Member Info for Cowichan

Water access is a good question MrBond. Problem solved if they took over Centamin.

While Going Through Barrick's Latest presentation I found a new map showing their official Egypt concessions (Note: my previous hand drawn version of suspected Barrick concessions wasn't entirely accurate - see official map at bottom link)

But more importantly (I think) are 2 of the following 3 notes that accompany the map*

- 4 exploration licenses granted in Egypt for a total area of 2,902km2
- Areas selected due to key structural and mineralogical relationships with Sukari*
- A period of one year to collectively finalize terms of the exploitation license agreement, results of which will apply to the industry **

Note it says 'exploitation' not exploration - and it says the 'collective' agreement will apply to the 'industry.'

If this info appeared on the EMRA website I'd dismiss it as translation garble but it's interesting it appears on the Barrick presentation. So what are these 'collective' new terms and how could they possibly apply to the entire industry? Thoughts welcomed!

https://twitter.com/DonLawson_/status/1428038997662633995

https://twitter.com/Trisseswe/status/1427309244370538500

Why not join the Twitter conversation as well? I know Centamin is monitoring their social media outlets - both Twitter and LinkedIn

For the French manager, who notes that there are no more attractive gold assets [to buy] currently in West Africa, the time has come for optimization and internal growth.

“We must make this whole thing sustainable and push our development projects.

Sébastien de Montessus intends, however, to continue investing in exploration to find the next deposits in the region, near his Burkinabè, Senegalese, Ivorian and Malian sites

To have the means for his West African ambitions, Sébastien de Montessus is now relying on his size, noting that his competitors in West Africa are few, smaller and less geographically concentrated than Endeavor.

“Clive Johnson, the boss of B2Gold (active in Mali and Namibia) has already indicated that he wanted his next major projects to be outside Africa. Nordgold, well established in Burkina Faso and active in Guinea, does little exploration and its production is declining. Iamgold is in the process of selling assets. In South Africa, Gold Fields wants to concentrate its efforts on Ghana, and AngloGold is in restructuring, ?”he says .

https://www.jeuneafrique.com/1165912/economie/or-naguib-sawiris-propulse-endeavour-dans-la-cour-des-grands/

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My Thoughts:
Montessus has a superiority complex... I would like to see him challenged by Mr Horgan asap

Seible , IMO the market is notoriously bad at valuing companies - especially takeovers. Take GT Gold - it's 52 week low was $1.11 last November and yet it was purchased by Newmont in May for $3.25

So did Newmont overpay or was the market clueless ? I think we all know the market is full of clueless people...

BTW one of the orchestrators of that GT Gold deal with Newmont was Centamin's very own chairman - James Rutherford - I hope he's as savvy at getting a fair price for Batie West IF it comes to selling...

I am of the opinion Centamin is not for sale at any price.

still, you get the point !

I agree with you MrBond - Centamin got plenty to keep them busy.

Hemmed in was probably too dramatic but I do like to be flamboyant whenever possible.

As you say there is loads of elbow room!

Don't get me wrong, I do like the fact that Barrick is 'surrounding' us to the north, east and south - the more exploration done on the ground the better IMO

https://twitter.com/DonLawson_/status/1425865529848389635

.@BarrickGold by process of elimination the remaining *possible* #Egypt #gold mining concessions awarded to $ABX - expect interest in @Centamin to pick up considering they are *possibly* hemmed in by a major

https://twitter.com/DonLawson_/status/1425515245016080384

Najd , Nugrus & Samyoky — look, we swallowed up all the 'currently available' land adjacent to Sukari — north, east and west — the future looks golden !

Having a look at the latest presentations of Centamin and Kirkland Lake I was struck at how variable the underground mining productions have and will continue to be - some stats:

Fosterville Underground Gold Production 2019 --> 619,000 ounces

2021 --> estimated to be 400,000 to 425,000
2022 & 2023 --> estimated to be 325,000 to 400,000

Yes, Fosterville has had crazy good average grades (variable by quarter 19g/t to 39g/t) but still a very steep decline in total ounces produced

The particularly interesting thing is that as recent as February 2020 Kirkland Lake's management had forecasted Fosterville production to continue at 600,000 ounces per year for 2021, 2022 and beyond. That misinformation had skewed their share price big time higher.

So it's not just Centamin that has 'miscalculations' downwards - turns out mining is tricky sh*t ! See page 14 here https://s23.q4cdn.com/685814098/files/doc_presentations/2020/02/BMOFEB232020BMO.pdf

Getting back to Sukari's underground I am excited to see some very good drill intercepts reported this last quarter :

46 meters @ 13.58g
49meters @ 15.25g
45 meters @ 9.84g and others.

These grades and strike lengths are quite substantial but years away from being accessed - meaning Sukari's underground is poised to ebb & flow its production long into the future.

And the more the underground extends north, south and downwards the bigger the final open pit design will grow. The share $ definitely sucks today but here's to the future!

