Member Info for Fortissimo

Is it normal for a company to sack the chairman and then not have a new chairman in place before the next AGM??

Unbelieveable.

Some fund managers will simply not buy into a company that does not do the minimum at board level and having a chairman is the minimum.

And that's why the sp is 8p.

I'm beginning to wonder whether this is by design and what Bob wants. I think he wants a reset, and I think he wants old investors in at above 20p to move on and be replaced by new retail investors in at 8p. That way he can present a pont 24p+ deal and they'll all be happy. Mmm.

The best reset of all would be to get the CGP guys out and get this prime asset into competent hands.

Soon be November 15th.

I think Scott owes shareholders an explanation on why he and his team were not ready and waiting / fully prepared on the tailings prior to July 15th. To gain the funds in July and then take another 3 months+ before you get to work is nothing short of poor planning and woeful time management.

Shareholders deserve an 'active' and 'pro-active' management team. Not a tam that seems to be doing zero for long periods of time.

Could see $4.60 again in next few weeks. Market seems to be accepting that it might have to start pricing something in for the looming copper shortages especially with China ramping things up a bit more now.

The road ahead is very bullish for SOLG on a metal price basis. Couldn't ask for more in that respect.

I don't think 'cheated' is the right phrase. The mining process is clear for all to see. Pre-FS, then PF, then DFS.

As you know, Franco are involved and to the tune of over $650m if all goes to plan. Possibly more. Boxes need to be ticked. Funds are phased based on progress. Regular report required and looking at today's RNS... clearly commencement of the FS part of the agreement. It's all required. Yes... it would have made more sense to get this underway last year or even 2 years ago, but it appears Bob decide he could flog it so wanted 12months or 18months of mothballing while he got the deal sorted. That deal might well be still on the table who knows, but SOLG cannot wait forever... they have to crack on.

So disappointing G mining were not involved 2 years ago as we'd be at DFS now.

But if you want that $750m in full and then want a 'bankable' asset for the other $900m required, then you need a reputable firm to do the FS. The latter is always based on the PFS. So if you keep changing the PFS, then you'll need to redo any FS works that were aligned with the old PFS... again.

Bascially in a nut shell... we were ready to go when Darryl concluded his PFS albeit with a mighty CAPEX and a killer inflation woeful market backdrop. So bad timing... nothing more. But the cut down PFS was to align with poor market backdrop (eg higher rates/cost of borrowing etc etc). The irony is, by the time they complete the FS, the market backdrop to mining Tier1 assets will probably be better than it was when Darryl released his PFS and the sp was 40p levels.

Copper prices and gold prices are well above Darryl's PFS. Well above Scott's PFS. Rates are going to fall pretty quickly from here on back to 2%/3% levels. You won't see 0.5% again anytime soon, but essentially the outlook for building mines improves from now to over next few years.

So there's a perfect argument for changing the FS once they've completed it lol! And so it goes on. See the pattern?? Until of course someone gets irritated and decides to take us out.

Interesting to see Newmont have used them. Based on the last few RNS's there do seem to be some alignments with Newmont. I might be reading too much into it but got a sneeky feeling that Newmont want this. And before someone like Jerry says they have ruled themsleves out, remember, BHP also publically ruled themselves out of making another move for Anglo only for rumours to appear a couple of weeks ago that a new bid is coming once south africa issues smoothed over. Mmm.

Also, chinese are knee deep in Fruta del norte so G mining certainly involved them in someway too.

The market should like the fact that the kids in control have allowed the adults to come in and tidy up after them. Harsh I know but not sure how SOLG can agree and commence the tailings works if G Mining have only just been appointed. Surely they will want a say on what's being done and where? Or is this Bob's effort to cause more delays and distance managemen from the ops side of the business. Thus... any on the gorund decisions will be blamed on G mining. Mmm... bit like Dan betts and Hummingbird over last few years and we know how that ended up fro him and investors.

On a positive note, I would think Noboa would be very happy to see these guys involved as that's the usual crew and doesn't upset the appe cart if you know what I mean! So some red tape sign off stuff should be coming to an RNS soon.

