Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Pam welcome to the Centamin chat as have just picked up on the banter.
Takeover has been talked about on and off numerous times.
Not sure I have ever taken any advice after a session in a wine bar or any other bar come to that least of all advice on investments, mainly because alcohol has a tendency for some exaggeration.
Agreed Centamin has become a trading stock rather than an investment stock in recent times but to hang on in the belief of another company taking a run at them I find somewhat intriguing. OK yes the share price is low and has considerable room for improvement but at the same time they are currently a single resource mining company, with a 50% profit split with the Egyptian Government. So you then need to think about who would take a run at them and I don't think any of the mining majors see Centamin's current structure as one that fits their core values, otherwise they would have already shown their hand. Would Endeavour have another go not sure but maybe?
I do however feel a hold is currently not a bad idea as the thought is that Centamin has or is close to turning the corner to achieve better results than it has for a number of years, but that is only a gut feel/opinion.
Tibbs the pit wall instability wasn't caused because of a short coming of the waste removal.
This however was a reason for blitzing the waste removal.
The instability wasn't a failure but it was a reason based on safety for not mining the west wall, this then meant they had to mine elsewhere but that was when it became obvious that the mine didn't have too many alternatives, certainly not at the predicted 2 grammes/tonne grades. Hence the need to open up additional faces to provide the important flexibility and this is what kicked in the waste blitz exercise.
Cowichan, Gold up approx 7% in last month and Egypt's valuation increased by about 6% so they might have actually sold some gold? Difficult to know exactly when they applied the valuation of their holdings.
According to Centamin on retail presentation day we were told the Central Bank owes them very little can't remember exactly but low thousands.
Paul
The good times did come when the SP hit £2 given the price that I first got in at in 2008 was 30 pence. So when I got in the mine was a licence to print money and did very well until a few of my old contacts left the business one tragically died and the other took a well deserved retirement.
Unfortunately we then had a period of a few years where the over promoted geologist followed his nose looking to make a name for himself based on production rather than looking at the wider picture and long term and led us up a blind alley. Those who got out on the high won't think he did a bad job but those who held on think differently.
The rest is history, what we can't get away from however, if it hasn't been mined it is still in the ground so a valuable asset that unfortunately is buried deeper than necessary hence the additional cost to expose, there again is it an extra cost or is it a delayed cost?
Tibbs what do you feel still needs fixing because where I am sitting if they achieve 4th quarter production the corner has turned and the new teams have set their own goals to achieve? Major capital expenditure at Sukari coming to an end and a good straight forward new resource in the offing at Doropo.
I am more optimistic than I have been for a long time, not jumping with joy but from a mining perspective I can see some light which reminds me of what I discussed with the Pharoah Gold teams back in the early years.
Next three months are however critical for the BOD to gain confidence from the market.
So Tibbs what magic wand would Endeavour have used to get the mine back on track? The good news as I see it is that Horgan and his team are close to the end of their 3 year investment plan and on track to get the mine back to generating cash.
Guess as I have said before we will have to wait to see if we are close to coming out of the dark and the next three months will be the next start hopefully of getting back on track .
Horgan said it often enough "Exciting" "Fantastic" hopefully we will be agreeing with him in the not too distant future.
Tibbs now that is a question worth asking on Monday combined with your reference to the share price being worth 30ish percent of what it was when the new guard were appointed.
"We have a share price in the doldrums and promises of safeguarding shareholders investments with good days are coming off the back of major capital investments yet we aren't seeing any BOD investments being made.
At the same time only likely to better last years production by about 10,000 ounces and that is going to be a close run thing due to a shortfall in the 3rd quarter.
Another question worth asking is Why do we still have no announcement on the Court case or is this now not thought to be affecting the share price?
So far there hasn't been an issue to the just in case worse case situation on various impacts and whilst not great currently they have cash or cash equivalent (internal liquidity) of $125.7 according to 3rd qtr report.
However this next three months are critical.
Tony 500 tonnes is only 3 and a bit truck loads and at less than 1 gramme a tonne we are talking less than 500 grams or about 14 ounces. So they need more like 280/300,000 tonnes on the ROM to get close to the 10,000 ounces if we are talking open pit.
Now if there is 30,000 ounces we are talking getting on for a million tonnes of ore which is a hell of a lot of ore to be loaded into the hopper(s) and we are talking double handling albeit a short haul distance. it is still over 6,000 truck loads or 30,000 plus loader passes.
Hence my question being similar to Steve's.
All doable and not overly difficult but it does mean diverting truck(s) and a loader, however not sure if the plant can process this extra tonnage to achieve the 128/130,000 ounces needed to make bottom end target.
Agreed underground tonnage and feed grade will be all important.
So will be interested in hearing what their answer is.
Steve, I have asked similar question to your 1. Good question 2. I have previously asked the cost per tonne for the waste contract but haven't received a direct answer although there was at one of the phone ins a throw away number $2, but not confirmed.
Sorry Tibbs what is your question? Are you referring to the waste contract? This isn't contract mining and the only contract mining they had was the underground which has now finished. Capital in addition to the waste movement also has a drill and blast contract, still not contract mining but it is a contractor rather than owner.
The growing contract mining business I find interesting because when I got involved in the mining industry it was late 80's early 90's when mining was a come again business in Ghana where all but Ashanti Goldfields were defunct having been nationalised. This saw juniors initially entering the market and eventually mid to late 90's we saw mines growing and the arrival of majors and contractors, initially from Australia, South Africa, England, Ireland, Scotland now a good number of indigenous companies are involved.
If you want to see a scope of work for contract mining take a look at the technical report for Doropo on the Centamin web site from memory think it is covered in section 16.4.
Dealts anyone who has been a long termer will be disappointed with the performance of Centamin' s SP. So I am very interested in what Horgan has to say to us on Monday. As many of us as possible need to get registered for the presentation and fire in a question or two before hand.
Keep the questions short and concise and who knows we might get some very important insights to their thoughts.
Tornadotony Shanta a mining company formed in 2005 a company looking for a new CEO and struggling to produce 25,000 ounces a qtr. Market value of £110 million. AIM listed SP less than 11 pence.
West Kenya has been promising for quite some time and I visited the region back in the late 1990's and we all got excited when Barrick became involved but they sold to Shanta in 2020 so I wish Shanta luck because the grades look amazing.
Singida is new but a relatively small resource "So far".
My view is a neat junior but doubt it would fit into Centamin's core business plans.