Member Info for Benhowell459

Thanks for the positive feedback everyone. I'm not a writer, although wouldn't mind that for a living! We're all in the same boat here. Missold a dream by Colin re Bushranger and clinging to the hope that we may some day make it back to 5p and beyond. Sometimes we need a touch of levity in our lives.

My one hope here is that Colin has a plan. It may not seem evident but I'm hoping it all falls into place in the near future. As NtM has said before, he is a deal maker and he does make things happen, when he wants to! He has the income to get things moving here - we just need some drilling (preferably on nice and clean, undisputed licences!)

Agree bobbler. I don't want Santa emptying his sack anywhere near me, thank you very much.

Buying 10 shares is the Xmas equivalent of leaving half a carrot out for Rudolph. Doesn't really help but some thought did go into it.

Weird how loads of buys barely moves the dial. Ho hum, when their mates have emptied their pockets (not their sacks), maybe it will move on up. Gone are the good ol' days we would move 30-50% in a day off the back off decent buying. Genuinely feel this is being managed before T/O.

If James Norton plays Colin Bird, we'll have been successful NtM!

*Colin wakes up from his weekend slumber*

*Brushes the crumbs off his chest*

The cigar stub that lay resting gently on his creased shirt rolls slowly onto the carpet.

Colin rubs his eyes. He spots the TV, still on the Racing Channel, and remembers the afternoon's bets that went awry. He vows to keep his gambling restricted to looking for elephants in Zambia in the future. Enough gambling my own money, he mutters under his whiskey and tobacco smelling breath.

He unlocks his phone and spies a new email in the inbox. Another email from Cooper Lemon demanding action. Don't they understand the wet season in Zambia is hibernation season, he groans.

He wanders over his laptop, carefully avoiding the wine stain and crumbs of pastel de nata on the carpet. He logs in, Googles "Copper price per tonne" and curses. Colin sits back on the sofa and puts on his favourite film, The Big Short. One of these days, they'll make a film about me, he thinks to himself. The British Michael Burry who was right about copper all along. I wonder what they'll call it, he murmurs.

Colin then spends the afternoon working on Film titles. The Elephant Man. Damn, that's taken, he curses under his breath. Copper man. Damn, that's gone too. He sighs.

Just before dinner, Colin Googles "Copper licences for purchase in Zambia" That'll keep those pesky shareholders interested for another year or two. If you hold all the licences in Africa, someone will want at least one, he thinks. He smiles to himself, before ordering a vindaloo with extra poppadoms and veggie samosas.

The email from Cooper Lemon can wait until next week, he grins.

Potnak. Completely agree. Just because one pharma has said they would like extra tox studies, doesn't mean we needed to agree. Yes sir, no sir, three bags full, sir. Hopefully SP et al have not given in to one big pharma's wishes. The appearances at forums suggests we are not entirely in someone's pocket. Play the field. Say no. Hopefully SP has had a word with ex Pandion CEO Dr Rahul Kakkar. Interestingly, he is now an entrepreneur partner at Polaris Partners, which has the Polaris Innovation Fund: "Accelerating the commercial and therapeutic potential of early-stage academic research."

Interesting.

"Trying to scratch the surface of why the SP isn't moving."

It's a good question and a real head scratcher for most of us I think. In most cases, I don't think it's the companies fault. The wider AIM market is broken and the UK economy is not growing. PIs are strapped for cash and the major investors have the choice of investing in an inward-looking stagnating economy (via a seemingly unregulated and increasingly unpopular market) or elsewhere.

There's just simply less money looking to invest in AIM and the UK in general.

This means the vast majority of companies are not valued correctly. There is an extreme disconnect between what they should be worth and their share price. The only way out I see is a takeover or enough income to encourage investors via dividends etc. I won't be investing in AIM again once my current shares reach either takeover or back to where I started.

I am keeping everything crossed that we reach a takeover agreement because I have no faith that the AIM market will value any on-licence we receive correctly. Hopefully Tim, SP etc. are also of this opinion...

I would genuinely like to know what he thinks about our share price. He's mentioned our "disappointment" on the Takeaway before so he knows shareholder sentiment.

But I would genuinely like to know what he thinks are the main drivers for us being at a 5 year low. It's not about the copper price, because that has been, and remains, higher than it was 5-7 years ago.

It can't be the depressed gold price.

Could it be the consistent failings in exploration at Kalengwa, Eureka and possibly BR?

Could it be we sold our stake in a gold mind before gold reached all time highs?

Could it be signing agreements for licences which are subject to court proceedings?

Could it be such statements like "we have 2MT" and "It's massive Zac" and then end up with 1.3MT of contained copper (not actual copper)?

Could it be statements like telling Anglo to shove 10p?

Could it be statements like "We'll put a bow on it by Easter"?

Without wanting everyone to feel like Kwak, but the selection above really is a sad indictment of our last 5 years...

Laz, that's a good question and almost impossible to say where we'd be if no consolidation. Hard to say we'd be any worse off, that's for sure.

What I do know is the expected benefits did not materialise in the subsequent 2.5 years so it was pointless.

We could have saved ourselves tens of thousands in fees for the advice and implementation. Who knows, the consolidation was perhaps suggested by the same people who suggested Riverfort financing so if you dodge one, you dodge both? (And I think we all know who is probably to blame....)