I'm hoping the next RNS doesnt say that G mining are reviewing tailings sites with work now set to commence in Q2 2025 lol!

Lets hope not.

Boot Scott and Bob will just appoint some other ex goldfields or old buddy. Lets be very clear here, Bob and his CGP buddies own a decent wedge of SOLG but they do not own anywhere near the sizable wedge that pi's and other holders have.

So far the last two years under CGP have been an utter failure. Failure to deliver exploration. Failure to deliver result to strategic review. Failure to monetise assets. Failure to increase share price. Failure to replace chairman. The list goes on. This is all on Bob's watch and under his rule. There is no one else pulling the strings but Bob.

Any slip ups over the next 14 months and it's time to force some change. I said 18 months ago, it was time for change and here we are, 18months on and we still haven't done anything meaningful on the ground.

The reason we have zero exploration is down to Bob. The reason we have a shareprice at multi year lows is because of Bob. The reason we have a ceo like Scott (weak) is because of Bob.

The buck stops with Bob. So if things stumble further, it's not about booting Scott, it's about finding a complete new strategic change that brings in new investors and sees the likes of Bob exit ot Maxit removed from involvement. Not easy to do but ineffect a ..... demerger of the CGP boys. How you do that is open to discussion. A discussion that might not be required at all but to date, I've seen nothing to support the idea that SOLG can progress this asset much further than the usual PFS study level requirements.

I think it best to wait until the tailings works are sorted. These are important and I have no doubts at all that Scott and co have deliberately planned the commencement of these works just before the AGM... thus secureing their seats for another year.

On the assumption that all are voted back in, if they fail to deliver the tailings, then it's time for an EGM and big reshuffle imho. That would be a failure too far for me and prove that they are out of their depth dispite some last minute recruiting of work force/brains.

Further to that, I think it's safe to say that we certainly like to see failure rewarded at all. So on that basis, I do not believe there shiuld be any further bonus share awards given out by the remuneration committee until the share price is back above 18p+ levels. And even then I'm being generous. Scott last got his share awards (a massive amount) at 16//17p level.

So moving forwards, by all means vote them back in, but it's next year is the time for heads to roll if they fail to deliver. Tailings is a must. No excuses. If all sites prove unstable or unsuitable, then Scott has to go and I think Franco would be very concerned about SOLG's ability to deliver anything meaningful on operations. Lets face it... since Scott arrived, he's done almost zero operations. The drill bit has barely turned.

It's time to deliver - the last two years have been an utter waste of time and cost us over $100m+.

What a waste of shareholder cash.

I presume they mean Noboa? Not sure why they mentioned Lasso. He's long gone.

Cash-My-Giro,

Is it my imagination or are who plugging this action group?? You seem upset that it has not been noted or dare I say it... taken seriously??

What exactly do you want SOLG to do? Personally speaking, I think the group which is Aussie based should concentrate their limited influence and interests in their own country where they know it best and leave the Ecuador and their mining ministry to deal with affairs and concerns that are on their own land.

I'n not against action groups at all but on this occasion cannot see why an aussie based group are concerned about SOLG's projects.

Seems vindictive or a deliberate attack on SOLG but dare I say it... some grumpy aussie group that clearly are upset with SOLG for something?? Perhaps they are upset with them for shunning the Aussie assets and writing them down as zero on the balance sheet lol!

Seriously... it's really not of any significance or importance and SOLG should be answering to some minor unrelated group like this.

This market likes to mark down mining stocks and rthen eward 'slowly' based on proven progress. HOC.L is a prime example. The market rated it at 75p 12months ago. Today, it's testing 250p. The market did have it at sub 50p 2 years ago.

So that's £230m market cap... now £1.2bln market cap and their forward path/picture was known 18 months ago.

So it's about delivering promises and based on performance rather than pricing 'in' events like the forward thinking market of old would do... unless it's a tech stock of course and then who cares... just price it to the moon and don't worry about it.

SOLG was rated as a £900m company based on 85% ENSA and PFS / capex of roughly $3bln+.

Just what was the market thinking?

The stock was valued at £550m when the chinese took on 5%. It's valued today at £270m (half) and that's based on a funding package being agreed with outlook of about 3 years finance all sorted and almost half of the reduced PFS capex sorted.

