Member Info for Dreamboatwarrior

You’re welcome
Good times , they’re a coming

….. capital intensity to reduce unit costs. I think we'll see a bit of that when we release the PFS. Carving things up goes against developing and utilising the core expertise that we've got.
MJ Let's talk about that next cab off the rank, Porvenir, where the Cacharposa maiden resource in December 2021 which has an indicated resource of some 397 million tonnes grading 0.44% copper equivalent for 1.4 million tonnes of copper and 1.8 million ounces of gold. That's a great starting point. Could it eventually be better than Alpala?

DC Porvenir is a very different profile to Alpala. Where it ends up, we'll only know with further drilling. It comes to surface and has sufficient grade so we've got to push it through to PEA to wrap some economic dimensions around it. We're confident it will be the next economic opportunity we have. Cascabel is a massive underground deposit whereas this is at surface, and hence, a surface mine, which means that you can ramp-up a lot quicker. It has a much lower risk profile from a capital perspective, because it requires less capital and your revenue can come in a lot quicker then with Cascabel. In many ways, it would have been better from a sequencing perspective to have found Porvenir first, because that could have helped us fund something like a Cascabel.
MJ Could potentially happen? If the results of a PEA at Porvenir are attractive enough, could they provoke a rethinking of the sequence?

DC We're leaving all options open but I don't think we need to sequence it. The next phase of Cascabel is to look at funding and what that package looks like. At Porvenir, we'll drill it out more before we do a PEA but we're obviously keen to get that out sooner rather than later. At the moment, I think the market generally looks at us as Cascabel and doesn't really value that we've got over 3,000km2 of prime exploration concessions. Porvenir starts to highlight that we are more than just Cascabel.

MJ Finally Darryl, what are your key aims for the year?

DC Apart from a rerating in the share price, we are looking to get the PFS out in the second quarter and explaining to our investors and shareholders that there is a deliverable plan, and then moving that into feasibility. Secondly, take Porvenir into PEA. Those would be two great achievements for this year.

MJ At certain points in time, your predecessor was quite antagonistic with some of your principal shareholders. What's your approach to dealing with those important stakeholders?

DC These relationships are super important. We don't always have exactly the same agenda, but generally speaking, there is more alignment than misalignment, and we need to make sure that when our agendas are slightly different they don't distract us from working together. Along those lines, on the first day in the job, I met with Newcrest and soon thereafter, I met with BHP, and the conversation was along those lines, that we've got so much interest that's aligned, so let's work together. Both the shareholders were very aligned to that. We have regular conversations and it's been nothing but constructive, and transparent. The same with Cornerstone. During my first month, I met with the CEO of Cornerstone and it's a constructive, open relationship. At the end of the day, we're not always going to be aligned on everything and we just need to accept that, acknowledge it, but don't let that distract you from where we are aligned, and work together on that.
MJ SolGold was one of the early movers in Ecuador and picked up a very large land package, which it holds in four separate subsidiaries. Recently, the company has been looking for partners for some of its exploration properties because you more than you can handle? Does it make sense to spin out Cascabel into a separate entity, so you can really focus on that along the lines of what Solaris Resources plans to do with Warintza?

DC It's an open option and we are working through what is our strategy on that. We always have to take a long-term value perspective here. Cascablel is the largest and most advanced project and Porvenir is the next cab off the rank. There is value in having multiple economic deposits, having a pipeline whether you do it or whether someone acquires you. If you were focused on short-term value, then you could see how hiving-them off might make sense. Taking a longer-term view, Ecuador is going to be the next copper frontier at exactly right time that the globe needs copper as we transition to net zero emissions. Having multiple economic deposits, and a pipeline of projects at different phases would be very valuable to a major, so we can't lose sight of that.
Exploration is absolutely our core expertise. How did SolGold find these copper deposits when other much bigger organisations with bigger balance sheets, didn't find them? It's because our exploration team is truly first class. That's a core expertise, so we want to use them to be looking across all the concessions we have. I want our second core expertise to be one around how you develop and design mines through smart people thinking creatively. I would argue, we may be able to do that better than the majors simply because often the majors have a traditional conservative culture. Fortescue for me is a good example of redesigning capital in

MJ Can you give me more detail about what that would be your preferred scenario for the project in terms of throughput, annual production, investment size?

