Member Info for Benhowell459

More random elephant hunting without actually getting the binoculars out and doing the hunting.

Months and months have passed since we were drill ready in Zambia, but nothing actually happened.

I look forward to hearing in 2029 that Wild stone have been mothballed and we will be at 0.0003p per share.

Colin, meanwhile, will be sucking on his pino colada in Dubai and enjoying his daily flutter on the 'orses.

No one wants this, Colin. Just do some fu****** exploring. As an explorer, I would have thought that is page 1 of our strategy!!!!

Agree with all of the above.

In order to attract investors, we all need to agree to take a leaf out of Zap and OSV's books and write lots of positive things like

What a big 'ole

This will fly

Copper is going to the moon

I wouldn't take 10p (it hurts even writing that!)

Just then, and only then, might we all get our money back. (5p average - I feel you Monty)

I still feel there is potential here, in both BR and Zambia. We just need clarity and purpose (drive to get a bloomin' move on) Currently we have.....neither.

It really is an absolute travesty, bordering on criminal that potentially life saving drugs are stymied in their progress. Chk1 in combination therapy has huge potential and it has been written about many many times. Large pharma ultimately don't exist to cure people, they exist to make money from patients. Unfortunately this is the murky world that we live in.

Just on the point of 737 for a second, I don't think it will add much at all to conversations re a buyout. However, selling our stake in it for 5-10m GBP (lower level much more likely, or less if you're pessimistic) would enable us to avoid a placement at such depressed levels (reducing dilution) and give us much more more bargaining power when negotiating 1801.

I don't do this often but to quote Trump:

"They (Big pharma) hold all the cards"

(We're running out of cash and raising at this level would be catastrophic).

Agree Jackbal. They signed the contract. If they cant fulfil their part of the bargain, we'll take it back, as per the contract.

"We have concluded discussions with the Buyers around their concerns with the pressure the future payment schedule would present to their current operations."

Why are revisiting the negotiating table? The agreement was made. If it's unfavorable to them, they should have signed. As others have said, when it's unfavorable to us, we lump it and when it's good for us, we roll over and allow others to walk all over us.

Also (as others have said), CAN WE PLEASE FIND OUT HOW MUCH HAS BEEN LENT FOR DRILLING (WE GAVE A RIGHT!) AND PLEASE FIND OUT HOW THAT DRILLING HAS GONE (11-12 WEEKS LATER!!!)

The man's a waste of space and only in it for himself.

Agree with the below. The BOD has been woeful as PR and marketing our products. There was someone hired to do this but they seem to have done f*** all.

We are somewhat in a catch 22. Due to the broken AIM market, I genuinely think we won't get true value recognition until we confirm a buy out. The investors aren't interested. They need guarantees. However we also won't get true value recognition (in the form of a buy out) until our share price is at a much more elevated level. 200+. (Old 4p - not too much to ask imho).

How do we get to 200? (A ten bagger from here!). Consistent, regular, positive news over the course of 6 weeks confirming our positive P1 trial, interest in our products, confirmed negotiations, a confirmed timeline for shareholder creation and a sustained effort to advertise both our products and potential for buyout. There cannot be any more faffing around discussing possible phase 2 trials. It's taken 2 years to get phase 1 done and (still waiting for) it to be published. If investors think we'll go down that route or on-licence, how can we convince them we won't have another Sierra on our hands?

Tim and John have been here 20 years (and many on here aren't too far shy of that). This needs to be bought out. And it's needs to be this year. Make it happen.

For such a tiny tiny royalty, Empress sure had the ability to communicate. I do remember getting much of our information from Empress interviews which is quite frankly embarrassing.

That we started off with the licence and then ended up the impotent junior partner speaks volumes about Colin's negotiating skills. He should be ashamed of himself. God knows how he fluked 250m USD for Kalumbila. He'd probably have accepted 100m.