Bonkers world. Answer is... take advantage of it if you think it's undervaluing stocks.

The question I have and have posited for a while now is this....

1. If the chinese were happy with 5% at 16.5p and actively bought another 1% at 17p/18p levels when blackrock was exiting... why haven't they added to their position over the last 12 months with the share price averaging around 8p to 9p???

One answer is that they cannot buy due to NDA's in place? And then another is that they are no longer interested? Apart from that, last one is a simple one... they don't want likes of BHP to see they are accumulating???

Bottom line is... none of the majors or chinese etc have bought a share while SOLG has been on its knees sub 10p.

I wonder if Bob has an answer for that? Why are our apparent top shareholders not willing (or alllowed or inclined) to buy up the stock at multiples below their average stakeholdings???

It might be a game of cat and mouse, but in absence of large volume buyers, the stock finds it hard to gather momentum, especially with a management team that seem to thrive on doing almost zero activity on and off the ground.

I thought the choice loan was $5m plus 20% interest? Or am I missing something?

$5m is nothing in grande scheme of things especially as the company involved seems to be a buddy of Mather.

But one thing of interest is the loan period. It was taken out in Jan 2024 and ends Nov 2024. So that might (to some) suggest that Mather and co expected 'something' material to come from SOLG which todate has not materialised. Or.. to others... it's just a 10month loan and inor in grand scheme of things and likely it can be rolled over although wider finnace on DGR required as they'll need another 12month cash at hand to get through another year in absence of SOLG monetisation event.

On a side note, I see BHP are in the dock this week for compensation on Mariana Dam. Talk of $47bln claim. Ouch... that's going hurt and rightfully so. The damage they did (inc Vale) was awful. No wonder all involved think it better that the SOLG 'Brand' is the one that gets on with all the ESG and early development planning. These big miners are not popular in places like Ecuador or anywhere else in South americas after that disaster.

3m traded before 11.30am. Fairly decent for SOLG compared to last few weeks.

I think they'll be looking to get some red tape signed off before the AGM as without that they are looking a bit vunerable after another poor year performance.

When's the AGM?

"If I’d wanted to prance around in silky outfits I’d have joined the village people"

or the law society!

Masons... don't they mortar walls?

NMM, I don't think we'll see the sp past 40p again based on derisking the Alpala asset over the next couple of years. Weird one really ... as the market was more than happy to price us at 42p after Darryl's PFS or after Porvenir hole 1. Yes there's more shares in play now with approx 3bln but against that, we've also aquired 15% of ENSA and hold 100% which wasn't the case back then.

In a nut shell... I think we'll need bids or talk of bids incoming before we break 40p again.

With an asset like this, I don't think it will ever be derisked... it will always carry the weight of unknowns that come with block cave and this region.

As an example, I think we'd need to see the full $750m from Franco/Osisko deployed/spent and the remaining projected $900m financed before we would see 40p+ and that would be 2 or 3 years away.

And then in above scenario, I would expect at least $300m+ or more to come via equity placing. So we could be looking at...

1. $750m Osisko/Franco funds

2. $500m Copper stream deal with ????

3. Equity raise for $300m (expected dilution 500m shares or so??

After all that, we'd be looking at 3.5bln shares in issue and likely warrant sp of around 45p+.

Ultimately, this is why the platform is being set (nicely) for BHP or another to come riding in to help shareholders with an early exit (how nice of them) and offer of 55p+ etc.

Where it goes from there is down to market forces and who wants the asset the most.

But for now the outlook for next 2 to 3 years looks like a 4 bagger at best IN THE ABSENCE OF A BID.

With a Bid situation in play... we could see 80p+... guess it all depends on how fast the cashed up miners or chinese want to get motoring with Alpala before the metals boom kicks in (copper mainly). Everyday that passes now is a day potentially lost and the copper boom will not wait for any one. It's coming and those that are ready to deliver the resources will be the ones that make the most money out of it. Hence why BHP are trying to go for the snakes head in Anglo. They have the muscle and that would basically put them where they want to be.

