Member Info for Cowichan

my post regarding West Africa - Centamin's assets are much better positioned than others

https://twitter.com/donaldplawson/status/1350197758666240001

https://africacenter.org/spotlight/islamic-state-in-the-greater-sahara-expanding-its-threat-and-reach-in-the-sahel/

Stick to golf...

Orezone isn't allowing the risk to outweigh the rewards...

'Patrick Downey, President and CEO, stated, “Awarding the EPCM contract to Lycopodium is a key step to ensure the continued successful development and construction of the Bomboré project. With more than 12 mines built in West Africa, Lycopodium’s track record of building efficient mines on time and on budget is unparalleled. Lycopodium is very familiar with Bomboré, having performed the 2018 Feasibility Study, the 2019 Updated Feasibility Study, and the previously completed front-end engineering and design. Lycopodium will be able to immediately build on its past work and progress the project in a cost effective and timely manner.
We are looking forward to starting construction on our path to becoming the next significant gold producer in Burkina Faso with first gold scheduled for early Q3-2022.'

About Lycopodium Minerals Pty Ltd.

Lycopodium is an Australian headquartered, global engineering and project delivery organisation providing specialist services in the development and delivery of mineral resource studies and projects.
The company has completed the construction of more than a dozen gold development projects in West Africa over the past decade.
Lycopodium has a demonstrated track record in Burkina Faso, recently delivering
- successful EPCM gold projects at the 2Mtpa Sanbrado project for West African Resources Ltd. which is adjacent to Bomboré,
- the 3Mtpa Houndé project for Endeavour Mining Corporation,
- and the 2.5Mtpa Wahgnion project for Teranga Gold Corporation.
- and just completed the 3.3Mtpa Yaouré project for Perseus Mining Ltd. in Côte d’Ivoire, ahead of schedule and under budget during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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My Thoughts: Centamin's management needs to express what magical hurdles a West Africa project must jump over before development begins because if one assumes they adopt the Egyptian yard stick the bar isn't set very high (as AISC etc. stands currently)

https://www.juniorminingnetwork.com/junior-miner-news/press-releases/396-tsx-venture/ore/90533-orezone-selects-lycopodium-as-epcm-contractor-and-provides-bombore-project-development-update.html

Marmot, thanks for the well informed explanation. As always your insights are invaluable. Let's hope our new management also sees the promotional benefit of buying in at this critical moment of (fingers crossed) growth.

I don't know if anything can be determined by these sales. Just as nobody can say why the gold price is taking off today... despite the prognosticators of the world claiming to have logical explanations I'm afraid most days the answer is blowin' in the wind...

In 2020, shares in Barrick, the world’s second-biggest gold miner, hit a seven-year high and a number of executives took advantage – none more so than John Thornton, the company’s executive chairman. He cut his stake in the company by 50 per cent, selling 2.6 million shares in April for proceeds of $64-million.

executives and directors at Franco-Nevada Corp. sold $75.1-million worth

B2Gold Corp. insiders sold $65.4-million worth

Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. $52.2-million

Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. $40-million

Alamos Gold Inc., which hit an historic high in July, $13.3-million

And Pan American Silver Corp. $9.9-million

The little guys are also listed here...
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-gold-mining-insiders-sell-large-amount-of-shares-in-2020-as-precious/

Continuing its actions in the Mé region, the BRICM has broadened its scope of intervention, with increasing intransigence and rigor. In total, 10 localities were visited and 21 sites treated, for an assessment which is established as follows:
- 6 damaged poclins;
- 3 poclins destroyed;
- 16 poclins seized and transported.
- 2000 liters of diesel seized.
- 7 people arrested, including 3 of Chinese nationality.
It should be remembered that the Brigade for the Repression of Infractions of the Mining Code (BRICM), is a unit essentially dedicated to the fight against clandestine gold panning and the repression of all forms of violations of the Mining Code. Officially presented on December 26, 2018, during the year 2019, it cleared more than 222 clandestine gold mining sites, resulting in arrests and sentences of imprisonment. This year, 180 clandestine gold panning sites have already been dismantled, 45 people arrested and referred, as well as 135 hydraulic excavators, 210 tonnes of minerals, 8 vehicles and firearms, seized. That's not all.
At the judicial level, 7 trials were held, with the following results:
- 102,100,000 FCFA in fines for the benefit of the State of Côte d'Ivoire;
- 735,283,000 FCFA in damages for the benefit of the State of Côte d'Ivoire;
- 30 people sentenced to terms of imprisonment.