Can't argue with any of Jackbal's post an hour or two ago. Hits the nail on the head. I am also a gambler but won't plough anymore into Colin's companies - the man has zero credibility now. No one believes a word he says and quite rightly.

From gold miner, to copper explore to scrabbling around in the waste material just about sums up our journey. Lack of news and a complete disregard for keeping us informed. He quite honestly couldn't give a sh**.

One last point I want to make in reply to NtM:

"Sentiment can change quickly enough: I've seen doggy go puppy... to doggy... to puppy etc..ad infinitum in the AIM game".

Ordinarily I would agree. However the AIM market is now utterly broken and about as attractive for investors as a Colin Bird appreciation society would be to us. Yes, companies have been on their own journeys and bounced back, but it was not at a time when companies are leaving the UK and AIM on such a scale...

What is that based on Ben if I may ask?

Good question zap. It's not based on anything, other than just judging by the evidence of Colin's previous exploits. We are trusting Colin with this dumps material endeavour and I would much rather go in with much lower expectations.

Manica took years to get off the ground and then we weren't in control. In fact we have no idea if we were paid fairly because we had to trust MMP's cost figures.

Colin has a knack for giving it the big 'un but ultimately falling well short of expectations.

Hence I'd rather expect 0.25%, if the project even gets off the ground. Anything on top is a bonus imo.

just some back of the *** packet maths.

xtr have paid $300000 for some tailings @ $1.15 per tonne. that's 261000 tonnes.

if there is 1% copper, that's 2,600 tonnes of copper.

if 0.5% copper, that's 1,300 tonnes of copper.

if 0.25% copper, that's 650 tonnes of copper.

at 9,500 usd per tonne that gives a value of:

1% = 24.7m usd

0.5% = 12.3m usd

0.25% = just over 6m usd.

that completely ignores costs, which won't be minimal. i'd also argue the likelihood of it containing more than 0.25% average is minimal.

so we've done some research, spent 300k of our hard earned for the possibility, some way down the line (if colin can be trusted to deliver lol) of 3-6m (us dollars).

that's not an elephant. it's a cat, hiding in a haystack, yawning because it will take months for him to be found...

Literally dealing in other people's waste.

Beggars belief.

No acknowledgement of the drilling that supposedly started 90 days ago.

He thinks we're mugs. (And I am one to have believed him to be truthful - it's a big one Zac, etc etc.)

Sigh.

I really do respect your positivity HZ, but it just feels so unjustified.

These licences may well be highly prospective. But we aren't doing anything! It was 6 MONTHS yesterday that Colin said this:

"we have identified initial drill targets which we expect to commence drilling before the end of the third quarter this year"

Since then, absolutely NOTHING. Do you recognise we have done nothing in 6 months?

Activity in Zambia dates back to August 2023 with this statement:

"Earn-in and Phase 1 exploration budget: Xtract will earn a 65% interest in the joint venture by funding exploration expenditure over an initial two-year period ("Phase 1") on the Licences of not less than US$2 million. Exploration is expected to commence in September 2023"

Still no drilling 17 months later? What the actual f***? I could have dug deeper with a trowel than these idiots in 17 months.

"CB should be trusted in weighing up the risks in making these kind of deals"

Do you agree that his track record across all of his companies since FQ and Kalumbila is woeful?

Eureka, Kalengwa shelved. Kakuyu unheard of. Bushranger over promising and under delivering.

"I'd tell them where to shove 10p." 10p is a 20-bagger from here.

Colin is full of sh** and he needs to be held to account.

"If you zoom in carefully you can clearly vehicles and outbuildings (shacks) + the pits appear to be spread far and wide, I would suggest the artisan miners are well organised."

Interesting thoughts.

Couple of questions:

- Are we able to drill around their activity or would we need security in place?

- How deep are artisanal miners able to go? If they're quite organised I'm thinking maybe 5-10m deep? Are we missing out on possible revenue here or is most of the big stuff > 20m deep?

