Member Info for Castaway

Fantasy - the problem is we cannot wait the opportunities in ROm/Zim will have gone by next year - Remin, diamonds gold mines etc. We need the cash now - you have to speculate to accumulate and it will not wait - we need DD on new assets now and that costs as AP mentioned recently.

jeffa - many companies on AIM are "vulnerable" then - most place (and much larger ones than VAST), that is not the main reason why the s/p is this low, there are many AIM companies that make nil revenues and have huge s/p's IMO it is to do with previously poor fund raising by management i.e. convertible LN's/death spirals and no BP licence, which has lead to a hangover of poor sentiment. Plus lots of other stuff!

I agree when we make decent profits it will help, but so will prudent fund raising (or none) as AP has tried to bring in during his tenure, he hates placings, but I feel we are about to get one.

From my (fairly) long experience of AIM and placings, the writing is on the wall.
I agree AP would have preferred a smaller placing at a penny plus but I feel the BoD feels we need a cash buffer for prudent management purposes.
The difference will not be that much in dilution terms max 400 mil hopefully a bit less, so max 7% ish.
OK our shs reduce in value by 7% but the company is able to use those funds to buy the excavators and get BPPM running - together they should generate $20 mil+ per annum revenues when working at projected capacity and with the new excavators at manaila probably more.
So we have 400 mil dilution now for revenues of $20 mil starting in say 6 months.
If this funding is delayed so is BP and the profitability of Manaila.
The extra 6 months the licence took has meant this has to happen.
AIM co's always seem to place before a big rise, it has to come at some point and reluctantly I agree with Lee, we have no choice with it being announced or it will hold us back.

Thanks toomuch - This has been made very clearly by RNS - so ?
There is a possible placing, the CEO stated on podcasts recently he is not happy about it right now - this company is odds on favorite to have an s/p of 2p+ soon - the fact we are not at 1p now is cos the BoD announced a potential placing.

I.E. - it's priced in!

woodaldo - the problem is the size was never surveyed with any accuracy before they disappeared, it is possible they could have been the largest - no one will know now as according to Mugabe $15Bn's worth "went missing".

Most of the diamonds have been picked up they were in soft ground and only a few metres deep, the rest will be harder to mine and will cost more to extract, there are large spoil heaps that could be processed though as most of the smaller diamonds probably got left in the waste.

Before the carnage took place you could apparently just pick up diamonds of several carats lying on the floor.

As I mentioned if anyone can find the source then potentially it could be huge, if we get the licence, together with the help of James Campbell and his team at BOD and our combined exploration data we may well find it.

I should think there are still many $100's of millions worth of alluvial diamonds, but there is also potential for large discoveries around Marange and other areas of Zim.

They are Degsy - if we got even 10% it would add many pence to the s/p - but let's not get too excited they are still a long shot.
However they are much closer now than at any time in the last 10 years IMO.

Degsy - again you are not quite correct - they were the largest alluvial discovery in the last 100 years, but I doubt the largest overall. Most of the "easy" diamonds just lying around on the surface have been taken but there will be plenty to go at and if the diamondiferous pipes can be found where the alluvials originate from it could be a huge resource. That is why we need the expertise of BOD (JV partner) to find and exploit these diamonds in the "hard rock".
There are also potentially large resources elsewhere in Zim hence the formation of the SPV is planned.

RNS http://www.lse.co.uk/share-regulatory-news.asp?shareprice=VAST&ArticleCode=qkzjdao8&ArticleHeadline=Memorandum_of_Understanding_for_Exploitation_of_Diamonds_in_Zimbabwe

For all the history got to the VAST website and read the RNS

angus I think they need to do a bit more drilling to get a JORC estimate and then they can start on it probably when Eureka is sorted

No Ronnny it's done ANRM is a formality - they are controlled by the minister and have signed off several licences for VAST already - Faneata, the two at Zagra, Manaila extension....

Over the past year PP has produced 21,158 ounces, so 661 kg. Once the sulphide ore is processed I believe this may double over time, as the plant can process more ore and the sulphide is of higher grade ore.

