. I do hope this will be all be worth the wait in the end but wonder if we will have any small shareholders left by the time these transactions eventually conclude.

Having invested in JLP in 2018 I sold out in 2020 as I lost faith in Colin Bird as a result of his behaviour with other companies although I did think that Leon was a promising new CEO. I kept JLP on my watchlist and read all the RNS’s and with Bird out of the way I was keen to reinvest. The warrants are always a sore point but small AIM companies sadly have little choice but to offer as sweeteners when raising cash when they are not generating much revenue.

So, a good update today and more historic warrants out of the way. They could have been forward sold for all we know or the warrant holder may decide to hang onto some of all. Regardless, like so many in the sector there are better times ahead. With management changes at the top team and an endless stock of tailings to process at Sabre the future looks promising. The market will eventually catch up if not in 2023 when global economic conditions become more favourable. I have bought some today and will continue over the coming months and look forward to seeing the company develop.

Dip666’s post @ 8.21am has nailed it as far as I am concerned. Our SD is showing great promise with an acute strategic mind, deep awareness of shareholder engagement and a sharp financial brain making him an ideal CEO for GGP at this stage in our development. The NCM BOD will be looking at CEO’s of other miners who have a proven track record of creating shareholder value over multi-asset, multi-jurisdictions. Perhaps a CFO from a major who has proved themselves over a number of years and is ready to step up. IMO our SD has a few years here to deliver on his 3 pillars and to create shareholder value as a CEO before he would be considered worthy as a candidate. What is much more interesting to me is how a new CEO for NCM will view the opportunity to take over one of the worlds biggest gold miners which has struggled of late relative to peers. His interviews for the position will challenge him for his own vision for NCM should he take over the role. I am also curious if it was their SD, now interim CEO who was the one who pushed for NCM to walk away from the extra 5% option due to ‘ not hitting their internal hurdle rate ‘. Will she wish to align herself more closely with us in the short term or not? Will she wish to shout about Havieron now that SB has gone? Who knows, but I am in the camp that this ‘ early retirement’ makes NCM ripe for a takeover now. Nobody knows how this would impact us of course but there will be Investment Banks and other miners who will be very attracted to NCM’s assets and Havieron in particular as well as our tenements nearby so I expect that 2023 will be full of surprises, hopefully allowing us to see some of the true value we appear to have underground recognised more realistically through our share price.

I understand that Sandy Adams has been a big supporter of the SNP over the years. Perhaps that support will ease going forward as she will always make decisions which help her politically which is why she is so dangerous as a politician who is typically self-serving. Hope we can wave goodbye to her soon. This is a good buy at 75p as it will return to double these levels and beyond when inflation is brought back under control and interest rates follow them down. Housing will continue to be an important sector to attract investment when the current economic problems are behind us. With more people coming into this country than leave year upon year we will always be on the back foot in satisfying demand. Buy and hold for a couple of years as this is the time to cherry pick bargains in my view. Land bank is just too strong to overlook the upside here.

Sadly, I am not in a position to attend this evenings TH meeting. I have sent in a number of questions which Shaun may or may not be able to answer. One thing that slightly puzzles me is his comments at the AGM yesterday showing apparent concern about being taken our cheaply. Whilst I know from my own market experience that there has been prolonged and consistent price suppression whether by shorting or DMA activity there is still a very large retail base here many of whom are well informed and activity engaged on different platforms. This means that an unwelcome offer ( low-ball) will be very difficult to succeed without having commitments from large shareholders many of whom have only recently invested. So, from where I sit any hostile offer would have to be very attractive for retail shareholders to accept with the backing of our Board. Shaun knows the substantial retail base provides some protection along with Wyloo and TriBeca so why should he be concerned? Anyone care to provide any thoughts given the shape of our share register?