Anecdotal evidence to my point that too few in the PM investing world are enthusiastic about Centamin.

A shareholder asks a gold mining guru about Centamin on Twitter :

'Checked ngt on Centamin?'

'I read a bit about them [Centamin] when they were courted by Endeavor. Think the company is undervalued. Egypt seems to be moving in a much more mine-friendly direction.'

'Yes, agree. Is quite skewed in it but collects dividends for so long. Everything else being equal, new offers should come if it does not turn around soon. Debt-free and have well solved the problems they got.'

Bottom Line: If even a guru can't be bothered to invest in what they perceive to be an undervalued company it's time to 'fast track' West Africa. And by fast track I mean finish what was started a decade ago.

" Gold Mining Company “Centamin”, which is the concessionaire of the Sukari mine, announced that the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) bought 14,000 ounces of gold from the company during the H1 of 2021 for $25.3 million, bringing the average purchase price of the ounce to $1,802, according to the company "

https://lomazoma.com/breaking-news/8792502.html

The article goes on to point out:

" It is noteworthy that Egypt is the only country from which Centamin has achieved production, whether at the level of gold or silver, while its operations in Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast are still at the exploration stage, pushing the company to look for companies to takeover its operations in Burkina "

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My Thoughts:
It's amazing that even an obscure Egyptian media source sees a strange irony in Centamin's failure to carry out its plan in Burkina !

Hi Sotolo.

I don't know if I agree that 'a lot' of Centamin's current price has anything to do with trust but regardless the point of the presentation was to highlight (go to 14 minutes in if you don't have time to watch the whole thing) https://youtu.be/qp-XDdIAdvc the effect a 'hot' project can have on companies with contiguous land parcels.

New Found Gold has reached a market cap of $1.5 billion (for the last couple months) on some good drill results alone. No resource. No production. Just hope in the future that something will eventually get built. So when I hear somebody hypothesize Centamin is in some type of long term death spiral or in danger of losing investors at this stage I cringe. Centamin has really just started making money and has PLENTY of deposits just waiting to be exploited - and that's just counting the area around Sukari. Add West Africa & the new Egyptian concessions and Centamin will be making money for decades and decades.

Anyways, as a result of New Found Gold's drilling success the companies with adjacent parcels https://labradorgold.com/ & https://exploitsdiscovery.com/ have both skyrocketed higher - and that without any good drilling results of their own. (See chart at 15:30 minutes in)

Bottom Line: Egypt is essentially virgin territory not unlike Alaska or California before the gold rushes. When we start seeing drill results from other companies like Barrick hit the news (and assuming we now hold a concession in their vicinity) our share price could pop without any good news of our own. But of course 'closeology' is not the reason we long term shareholders are invested - just something to keep an eye on. Cheers!

Barrick's CEO makes the point that mining jurisdictions are so stressed financially that they've made many advance tax payments - including in the state of Nevada, USA !

Also, he talks about the large fund managers' demands for dividends and how it's going to be impossible for majors to grow/maintain output given lax investment in exploration

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2021-08-09/barrick-ceo-says-don-t-expect-more-production-growth-for-now-video

My 'all is not lost' commentary for an otherwise sad day in the markets...

A video discussing the upside of being in close proximity to new discoveries i.e. as the market discovers where Barrick has exploration targets in Egypt a whole new world of investors will take notice of Centamin, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp-XDdIAdvc

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6830517946331234304/

The successful candidate will need to raise an additional $300 million AND be in charge of their social media strategy - wow, talk about a divergent skill set !

send your resumes here aleks.grela@lamancha.com

Meet our new #HighProduction truck tray: the first of 44 to join the #Sukari fleet. Fabricated in Egypt by Aresco, this lighter weight tray increases productivity through larger payload, reduces fuel consumption & improves tyre life, lowering mining costs & emissions

https://twitter.com/CentaminPlc/status/1424649179222233089

Article says it is set to open this month (August) in Marsa Alam which is basically just down the road from Sukari.

Given the new concessions and exploration work now going on in Egypt, Capital will have loads to keep them busy...

https://australiaspaydirt.partica.online/australiaspaydirt/pd296-august21-mag-web/flipbook/38/

One interesting note listed in the job description under skills:
- Construction
- Dredging

Dredging is interesting because Qusayr (El Qoseir) is a town right on the Red Sea about 140 km north of Marsa Alam (or a couple hours north of the Sukari open pit mine )

Any new Egyptian mining concessions granted in that area would need their own water source from the Red Sea - dredging might come into play as the pipes are laid

https://wuzzuf.net/jobs/p/2ZyfYTZ8cmdV-Safety-Superintendent-Sukari-Gold-Mines-Red-Sea-Egypt?l=cpp&t=cpj&a=Sukari%20Gold%20Mines&o=1

I really appreciate your support. We all deserve total honesty on the Burkina Faso file especially now that management have very publicly hung up the 'for sale' sign.