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I should add... I also thought that Noboa/Trump would step in and block this deal to align with Trumps resources plan eg keep chinese hands off PM's at every opportunity.

I don't think the Chinese would have gone with a formal offer if they didn't have or get the green light from Noboa. So that surprised me! Or perhaps Trump and Noboa are luring them into an embarrassing situation where they are publically shunned. Bit like the Zijin Mining / Solaris affair in 2024. Incidentally... as we know now had Zijin Mining succeeded, they would have got a serious foothold in Solaris on the cheap. They failed and look where Solaris are now. But then... different management team there... one with higher expectations than ours.

Smickster,

We have opinions... they are just that. Sometimes I'm right and sometimes I'm wrong. But I assure you... my gut says we'll get crucified if the chinese don't get the votes required as our BoD's have hung their hats on it that's fore sure.

A counter bid looks the best case scenario for all involved... except the chinese of course. The latter are not in a hugely strong position with just 28.5% in voting terms. Their formal bid is on thin ice. If they had 40%+ (votes) then I think the market might have more confidence in that being a floor or succeeding.

I think the reason the sp was skirting the 24's and 25's is all down to the weakness of this formal bid. They have a long way to go to secure 75%+.

But if they fail and no counter bid is incoming, then I for one will fear for our future unless we change our weak and flaky management team fast.

Also, I have no idea what happens should the Chinese fail to secure 75%. Will NMM and BHP sell them their stakes and then they boss around into heafty dilution as we near the development phases?? That's the concern or do think we'll be ok if the chinese fail to get 75%?

Personally.... it's fingers and toes crossed time we get a counter offer. Lets hope for everyone's sake that arrives soon!

And also note the CEO's comments in the RNS

"SolGold believes we have made substantial progress in the last year in developing the Cascabel Project and achieving key milestones, which has been reflected in SolGold's strong share price performance." END

That doesn't sound like someone that plans to issue further news I'm afraid. That's the message from the CEO saying everything to date... 'has been reflected' in the share price eg... there's nothing more to come.

We all know that's utter rubbish... but there's nothing we can do about it. TAM hole 77 on the new TAM west prospect got hidden in the MRE. CIPA has been missing in action cough cough and the regional ExploreCo went AWOL too!

Anything that could have boosted the share price should have been issued prior to Jiagnxi making their formal bid but clear to me that the BoD's did not want to scare them off! Shocking yes...but it's done now and I did try and warn everyone weeks ago that events felt like they were being controlled and constructed by our BoD's to arrive at this pony offer.

Apparently the strong share price is all down to the new CEO and the progress we've made. Nothing to do with a massive bull market in metals and PM's being at all time highs... even Solaris has trebled in price based on market excitement for miners with decent sized resources. We don't see their management capitulating or rushing into a cheap sale do we??

Anyway... enough moaning... all we have is 'hope' now and just pray someone comes in with a counter bid. And if they don't... then we'll need to pray the chinese get 75%+ or else they'll be walking too.

Due to our managements clear exhaustion... the market will kill our share price if Jiagnxi fail to secure the 75% votes to make this scheme effective. And that's just how this BoD's want it to feeo if you ask me. Make you feel like you have zero choice. Grrrrr!

I sincerely hope they update us all on TAM progress but my reason for doubting this is entirely due to their wording in the RNS and document. Here's the para that got my goat but I'm past sla99ing them all off now as pointless exercise.

"The SolGold Board believes the Company has made substantial progress since the appointment of its new Chief Executive Officer in March this year, in re-framing the plan for the Cascabel Project, advancing permitting and key initiatives in country and, overall, re-working the strategy of the Company. The Board believes this progress has been reflected in the Company's strong share price performance over the course of this period." END.

This is IMHO, their way of saying ... we have issued all news we are going to and that 'is reflected in the Company's strong share price...'

Not the word's 'progress' and 'reflected in' and finally the astonishing words.. 'strong share price'.

Feck me... they have t be kidding don't they??!

The entire paragraph reads like they couldn't give a fook for the asset valuation.

Anyway... my conclusion on the above is that they think 28p covers all we have achieved. What a complete bunch of losers they are.