Any thoughts on the above much appreciated. Thanks!

NtM, thanks for posting the payment schedule again. Good to be reminded of key milestones and possible change to payment total etc.

I'm having one of those days so may come across a little frustrated (Xtr is not a topic to lower one's blood pressure though!)

My question is:

- If we know the money will take time to accumulate, why do we say Drill targets are ready? That implies we are about to drill!

- Why is there absolutely no roadmap published for drilling and/or other activity?

- Why do we never, ever succeed in hitting forward looking statements?

- Why do we not know how much of the Manica money is being diverted to Chilbwe?

- Why has there been no news since the 'drilling commences imminently' RNS 11 weeks ago?

Gobsmacking that a multi million pound company treats its stakeholders so poorly.

Cardo, I would imagine they had to drill the licence to meet the requirements to extend it.

No news on the drilling or the licence extension as of yet.

We are being kept in the dark more than the North Koreans, and at least they get to see the stars.

You can't drill much with hot air Michu!

Tbh we haven't even had much of that lately.

Notice of drilling 11 (!) weeks ago. The drill must have broken down or been stolen.

Couldn't possibly be any other reason for the news blackout...

Results of an external pre concentration study at BR 15 weeks ago. (So nothing actually done by Colin)

This quote by Colin SEVEN (vidiprinter style) months ago.

"...we have identified initial drill targets which we expect to commence drilling before the end of the third quarter this year." [In relation to Western Foreland licences]

So another missed milestone.

He's basically done nothing apart from give money to a company holding a dodgy contested licence since H1 2024.

It's an absolute disgrace. Please excuse the following tirade

I don't give a flying f*** what potential there is in Zambia. It means absolutely diddly squat if Colin does nothing about it (as evidenced by the last 6 months).

There are absolutely no excuses for the lack of activity, lack of drilling and lack of PR/news.

I would imagine we have spent 500k on drilling.

We could recoup via Shares in Chilibwe.

But...

What's 25% of nothing?

Aber, if we read between the lines, the main reason they pivoted from P1b to longer term tox studies is because of potential partner / buyer input.

Why change their minds so suddenly after being so confident about getting 1801 into psoriasis patients before the end of 2024?

Imo they are in close contact with at least one large pharma (it blooming better be more than one so eggs are in not in one basket!). The more discussions the better. One day, hopefully soon, an executive will say "OK, enough's enough - you're getting too close to being proven safe for long term use. We'll take our chances."

Many will say that won't happen before the end of impending tox but we have seen several junior pharma taken out in phase 1, IE. BEFORE where we are now. It has happened before and it will definitely happen again!

We just need astute negotiators, a good couple of contacts and a bit of luck to get there.

Agree Jez.

There has not been enough exploration undertaken by this (funded) exploration company.

No justification for his pay rise. No justification for the delays. No justification for not updating us about the drilling which started 7 weeks ago(?) - surely finished by now. No justification for him not buying (closed period).

The only thing I can justify is the share price due to all of the above!

Forgot to add - I sincerely hope that Parker et al are astute enough to court more than one partner and have not gone down a path which will reduce interest or tie us up (NDA etc. related implications)

Time will tell (unfortunately a fair amount of time)...

Can't argue with that Shepster.

They've never been great about communicating progress against milestones. (Phase 1b by the end of 2024 anyone?)

I would argue in terms of science there is quite a lot to be done in prepping 1801 for this P2 readiness trial.

I don't think Tim needs to be replaced. If they bring anyone else in, they have to a) learn the ropes at a critical time b) get to know our major stakeholders (which takes time) c) receive options which dilutes everyone else D) take a rather substantial salary which drains the coffers. (Autocorrect said drain the coffee - possibly that too!)

Frustrating wait I agree though and there is no evidence right now that they have learned any lessons from 737, PH etc. but the fact we have not agreed an on-licence just yet signals to me that we are not accepting offers of peanuts.