DC The PFS will come out In a few months and we'll detail all of that. This will be a reasonably large size, mine towards the top end of the size [suggested in the PEA]. It will be absolutely be in the first quartile of cost performance, so a very profitable mine with a life that goes beyond 50 years and will be a cash machine for many years.
MJ Your predecessor talked of Alpala being a deposit which could launch SolGold along a pathway to become a major mining company. Is that your mandate? Or is your mandate more to derisk the project so that it becomes irresistible to a big miner?

DC That's a very good question and one that is in the forefront of people's minds. This could play out in many different ways and at the end of the day, it doesn't matter, as our job is to develop, design and derisk this asset in the best way to make it as valuable as possible. The best way to do that is to go down a path where you believe you're going to build and operate it because only if you believe that and take that path, will you invest capability in the country and develop the relationships with the community and government to build trust, to get the approvals and make sure your planning is comprehensive. We are going down a path that we are the ones to build and operate. If someone is interested in us, then we've actually created something of maximum value. But I'm not preoccupied around how this can play out. I am preoccupied about how do we make this is valuable, and de-risking as much as possible.
MJ Ecuador's recently implemented an investment protection mechanism. Presumably, you'll be looking to do that with the government to have certainty on what the taxation will be for the project?

DC Absolutely. We got an investment protection agreement from the Ecuadorian government back in November for the current phase, and in two years time that will get updated with an investment protection agreement that covers the full build and execution phase. You get absolute guarantees around what the taxation regime looks like, around the assets and their ownership. Importantly, if there is ever a need for arbitration, it's held in UK courts, which gives our US investors a lot of confidence.

MJ At SolGold, the key task at the moment, is completing the pre-feasibility study (PFS). Your background at BHP and Olympic Dam means you know exactly what the big guys want in terms of the technical work they want to see to make an asset interesting to them. The company has delayed the PFS a couple of times, most recently due to your appointment so that the process can benefit from your input and redirection, so what was the state of the PFS when you took over and what things are you doing to make it more attractive to the big companies?
DC There are a couple of misconceptions around the reason for delaying the PFS. Firstly, from a technical perspective, it's the best PFS I've seen from a technical thoroughness perspective. A lot of it is to a level you'd see in the next phase [feasibility]. One of the misconceptions is that we pulled it because it wasn't good from an economic perspective and that's just not true. We pulled it because it could be better from an economic perspective, and I'll come back to that in a minute. Secondly, we're making some assumptions around taxation regimes in Ecuador and we want to engage with the government on that first to get a sense of whether we're getting that right or not. That was one of the key outcomes from our recent visit to Ecuador within the last couple of weeks where we met with the Ecuadorian president and a number of ministers.
To go back to the first point, often when you're trying to optimise developments, and you'll do it with engineers and you tend to be traditional and a little bit conservative. What we've done with this PFS, which will be coming out soon [June quarter], is we've looked at what are the top 10 commercial drivers of this project and we've engaged the best mining consultants globally, who have a commercial edge, and we put them into a competition. We've said, these are the top 10 commercial drivers, what can we do thinking creatively, out of the box thinking, to materially improve the economics of the PFS to make it even more attractive to our investors. We heard back from the first one a few days ago, and we're hearing from the second one shortly. It was a very prudent decision because they are coming up with some fantastic ideas to make it even more attractive and derisk the project as well.
MJ When the PEA came out, SolGold talked of four different production scenarios. Will the PFS just advance one scenario, a preferred scenario?
DC In the PFS, we considered many scenarios and we've converged them down to one with a number of variants to it. But essentially, it will be the preferred scenario, the most attractive deliverable scenario, which we will then take through the next phase, the feasibility study, which will set us up to build it and get all the government approvals.