I don’t think there will be many on here who would honestly criticise SD for the decisions he has taken over the last year. We don’t know what would have happened if he did not commission his own MRE and NCM bought the 5% option for a song. The share price could have been even lower still. We don’t know a lot of what has been going on behind the scenes and I am not sure that our team are getting along that well with NCM given the stunts that they have pulled. One thing I am sure about however is it that SD is a consummate professional and he would not be publicly critical of SB/NCM whatever he thinks of them in private, as we have to rely upon them greatly and they are partners at Juri as well as Havieron so we have to find a way to work effectively together regardless of their apparent attempts to outfox us. Some will say with a smile, that’s business, others will say it is devious attempt to buy assets on the cheap using underhand tactics and with a JV partner to boot is a non-starter. It is what it is and they failed so we press ahead having sent a strong message to SB.
The introduction of new investors at a low share price coupled with a tough economic backdrop has killed any share price momentum. Unfortunately for those of us who are invested at a higher share price, this is somewhat painful on paper as the optimism which should come with the arrival such a top team of high achievers has not really transpired. SD will be acutely aware of this but should not be surprised as we did not have the luxury of expecting institutions to simply buy in the market and watch the share price rise on the back of volume. Sadly, for most explorers that is not what usually happens.
When I reflect on my investment which is circa 50% down on average buy-in, I console myself by looking at the potential free cash flow from the brokers reports that our 30% of Hav will give us when we get to full production. It is very significant indeed and on industry average multiples our market value should be 3 or 4 times higher than we see today . This ignores, Juri or any successes on our 100% owned assets and ignores new opportunities that our rock star board members may introduce to us. They are here to make a killing evidenced by the incentive packages let there be no doubt about that. They are free agents who could probably pick and choose their next position but they chosen GGP. It is sometimes difficult to see beyond the daily dips and somewhat suspicious late trades which often pull us down again but either you do so, or sell at a loss, in my case a rather big one.
Patience is underrated especially on AIM but when you observe the steps taken over the last year it is difficult to pick fault with SD. Let’s be honest, to date he has not delivered any shareholder value and he is on the hook for that. If we reach the ore body broadly on timescales and start production without any major hiccups I am confident that ceteris paribus we will be rewarded for our patie

Without having the benefit of the exploration agreement to interrogate we are always speculating as to what our options look like. Should Agnico continue to play hard ball I wonder if there is an option to renegotiate solely with Newmont. Is this practical or do we have to rely on Agnico’s boots on the ground? We have not yet handed over effective control to our 2 major partners hence we have some leverage as Brad articulated today. We don’t have the capital resources to drill on our own but perhaps we could we seek out other partners should Agnico prove to be too difficult in negotiations. I suspect that Agnico may be well connected politically so may be a non-starter but our BOD need to step up to the plate otherwise we all lose out in the short term.

Bhargav - you were quite correct to infer that you illicit more information at AGM’s if you are there in person and particularly if you are the only attendee. Management are more guarded on these webinars for obvious reasons as they have no idea who is listening in! The presentation and content this am was unchanged from prior presentations although they did confirm that Agnico are trying to move the goalposts in their own favour of course and I agree with Brad that they must push back. Until this is resolved, the challenge we have, and for the performance of the share price is that in stopping drilling ( and with no timescales on the crystallisation of the Phase 2 JV) and when there is very little to say about any of the other projects, we are in a vacuum and the market always reacts accordingly. Traders will trade and will know that few new investors will climb onboard until this JV is resolved so few buyers mean that the market makers will push us down. Let’s hope that in early 2023 they can announce a positive way forward to bring OMI shareholders something to feel positive about. In the meantime it is time to focus on other companies.