http://mines.gouv.ci/?p=1095

https://youtu.be/-qMBHJ-6XxQ?t=497

https://www.arabnubia.com/Overview/

Aussies working in Cairo - getting ready for the tsunami of wannabe gold miners... the video references Sukari but only Siko will know what they are saying!

https://twitter.com/donaldplawson/status/1344063557285990401

https://www.ehmining.com/

https://youtu.be/yHpOIwmL8kY?t=118

Apologies for the Matrix soundtrack on Youtube link — not sure what the idea behind that is !

Hi Viable,

Glad to hear your confidence in this company is still intact. 2020 has certainly been a challenge for all the LTHs

Also glad to hear you are familiar with the Cowichan valley — I spent 7 years on the island and have fond memories of all the quiet locales and scenic trails from Campbell River to Victoria and everything in between... cheers

Gold investors are losing a unique product that allowed them to redeem paper gold into bullion as Goldman Sachs completes its acquisition of Perth Mint Physical Gold ETF (NYSE: AAAU).

The deal was announced earlier in October and represents Goldman Sachs' first commodity-backed exchange-traded fund.

The new ETF will be renamed the Goldman Sachs Physical Gold ETF, and the ticker will remain unchanged. The product fees will also remain unchanged at 0.18%.

However, the big change in the ETF is that the gold won't be backed by the government of Western Australia. Investors also won't be able to redeem shares in the ETF for bullion from the Perth Mint.

The new custodian of the gold-backed ETF will be the London-based offices of JPMorgan Chase.

"We are pleased to complete this transaction and enter into this market, where we believe our size, scale and expertise can provide considerable value to investors," said Michael Crinieri, GSAM'sGSAM's Global Head of ETFs in a prepared statement. "GSAM is committed to a thoughtful expansion of our ETF suite through high-quality products that meet unique investor needs, and Goldman Sachs Physical Gold ETF is an exciting addition to our product roster."

https://www.kitco.com/news/2020-12-15/Goldman-in-gold-ETFs-after-completing-purchase-from-Perth-Mint.html

For those curious — a map showing the Konkera / Batie West project in relation to artisanal workings and the road network in Burkina Faso https://twitter.com/donaldplawson/status/1336042649376079872

Interesting interview on incoming Fed Chair Janet Yellen — this observer believes Yellen could be the spark that ignites congress to reopen the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 allowing the Fed to buy treasuries directly at auction and also buy common shares in US companies.

You think we've got an equity bubble now...

https://youtu.be/Q-J0Ko0uOT4

https://twitter.com/donaldplawson/status/1334629976881025024

Like, retweet, disavow as you see fit — the more we engage with management the better IMO

As we await the December 2nd update here's something I haven't noticed before

The Burkina Faso map on the following link (copied from the Centamin website)

https://twitter.com/donaldplawson/status/1333169498824663040/photo/1

is showing the Wadaradoo resource area as 'permit under application' — which suggests the area is going to change from it's current exploration status (which would be a red outline) to a purple exploitation permit (as Konkera currently is)

which would make sense given the extensive drilling completed in that area as indicated by the black dots...

I hope we get some clarity soon - this 'connecting-the-dots' is no way to invest let alone operate a LSE listed company!