So no... I don't think they have any plans to issue anymore news i'm afraid. Jiagnxi are a long way away from that 75% required. The BoD's will be focussing on trying to make us feel like we MUST vote for it... not giving us reasons NOT to vote for it.. eg issuing great news. Just my view.

Agreed, quite surprised by a number of things with this offer and the BoD's support for it. I k ow it gets the ball rolling etc etc and Bob just wants out... but do they really need to 'unanimously' recommend to shareholders?

Worringly there's a clear LACK of desire from management to take this forward. Whether that has more to do with likes of Dan losing £3m in profits from this deal or whether it's because the insiders like Bob and Mather... are just getting too old for this game now?

In summary, it spanks of exhaustion. They come across as desperate and tired.

Based on the document, there will be ZERO attempt by this BoD's to defend this low ball offer. 'Unanimously' says to me that they will not do anything to upset the chinese now. There will be no updated PFS. There will be no further details on TAM and no CIPA. No news at all. That's appaulling if that ends up the case. But all focus now seems on management getting this deal across the line.

The light at the end of the tunnel will not be coming from our management team. I'm pretty certain of that. The only upside here is going to come from a counter bid. Very possible but as mentioned earlier... also at a huge disadvantage to the chinese as they've had 6 months+ due diligence imho whereas anyone on sidelines will be taking a huge risk. BHP and NMM are out of the picture.

The biggest surprise for me is that I expected Jiangxi to announce the firm offer backed up by a growing % of shoe-in votes. What actually happened was a bit embarrassing and step backwards. They announced their formal offer with less suport than they had before. And I'll tell you what... if alot of shareholders sit on hands and are not forthcoming with votes, then gaining 75%+ is going to be no easy feat.

I actually think the market will see this on Monday as a slightly 'weak' formal offer position. They are miles away from having enough votes to get this through. So no wonder our BoD have been told to unanimously support it.

If they don't update market today before 12.30pm, then they'll miss notifying within market hours. Markets reopen on the 29th. Perhaps they'll just RNS on the 29th with the outcome... bid... or no bid... or an extension. Not a good time to seek extensions from takeover panels when most are on holiday!

"In accordance with Rule 2.6(a) of the Code, by not later than 5.00 pm on 26 December 2025, JCC must either announce a firm intention to make an offer for SolGold in accordance with Rule 2.7 of the Code or announce that it does not intend to make an offer for SolGold, in which case the announcement will be treated as a statement to which Rule 2.8 of the Code applies. This deadline will only be extended with the consent of the Takeover Panel in accordance with Rule 2.6(c) of the Code." END.

There's a half day tomorrow and that's it I think unless they are allowed to make a formal offer on Boxing day??

Just a hunch but I think an extension will be offered by SOLG. In theory... they shouldn't offer to extend but if Maxit, BHP and NMM are all in favour... the Bod tend to go with what the larger shareholders want. We know Bob is ken as mustard to exit... so he won't want to see the chinese bid window expire.

Indeed... looks like this mornings RNS explains the sell off on Friday or a bit of it.

All metal prices going great guns today. Light liquidity or just santa rally. But all now virtualy at year highs or all time highs.

We were at 26p a few weeks ago without a flippin bid.

This is good read too.

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/5651063-china-losing-influence-latin-america/

Shows the US/China battle of latin america.

There's no doubt it.... Noboa will pi55 off Trump big time if he allows this cheap chinese deal on the largest mining asset in Ecuador.

Chinese won't bid if they don't get the thumbs up from Noboa. That's my guess. They can't afford to suffer the embarrassment and global disgrace of being barred by Noboa/Trump.

I guess we'll find out next week whether they think their chances are good and risk of embarrassment worth while.

Https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=fc170214-48b6-4d5a-9d29-ec5503021fa2

worth a read.

Will have to look back at the CGP/SOLG merger and see if any regulatory / Ecuadorian sign off was required. I don't think so as can't recall it being flagged back then.

Agree, the royalty streams all have 50% buy backs and the last stream did not include the copper. It's smallfry in grande scheme of things based on the 50% streams left compared to how much Cascabel will be throwing off in the billions!