SolGold and the Alpala deposit of its Cascabel project in Imbabura in northern Ecuador has been one of the most promising porphyry copper and gold discoveries of the new millennium. With potential to produce red metal for more than five decades at a time when the world is increasingly calling out for new supplies to meet the burgeoning demand from electrification and decarbonisation of the global energy system. Its potential has drawn two Australian giants to invest in the company, BHP and Newcrest Mining, and more recently, Franco Nevada, the world’s biggest royalty and streaming company.
Under the leadership of the charismatic and rumbunctious Nick Mather, SolGold became a name on the lips of everyone in the mining space and SolGold, it seemed was set to be the success story of a generation. However, for all his ambition and vision, Mather had a habit of getting under the skin of key stakeholders. For some, the September 2020 US$100 million royalty financing with Franco took some of the shine off the upside potential of Alpala and caused friction with BHP and Newcrest, while two failed hostile takeover attempts of Cornerstone Capital Partners, a 15% partner in Cascabel, raised questions about what SolGold's game plan actually was.
Mather was eventually removed or retired from his post as CEO in January 2021 and following the interim management of Keith Marshall, SolGold appointed Australian industry veteran engineer Darryl Cuzzubbo in November 2021 to steady the ship and sail SolGold towards the golden sunset of its promise. Cuzzubbo had 24 years at BHP and rose to become president of Olympic Dam, the company's flagship operation, before leaving for blasting and explosives service company Orica. Mining Journal caught up with Cuzzubbo to see the course he is charting for the company.
MJ I imagine it's been a whirlwind couple of months since you took the SolGold hot seat, but let's start by looking at your path to it. Obviously, you were president of Olympic Dam which would have put you on course to be a future leader of BHP. But you left to go to Orica, a blasting company, which for some, was seen as quite an abrupt turn off piste. What happened?
DC Orica is a very different business to BHP. It services the mining sector and it's a much more commercially orientated business. At BHP, I really learned the skills on how you can build and operate mines, whereas at Orica I learned the commercial business leadership skills you need in a publicly-listed company, and one that's a lot more service centric. To be honest, when I look at the two skill sets, they've really helped me to take on a role like SolGold.

Pretty much all of it ..... ticking boxes

Good to see us bucking the trend ( so far ) again today.
I’m fairly confident we’ll get news before but if not MD&A will be with us Feb 14th …. Happy valentines

Addinct a fair assessment in my view.
I always thought we’d sell the lot but the “ next cab off the rank” comment certainly adds weight to your argument.

Fair point Copperpot…. Have a good weekend

Wasted no time patronising a fellow investor

This was you a few days ago

“ByronBayGold and the 5 minions who recommended this thread.

You're all deranged. Seek help.”

You can’t have it both ways ….. wear it !!

As expected…. Squirm ….. pathetic
See you all monday

One for you Bozi
“ you can’t condescend up”

His honest and open appraisal was that we may or may not take this to production….. it’s not sniping it’s been clear since day one ….. there is more than one possibility and , though we’ve ( almost ) all known it for ages , our new CEO has now said it .. we’ve been told for donkeys years that we should believe whatever the company says …. Well there you have it Bozi

Good to hear he had an audience with el presidente too

Nah he’ll just deny that’s what Darryl said …. Or maybe I do him a disservice and he’ll humbly accept he may be wrong….. I don’t suppose it really matters

Exactly wording
“ who’s going to build this incredible project that we have? And no one knows exactly how that’s going to pan out. But what I would say is the best way to deliver value for our shareholders is to Perdue it as if we are going to build and operate it ourselves “
There you have it …… from the horse’s mouth Q we may not take this to production

Probably not gone up in Quady’s though lol

PFS on track for Q2

“ build it as if we’re going to operate it” …. Hmmm

Porvenir is “ the next cab off the rank”