Pit Performance and Slope Stability Assessment from afar
PROJECT
Slope Design Updates

LOCATION
Middle East

CLIENT
Confidential

TIMEFRAME
March-June 2020

SRK PRACTICES INVOLVED
SRK UK

COMMODITIES
Gold

MAIN SERVICE AREA
Mining Geotechnics

SERVICES
Geotechnical Operational Support, Pit Slope Stability

To assess slope stability, we again used PointStudio to generate a large dataset of discontinuities from the high-resolution laser scans. This involved hand-picking thousands of exposed discontinuity surfaces from all three pits to generate data on discontinuity orientation, area, length and spacing. The use of laser scans enabled data to be generated from all benches of each pit, which is often not possible with traditional on-site pit wall mapping as bench face access can be restricted or unsafe. The discontinuity datasets generated were then used in slope stability analysis which primarily involved S-Block, a probabilistic program that calculates the berm widths required to retain a given percentage of expected failure volumes from slope benches. We were able to accurately calibrate the bench failures simulated in S-Block with observed bench failures visible in the laser scans of the pit walls. This enabled determination of appropriate slope inter-ramp angles required to retain a minimum average of 80% of expected failed material in each bench. As a result, new geotechnical domains were created with updated slope design angles based on structural variability, enabling slope angles to be optimised...

https://www.srk.com/en/projects/slope-design-updates

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My Thoughts:
It is interesting that SRK was also awarded an gold exploration concession by the Egyptian Mineral Resource Authority... this is well beyond their 'mining services' business envelope and may well represent a 3rd party's interest - but who?

Thanks Siko — now it makes a lot more sense!

The Ministry of Petroleum announced in March a tendering process to explore for gold in the Eastern Desert. It included 290 blocs spread over 250,000 square km. The 11 companies won the bid to explore 82 blocs, or 28 per cent of the total and equivalent to 14,000 square km.

The winning companies have been given permission to start mining immediately. They will each spend a minimum of $60 million** in investments during the early stages of the mining process, Al-Molla said.

The winning companies were chosen based on a complete financial and technical evaluation. Their financial abilities and gold reserves were evaluated, with the reserves being an indication of an individual company’s success in previous explorations, Farouk explained.

Evaluation points were detailed on the EMRA website, he said, adding that each company had presented separate financial and technical letters.

Applicants had presented their financial and technical warranties, documents of earlier activities, commercial and legal registration files, the structure of their ownership and shareholders, and their nationalities.

The companies with the highest percentage points had won the tender. Forty per cent of the score was calculated according to experience, gold reserves, and production, while 60 per cent depended on the company’s financial systems and the royalties it would pay to the EMRA, the head of the authority said.

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My Thoughts:

** It's hard to imagine the four Egyptian exploration companies spending 'a minimum of $60 million' in the early stages of gold exploration/development — Centamin will find it a challenge to spend that amount and they've got a massive head-start in every respect!

David Rosenberg
@EconguyRosie
Bitcoin +157% YTD. Crypto’s mkt cap is 2x all regional banks. Turkey’s market +15% YTD. Greek 5-yr yields 3 bps from negative. Junk rates at record lows of 4.9%. The S&P 500 trades at a 32x CAPE, piercing the 30.7x in Feb. What more is there to say… except that bubbles are back?

https://twitter.com/EconguyRosie/status/1331231249369866240

Meanwhile in the USA

Hospitalizations are at harrowing highs. More than 85,800 Covid-19 patients were in US hospitals Monday -- the 14th straight day this count set a pandemic record, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Hospital systems around the country have been warning their staffing and ICU bed capacity are being stretched thin.

Covid-19 deaths are rising: The country's average number of daily deaths across a week hit 1,529 Monday -- the highest average since May 11. More than 257,900 people have died in the US since the pandemic's start -- more than any other country by far.

Millions are traveling for Thanksgiving, despite the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending against it.

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My Thoughts:
The Titanic is sinking and the stock market is popping another bottle of champagne... while the drunks are singing a tune about 'it's time to sell your gold miners...'

I think not.

"According to many news publications including a budget model created by Penn Wharton, from the University of Pennsylvania 'The Biden platform raise $3.375 trillion in new tax revenue while increasing spending by $5.37 trillion.'

Other estimates anticipate that President-elect Biden’s proposed budget would hike national spending, raise taxes but further inflate the national debt. While he proposes taking in approximately $3 trillion in new taxes while his proposals will cost approximately $11 trillion in spending."

https://www.kitco.com/commentaries/2020-11-20/Joe-Biden-s-budget-proposals-will-be-the-largest-budget-expenditure-in-history.html