Minor to super major or china but the alternative would have been hugely dilutive to shareholders. BHP would have increased their stake or managed the dilution. Pi's would have had a 30% haircut or extra 1bln+ shares added and that's being conservative. How the xxck would we have secure $750m of funds with a market cap of $400m or $600m...

Bob of Maxit stating that he would swing his bat at BHP likely did the most damage. Very unhelpful.

Mather has always been against 'dilution' and in that respect has been aligned with smaller pi's.

I think the timing isn't right for BHP at the moment. They are going through major problems with the Brazil dam disaster which could cost them as much as $75mln. I think they steering clear of South american assets until that issue it put to bed. Chinese sniffed them out and the discovery phase which has come via this proposed bid has given them many insights.

Taking further time to seek PRC approvals is hilarious. So let me get this right...they've spent last few months sliding rule over SOLG... the last two months discussing an offer or more and they thought they woud make a proposal... without PRC knowledge or approvals?? Weird isn't it. These chinese miners don't run themselves independent of the PRC top players. The PRC know exactly what every single mining compa ny they have are doing.

So more than likely they are using this window they have free to discover as much as they can... and make sure they have Noboa's approvals.

Does anyone have any detail on the Ecuador process for assets sold? I seem to remember something recently was bought by chinese and needed Ecuador approval. I think it was Lumina. That went through. But that was before Trump ramped up his anti chinese stance on resources etc and before Noboa was signing US treaty deals.

Eitherway... I think it's crazy to think they didn't have pre-approved sign off from PRC before they made a tentative proposal. That said... perhaps 'proposals' are fine on sign offs as they carry no weight and 'formal' deals need sign off. Still seems odd to me. Just what are they really waiting for?

RodneyT, seriously...! Don't flatter yourself. I most certainly don't think you're an insider mate!

FWIIW, I thought it was great that you set up a shareholder group and got as many folk's stock holdings and built up a considerable voice. Exactly what is required. Lets hope you don't need to use that voice.

There's no point trying to pick a fight or create a fight... it just feels like you're deflecting or avoiding the question.

So I'll try again... what's your view on Dan pulling all the planned SOLG mining conferences in the months/weeks ahead of the Jiangxi bid?

RodneyT,

I don't know you from adam. Have you confused me with someone else. I've checked all my 7 posts today and can't see what you are on about at all?

Has someone else or are people suggesting you are an insider? Are you ok?

By all means cut and paste or direct me to that post and I'll happily review it and come back to you.

RodneyT, we all have opinions and as you know we can all share them. Is that ok with you?

In terms of credit and overseeing progress this year... erm... we've been promised alot but only have one thing thus far which is the drilling on TAM. That's been great and just shows what the drill bit can do. The share price growth from ridicoulous lows id not the product of Dan nor other management in my eyes. It's the combination of the metals boom we are experiencing with exploration results in an exploration friendly and receptive market. That's why you have many other miners out there that have risen 2 or 3 fold. In fact I would go as far to say that SOLG has underperformed when you factor in PoG at $4500, Silver at $65 and Copper busting $12k.

Dan promised ExploreCo, CIPA, PFS update along with TAM modelling before the year end. Now that's progress and to be applauded.

If it's ok with you, can I applaud when that deadline / news arrives and we can all read it.

At the moment, I'm still waiting on TAM results which are about 2 months old. I still don't know the detail on Hole 77 for farq sake.

You can assume all you like, but in cold light of day... I'm still waiting to see it... all talk and plenty NOT delivered thus far.

Out of interest, what did you think of Dan's conferences that he had lined up to market SOLG? I was looking forward to them. How do you feel about them all being pulled and then Chinese bid lands a few weeks later? Fair question I think.

NMM, I'm aware of that... I wasn't implying they had zero room... I was just saying the Chinese are at a huge advantage as have been onsite and apparently according to our management team... been offering technical advice at their cost. How jolly nice of them.

Franco took more than 6 months to complete their due diligence... and they aren't buying the asset. See my point?

There's not much us wee retail investors can do now apart from watch it play out... absolutely DBW.