You have to laugh.

" If approved by shareholders, the proposed Consolidation would reduce the number of Ordinary Shares in issue by a factor of 50 and the Board believes that this will increase the trading price of the shares and make the Company and its shares more attractive to a broader range of investors."

From the RNS in Feb 2022.

As a reminder, we stand at 0.5p in old money. I want to know who mis sold the BOD such a bizarre idea.

"If YoU cHANgE tHe nUMBers, peopLE wILL tHInk we'RE DoiNG bETter."

Yes, quite.

Gwyn, it's not that clear. That's the point.

Xtract has made no commitment to provide any funding itself to the Project pursuant to the Agreement. Furthermore, Xtract has made no representation or commitment that it will be able to obtain funding for the Project. Any funds provided to Chilibwe by Xtract or spent on the project by Xtract ("Xtract Loan") can at Xtract's election be converted into shares in Chilibwe based on the funds provided by Xtract and by Chilibwe ("Loan Conversion Shares").

We aren't paying for the exploration, but we are providing a loan which can be turned into shares. There is no information about how much of a loan we are providing or how much these shares are currently or will be worth in the future.

The lack of clarity continues.

Just listening to that podcast back. Phil introduced Chilibwe with "...to secure funding".

Turns out securing funding is just pay it for them and hope they pay it back.

It's a murky web in Zambia and Cooper Lemon seem to be wielding quite a bit of power. Colin doesn't sound like he is in control of proceedings, including the timeline.

Great news. We start drilling less than a week.

Bit weird we're drilling the disputed licence though.

Can we do our one as well while you're at it Colin?

Ouch they're down 78% in a year. Sounds familiar. Hopefully it's not Boundless!

No wonder companies are leaving AIM and/or not interested in being on the market. As we have seen time and time again, the share price gets dragged down when there is no news and there is little action.

I think we can all agree that if there was the same amount of buying and selling on consecutive days, the MMs might allow it to rise 10% but the drop would be 20%. This inconsistency is all part and parcel of allowing the MMs et al to make money and some will wheel out the old adage of forming an orderly market (snore).

If we take a massive step back here though and consider what the point of AIM was for a second. Surely it would be a benefit to the UK to have a whole swathe of new small and medium sized companies receiving investment and then going on to succeed, bringing jobs and taxes etc. to the country.

If we use Sareum's old share price for a second as an example - if we keep on having to raise at a lower price due to MMs constantly dragging it down on no news/slow market activity and uneven rise/drops as mentioned before, then these companies find it harder and harder to raise money.

Therefore, the way MMs are operating and AIM as a whole is not helping smaller companies. No wonder AIM is in the doldrums. It needs a massive overhaul, one which I expect won't happen as money talks. There's no one sensible enough to a) see it happen and b) care about it enough and c) Make it known to those in power.

It's a shame as supporting our small and medium sized businesses as they start up is not a bad idea to boost the economy..

I guess this is the issue. High risk, high reward. Gold was a definite. There is gold in them hills. People understood the ask and the ambition.

Rupert and the team going about REE exploration the other way round means we know it works in the lab and in theory. We have no way of knowing if it will work in practice out in the field. If it does, the scale here is enormous and as Rupert says, extraction/production is in the bottom quartile --> happy days for anyone holding.

Should there be some unforeseen snag like the geology not being as expected or the acidic solution not having the same effect out in the field, this won't go anywhere.

The interesting thing here is there's no expectation built into the share price. We're effectively at rock bottom at £9m MC - the numbers here are absolutely staggering IF Rupert can prove any type of feasibility and explain in layman's terms a route to commercialisation. I appreciate he has a lot of knowledge, but he's yet to explain (he doesn't know for sure) in basic terms how and when this will benefit shareholders. When that happens, all bets are off..

Doesn't matter if copper is at 20k USD if Colin sits around watching the horses.

In July this was said by CB in an RNS:

"Our work on the NW Zambia exploration licences has been very progressive to the point that we have identified initial drill targets which we expect to commence drilling before the end of the third quarter this year."

Permissions were gained and drill targets identified. Why have we not started drilling yet? We never get straight answers and it's always jam tomorrow with Colin. It's like Waiting for Godot round here.

The usual method is to offer options upon a takeover or acquisition. Pretty sure that's how he'll benefit. Will be interesting if and when that gets awarded in the next year or two...

Interesting figures Lordcgaos. The main barrier to getting projects off the ground in the mining world is steep capex and poor NPV. I do wonder what figures we are talking when Rupert says it's the bottom quartile for costs. Presumably this would positively impact the overall NPV. I sincerely doubt we are going to spend tens of millions on Capex. The idea I would assume is to prove a resource and sell on...

It will be great to get more detail on the size of the resource. I would guess this is the only thing preventing a herd arriving here. Everything sounds excellent this far - we just need to know scale and feasibility

Thanks nighteye - had planned to watch his last couple media appearances / presentations. Need to find time to make some notes!

Thanks for thoughts and contributions today. I must say having moved over from gold (pretty understandable process) to REE, it's all over my head.

A mine worth XYZ was mentioned today. As I understand it, a mine in the "conventional sense" is not even required. Does anyone know what kind of infrastructure is needed? How long might that take? Today's RNS makes it clear you just pump out the solution containing REEs...sounds pretty simple. Need some sort of processing facilities though?