Bozi, the share price flips around, it is what it is. It's not a benchmark of the asset value. I agree on the derisking point and have covered this off several times... block caving is still high end risk stuff so discounts should be expected to reflect that. It's not easy to mine open pit stuff is it. That said, some would point to the 20% of resources in play and the fact that the mine life could happily go on for more than 50 years+.

So lots of pros and cons to offset.

I find it hard to believe that a business can be sold for £900m when you already have royalty streams in place valuing the business at 4 or 5 times that level.

And remember, Franco have done their due diligence so that recent deal and royalty from the past is all based on being suitable discounted and weighted toward the risk involved.

And that's where your argument stumbles... a bit.

Ortherncopper,

A top ten discovery is hardly a disappointment. The problem is... they don't have the cash or inclination to go derisking Porvenir when in reality ENSA needs to be sorted first.

So just because nothing has been moving on it does not mean it's a poor asset. It's taken an eternity and a bucket load of cash to get ENSA to where it is today. Bob's not going to go chasing porvenir if it involved dilution and as I said, more than likely he sees it as a nice bonus assets for chinese if they pay fair price for ENSA.

NotMuchMoney, I'm forward looking on Porvenir as like you say tricky to price accurately based on MRE and not much else. But what we do know is that Porvenir is one of the top ten discoveries in last decade I believe and when you look at where it compares on the SOLG presentation chart and align with the other competitors/discoveries, then I think it's fairly safe to assume $300m minimum. Porvenir is a terrific asset and our current market cap barely reflects this nevermind Alpala.

FWIIW, I think the chinese want Porvenir and it may well be 'thrown into' a deal on Alpala or entire SOLG share capital and thus giving them something extra whilst also allowing for a reasonable high level first big for SOLG.

Sometimes it's better to keep some assets under the radar as that's where the values get blurred when doing full takeover offers. Ironically... that's BHP's issue with Anglo or vice versa at present. It's the South African assets that BHP don't want and the value on what they do want is too low etc. It can get complicated when you have multiple assets.

I think Bob would be willing to include Porvenir for free (and rest of folio) in a takeover price was north of 75p+.

Out of interest, did you notice that Porvenir has been broken down into 4 key areas. No other licence block has been treated that way, so suggests to me that they've already made inroads into a deal... it are paving the way for multiple parties eg Lundin, Jiangxi etc etc

There's loads of possible outcomes, and picking a price should be based on the asset value rather than share price as the latter is just a marker for a said day at a said time.

When Noront was 21 cents, the market was suggesting 55 cents+ as likely winning bid. It went for 110cents.

Markets are terrible at valuing assets. Terrible as forward looking and forward thinking.

Look at Tesla... multi billion dollar business with bright future but it was priced by the market $22 per share as of Nov 2019. Just 24 months later, the market decided it was wrong and priced the stock Nov 2021 at $407 per share.

Seriously... markets are hopeless when it comes to valuations. So with a copper boom waiting around the corner and Gold looking at being at all time highs for some years to come, interest rates falling and QE kicking off in China... the market might just think it got SOLG wrong at 9p a share and tail between legs... correct that to 'real' levels.

The important thing to remember is don't use the current share price as your start point. That's proven to be naive at best. Use the asset. The asset has a benchmark industry value. It's either + or - based on turnkey status, geo location and general metal prices etc. At present ENSA/Alpala alone is worth around 80p+. Porvenir probably around 10p to 15p levels with some derisking/permits. Rest of the folio.... take your pick but Gina R and Barrick have both been buying into licence blocks in Ecuador lately so there's value in those 60 odd blocks.

20p to 35p is not going to fly. Doesn't matter how long the sp is sub 10p. It won't make a jot of difference as the asset is only getting more expensive for buyers with derisking events... not cheaper.

Take a look at Hoshchild Mining (HOC). That was deserted by the market when they hit some political / licence block issues in South america. Sp was 50p back in Nov 2022. Now, the market can't get enough of it and sp is 225p+

So the asset is where SOLG's value resides and the sp will only catch up with that when someone makes a bid for it.

But 20p to 35p is not where it will be sold. It might be where the first bid lands... but it's where the last bid lands that matters most.