Looking forward to SOLG's management's defence. Running our cash balance low, still unclear on Franco 3rd tranche and no signs of ExploreCo is not my idea of building a position of strength. But lets see what happens as you say.

Damers, I think due to the sheer size of Alpala/Cascabel and the fact that a counter bid above 28p would not be breaking the bank for a super major... I'd say a counter offer was likely. However, here's the caveat... The chinese know the asset well. They've been all over it for 2 years+ now imho. Anyone making a bid and a formal one at that, will be a distinct disadvantage and will be taking a huge risk on the asset. Due diligence will have to take place after a formal offer... and that means they'll only be able to back out based on regulatory issues or failue to gain the requisite 85% or 90% + votes.

Tough one. Anyone coming in to counter bid is taking a bit of a flyer!

RodneyT,

So let me get this right. If BHP bid for SOLG and then failed. That would have then prohibited Newcrest from bidding? Is that right? Or are you asking the takeover panel to treat chinese firms differently to Aussie firms? Fortunately for you, newcrest are no longer but hopefully you can see how poor your understanding of rules apply??

You keep skirting the points, that's fine by me. But your mate Dan is going to have to shoot himself in the foot to save you my friend. Very admiral of him.

They can extend for 14 days if they feel they are close. Or 30 days if it looks more likely for all. Might have something to do with Noboa/Trump. Who knows.

But SOLG have an AGM on 30th and key resolutions need to be passed... and if some don't get passed, then the noose tightens on SOLG. I also think they are running the cash ile down fast. There's been alot of TAM drilling... much more than was planned. There's been expense added in deraling with this bid approach. And as we know they have a sizable amount to pay for regional licences in January.

So ironically... if Chinese do make formal offer it may be accompanied by an offer of a bridge loan... to pay for the regionals bill. Or if Chinese pull out, then SOLG will need to do a fast capital raise imho before the AGM/lose the resolutions. Or.. they'll need to announce a JV deal on regionals. Something has to come in equity terms to pay for that Jan bill that is looming.

So on that basis, I think it unlikely that SOLG will extend the offer period unless the 40.7% non binding votes are happy to vote a special resolution through the AGM again. I doubt that myself.

Eitherway... whether an offer comes or it doesn't come... the AGM definately comes on the 30th and that's going to be interesting for sure.

Lots of twist and turns here between 22nd and 30th. And not many market days to work with.

Based on looming issues with AGM resolutions and cash required in Jan... Chinese may decide to duck out and refrain from making a formal offer. Instead they stand off and watch SOLG flail around which will be another discovery phae for them Remember, the Chinese can always come in with Tonguan or Zijin or Shandong... anyone of their mining companies can make a bid on SOLG. jiagnxi might get locked out... but that's no big deal to chinese. They have plenty of options and are never in a tight corner.

RodneyT, Dan has no control what-so-ever when it comes to the 40.7%. He might have Mather on his side if he wants to put up a defence. But Maxit, NEM and BHP are all ready to roll over.

Ceo's have to act for all shareholders... but the truth is 99% of the time they are at the call of the major investors foremost.

As I have told you a few times now... Maxit are driving this. They've been driving it for the last 3 years. Dan was brought in by Bob/Maxit. Not by Mather. Dan is Bob's man. Whether you like that or not... that's what it is. Dan has been hugely incentivised to help the deal through. That's what happens when you hand someone that was not very wealthy before... the opportunity of a lifetime. He stands to make £3m+ if this deals goes through. Now you see why Maxit/Bob rewarded him so well?

I'm afraid, Dan aint going to be supporting little old you or I. He's in it for his £3m.

Referencing the NAV of 165p etc is completely fine. That's his view. Great. But when you are faced with what will likely be 55% (my guess by time chinese make formal bid) commitment, the CEO just has to go with it.

Now here's one for you... If Dan has been given options that were tiered from say 20p, to 30p to 40p to 50p based on milestones being passed, well... that's a different matter isn't it. That would have been much better. That would have got him on board with the full rerate of the business... not just some pony return to mediocre mid 20's.

But as you keep saying... it's up to you if you want to wear rose tinted glasses. I hope you're right of course... but my gut says you are wrong.