Bhargav, many thanks for attending the AGM and for the feedback. As someone else mentioned this morning, I also live in the far north of Scotland so it is not simply a question for me of jumping on a tube/Uber to attend the meeting which I would certainly do, if possible, just to vent my frustration in person. Something is seriously wrong with company law such that retail shareholders ( outside of Canada or indeed inside of Canada) appear unable to register a bone fide vote against an underperforming director. I emailed the company about this earlier in the week without a reply. Brad must think that everyone is entirely happy with his performance which is probably why he bumbles along as he does. Part of me hopes that that the JV is taking forever to finalise as our management are simply not prepared to accept the terms of the new JV presented in which our minority interest puts us in a very weak position making it difficult to do or indeed communicate anything going forward which does not suit our partners agenda. As many here will know from past experience, majors will often and without compunction, ‘bully’ small explorers into submission without blinking an eye. It often suits them that their junior partners’ market cap remains low and why would they do anything to help us improve it if they can take us out for pocket change in the future? That is why we need a robust agreement in place providing us with full transparency and an ability at the very least to update OMI shareholders regularly and timeously. The disappointing RNS today on the day of the AGM is a little perplexing to me. Why hold onto drilling results, against best practice corporate governance, which were not particularly positive, to release a few hours before an AGM? He should have released these when they were made available but was he only provided with these yesterday along with the decision to pause drilling? Coincidence or planned, I guess that we will never know but this is typical of poor comms which creates doubt and suspicion. Appears as though we now just have to sit and wait for news on the JV and/or the markets to begin to attract money back into risk assets. Glad to see the end of 2022…….

Yes the market is punishing OMI as there was a lot of hope for this set of drill results such is the paucity of information. Lack of confidence in management doesn’t’t help here as many have said. In the RNS of 9th September our Chairman said ….” MMA has committed to making the Phase 2 payment of USD$2m to the company no later than January 2023.” So, I wonder if ‘committed’ in this context means a signed letter of intent with a date inserted of “no later than say 10h January. If so, we need this to be clarified as the RNS today suggests that the JV could be months away. I suspect that ‘committed’ may have simply been a verbal statement allowing it to be changed at will. Market cap at this level allows us to be acquired for small change which I suspect is what will eventually happen. This is the risk when you have management who are out of their depth.

Total volume peanuts but yet another failure to hit deadlines will be hammered by market makers every time and oh yes it has. No doubt Alaric et al will point to a complex set of transactions, this is Africa and indeed Nigeria no less, our pay day will come in spades just be patient etc but SLE is notorious for failing to deliver anything on time. Pray that they don’t go into the Pizza business as they won’t last long. And yes, I have a decent holding here which I have patiently held for many years but this is becoming a joke. An opportunity for our giant shareholder to sweep up even more now and move ever closer to 90%. No more.

Yes Jackbal as I have said many times we have a ho hum CEO who is a Geo who doesn’t seem to realise what a CEO is supposed to do. Just to remind folks here that you do not have to attend an AGM in person to voice your displeasure, just make sure to take the trouble to vote and ensure that your nominee will actually do so! I voted against Brad’s re-election last year but almost no-one else appeared to do so. Our pay day will hopefully come despite a lackluster management team. Will they optimise the opportunity, doubtful as I do not believe
that they have the skills ( minimal evidence to date) and the majors will probably run rings around them as they often do with junior partners. I do still believe however that our modest market cap has considerable upside despite the negatives so will hang on for a little bit longer, but it is a tough hold for me atm.

Well I will certainly be submitting a number of questions ahead of this meeting. Normal tactics for AIM companies is to provide ‘sweetener RNS’s’ ahead of the meeting to ensure that shareholders vote for all resolutions including re-election of directors. Not sure if Brad ‘ above my pay grade’ George will be up again ( perhaps every 2 years) but I will vote my wedge against him once again. Too many retail shareholders are inert when it comes to voting. I spent a lot of my business life attending AGM’s and there is a world of difference between the behaviour of institutions at these meetings probably as RI’s think their relatively small holdings will not move the dial. It is that which allows poor performing directors to continue to perform poorly and award themselves rich option packages. Perhaps a South American based, Spanish-speaking geologist would serve us better. The attractiveness of the Colombian assets will be of interest to a capable individual with experience of the topography of this part of the world with awareness of regular, apposite communication and the importance of leading and promoting as a CEO with a view to attracting investors.