The thing with Eureka (and PP) is that they have not been fully explored and will end up being much larger IMO.

Also lets not forget Giant (as big as PP probably) and the Eureka mine comes with two other prospects. See link below:

"Eureka Gold Mine also has two blocks of claims referred to as Njakapapo and Mepeta Hills that is 30 km from the mine"

I asked AP about these claims, they came with Delta gold as we bought the company as a whole.

In a few years we could have 23.75% of many gold mines and maybe a larger % of a few others!

http://www.mmakaumining.co.za/gold.htm

Degsy not sure who posted that, but it's total ******!

Eureka is designed to produce 70,000 ounces per annum at 32 troy ounces per kg that is around 2.1 metric tonnes.

With an open pit mine (like PP) we should get all in costs of maybe $900 per ounce, so with gold price of $1250 an ounce the aine makes $350 an ounce so about $25 mil VAST has 23.75% so we would get around $5.9 mil or £4.25 mil, which is a significant income.

Production will probably exceed 70k/ounces when the mine is fully sorted but not by more than say 50%

See RNS for details:

http://www.lse.co.uk/share-regulatory-news.asp?shareprice=VAST&ArticleCode=j23wr6xg&ArticleHeadline=Acquisition_of_a_2375_Economic_Interest_in_Eureka_Gold_Mine_in_Zimbabwe

VAST has had for many years, maybe ever as It confirms we will get the licence association. The ANRM stage is just a box ticking exercise as the minister of Economy controls ANRM and in any case they have already granted VAST several licences.

The s/p will be held back by the possible placing until it i made clear what the BoD plan to do, however we will now be mining BPPM before the end of 2018 and will be a highly profitable company, just on BP alone without the many other great assets VAST holds.

This is a highly significant RNS:

http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail/VAST/13690368.html

It is in my dreams angus - possible though!

2P - you know only too well!

1. BPPM licence
2. Mercuria second tranche
3. Possible Remin mines
4. Marange diamonds/Zim diamonds in general
5. Zagra JORC
6. Progress on Lacobeni processing plant
7. Further acquisitions in Zim and Rom
8. New JV/funding partners
9. AP builds a $bn company
10. We all get rich
11. My wife gets off my back about investing in pointless AIM shares.
12. I am happy
13. I wake up ;-)

Apologies sardy - anyway I think the not knowing makes it more fun ;-)

Sardy - ignore the colour of the trade look at it compared to others - the trades are shown as buys or sells dependent on where they fall in the spread - if the spread is above the actual mid price the trades all show as sells and vice versa - so just look at them and compare to others to get a true idea - even then you can be wrong ;-)

And don't get me started on the diamonds :-)

This is the stupidity of AIM they found a few bits of gold on a totally unexplored patch of ground and they are valued at £35mil - we are producing gold and making a profit on it and we have a large copper mine also in profit, the largest copper deposit in Europe (probably) and another mine just waiting for a licence and we are valued at 27 mil

VAST is not leaky, and the RomGov certainly aren't with their licences. I should think they (Zim and RomGov) monitor this BB so let's have a bit of decorum, they are both working to be more open and democratic - there isn't a country in the world without some corruption.

Pec - I thought ASA was a good fit, but not sure now. The company's assets were taken under judicial management in Zim, it's still a possibility though IMO. Odds on it will be another share of a gold mine - we have Mr Maberly as our country manager - I think that is significant, he has been involved with VAST from the offset and is seriously connected in Zim. I still believe we will be involved with the Remin mines in Rom at some point, the VAST website confirms we still have an MOU with the RomGov over Remin which I thought had expired but apparently not? As a long shot - why not a share of gold mine in Rom - we have the expertise in Zim so why not cross pollinate? And at the end of it all there is always Zim diamonds - long shot - yes possibility - absolutely! VAST is and has been my largest holding for 4 years - there maybe/probably are better shs on AIM but not IMO. I have been wrong many times and right a few - as the sage of Omaha says you only need to be right a few times to make serious $money. Oh yes and live until your 90 ;-)