Well this was a pretty pointless interview IMO not helped by an inexperienced interviewer. Perhaps she could have asked when the new JV will be finalised allowing the company to receive $2m and why is it taking so long to finalise when it is clear to all and sundry that it will proceed? How will the relationship with our major partners change with the new JV given that our interest will drop to 49%? How about giving us some info on how the JV committee will operate and who will sit on it? Do we any plans to pursue other projects with our healthy cash balance? What more can be done to attract new investors into OMI on the back of spectacular drill results? I could go on but aren’t interviews supposed to be an opportunity to create new investor interest, clarity on outstanding issues, strategic insights etc etc? I continue to listen to Brad with an overwhelming feeling that he is like a consultant, one step removed from what is going on in his business and waiting for some crumbs rather than sticking out his elbows and driving our agenda. Perhaps I should only invest in £400m + market caps which have higher quality executives? I will bear that in mind going forward! At least it seems that our CEO is aware that his 2 vanity projects are not exactly revered by retail investors so let’s not waste too much money until we are further advanced on our Colombian prospects. I will resist from posting for a while as, like this interview there is very of substance to speak about on here. Oh and why would I make a 1000mile round trip to an AGM to hear what we have heard today?

NN - at the last AGM I voted against Brad ‘ above my pay grade’ George as his statutory re-election came round. Most voted for him, sadly. He is an average Geo IMO who has recently committed the company to 2 vanity projects in Brazil and Argentina so that the $5m in the Bank gets a decent workout as he jets to and fro collecting airmiles. I suppose in his eyes it will give him something to do as our partners spend $20m over coming years as they ramp up the drill bit. What else would he do? He has little in the way of capability ( it would seem) to force Monte Aguila to get on and formalise the new JV asap. Let’s hope that it is taking time due to his insistence that the new JV agreement will allow us proper and timely access to all drill data in good time and will not impose handcuffs on us as we communicate the increasing value of the assets underground. My biggest fear is that OMI are being played and that we will be acquired cheaply without much of a fight by our directors. This may appear harsh but after watching and listening to our CEO over the last 3 years I can see why our market cap remains so low as we are simply not credible enough for bigger investment flows in here despite the terrific prospects. And so we wait……

JohnB - I tend to agree. Brad ‘above my pay grade’ George is a CEO by name only. His behaviour typifies that of many on AIM. He is a geologist, and no doubt skilled in that discipline, but sadly lacking in the other crucial skills that a proper CEO should exhibit. I invested a couple of years ago, like so many, due the the presence of 2 majors and an attractive series of prospects and the recent results continue to support this. Whilst he has some challenges in ensuring that he does not upset the majors, he appears to be ultra subservient and that leaves us floundering about waiting for them to decide when they plan to complete the documentation or release drill results etc. I have no pressing need for cash so will continue to wait for the majors to throw us some crumbs and allow this to reflect in a re-rating but it is more than a little frustrating. Best outcome is to sellout to one of our partners at the right time and let experienced management teams monetise the asset.

Pleased to read this RNS today and I sincerely hope that Brad knows that he needs to up his game in terms of communication. The next stage of negotiations will be key for me in determining whether Brad has what it takes to lead OMI as it grows. As those with experience of JV’s with a minority interest it is critical to use leverage at this point whilst we still own 100% to negotiate a structure to ensure that we have access to all information at the same time perhaps through monthly JV committee meetings and an understanding and agreement that we, as a junior partner are able to inform OMI shareholders of progress updates on a regular basis. If he fails to do this we will be at the mercy of speculation and uncertainty which could weaken our share price etc. So, over to you Brad, don’t let us down and time for you to show that you have the minerals.

Newmont and Agnico would prefer that this wasn’t ‘out there’ for many reasons - yes to avoid artisanal miners illegally mining but perhaps also to avoid the interest of other big boys who may want a cheap entry into this highly prospective part of the world. We all know that the majors are very adept at snapping up very attractive prospects for a song and have no desire to see their JV partners share price and market cap rise as they may want it all in the fullness of time for peanuts. Brad needs to negotiate harder at this point whilst he has leverage to ensure that he is in a stronger position than he has been hitherto. A good day and more to come I am sure. I feel a little nervous about the experience of our CEO so hope he has employed very experienced advisers to hold our partners to account.