Member Info for Fortissimo

Cascabel or Alpala is surrounded by SOLG's other licence blocks north, east, west and south but some are further afield circa 30clicks rather than literally next door ... 8 clicks. Remember 'Varela'? Throw in the recent interest from Gina R and hey presto you have the hornets circling the bees nest and honey pot.

Question is... has Bob worked out a plan or monetisation event that sees one or two blocks around Alpala sold off or JV'd for exploration free carry etc.

Sometimes you don't have to play around with the main asset to rough up the likes of BHP and co.... all you need to do is start adding other parties to the potential pie but via bordering licence blocks... that's enough to really stir the pot.

Somethings cooking as too much activity of late in Ecuador which is happening at a time when the country is apparently high risk or higher risk due to recent gang land issues. Just shows how 'intent' the super miners are right now. Bodes well doesn't it?

BBG, not sure I follow. The RNS today has new information on the grades at BN so it's very much new news. What is old news is the fact that BN is integrated into Cascabel. Why wouldn't it be? It was split from Carnegie ridge 5 years ago and stuck into ENSA. Question is... what level of involvement does ENAMI have??? That's perhaps the slight lift of the curtain that some will see especially after recent signing events by Noboa. Are we about to see ENAMI take a 15% slice of ENSA? And in exchange we get what?

https://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/9034H_1-2019-8-5.pdf

I think this is where 'poor management' comms are hurting them. Previously the CEO moth balled exploration and said we were doing no drilling and emphasis on conserving cash. Then without any major update, we hear some minor rock chip sample token news pre AGM. Hardly exploration... but it suggested they were still doing minor field ops. Then with cash pile heading toward near zero they start highlighting how great the exploration opportunities are! Ermmm... guys..you are confusing the xxck out of the market .... Strategic review announced 18 months ago and no sign of outcome. They've highlighted Porvenir – Rio Amarillo and Helipuerto as the top priority targets for exploration ... then out of the blue we get Bianca Nieves which I guess falls under 'expand field work' in latest presentation.

So just what on earth is going on Scott??? What are you doing with the top priority targets? Porvenir is a top 20 discovery and you haven't uttered an update on that on since you joined?

Lets be clear here.... as a CEO your job is expansive. But the key goal is to get the company strategy set out clearly so investors new and old know what you are doing and where you are going.

I'm sure Bianca news is a welcome surprise but you have to view your RNS releases against what the company is saying.

So lets have a full update on the three top targets. It's April in 2 weeks and the start of Q2 and shareholders are no closer to understanding what your plans are for drilling (and I mean drilling) these exciting prospects.

The comms strategy is a disaster. The sp would be 14p+ by now if you just timed your RNS's properly and communicated the companies strategy eg tell us the result of the SR for fecks sake!!!!

I think Irwin's pointing to the elephant in the room which is of course Barrick's recent cosy relationship with Noboa and Ecuador.

Barrick ceo suggested sometime ago that SOLG was not a current fit for Barick's M&A lol only then to sign a deal with Noboa for land purchases/licence blocks in Ecuador. SO Barrick are very interested in Ecuador and by default very interested in SOLG. The latter would put a rocket up Barrick and move them from being a small time major miner into the big league alongside BHP and NMM. Barrick are getting left behind due to the recent M&A deals and will be insights of predators themselves unless they plump themselves up fast with Tier1 mining assets. They will become another Newcrest... simply going no where fast and eventually gobbled up. Buy SOLG and Barrick are transformed imho.

That's a very exciting update on Blanca-Nieves and bodes well for the other areas surrounding Alpala. It's not exactly full on drilling... but it's enough to move it on a level from the pick axe rock chip sampling. Just imagine what you could have achieved Scott if you had drilled this 12 months ago???? Mmm.

Newcrest cited many moons ago that they thought SOLG needed to explore more around Alpala as they believed the 'core' hadn't been found and may lie else where eg higher grades, shallow opportunities.

This is a firm message to those in the data room that if they hang about for too long kicking tyres, then they'll soon find the assets grown in size and value well beyond what it was when the data room first opened.

The reality is... Alpala is huge already... but it's clear that the surrounding areas just make it an all time monster sized discovery and probably one the largest in the last 20 years.

So more 'insider' news is released... if that's all of it... then we should be good to go with the news that the market has been waiting for. That's coming before end of March imho.

Bob's in firm 'ramp' mode now which bodes well.

Politics is an odd one and lets face it, if you are good at your profession, successful in life, then you are not going to go into politics. It's not for successful people. It's for a certain type of person... the type that need some kind of feeling of self importance. That's why you rarely find and smart ones and most are just Eton drop outs types.

But placing that aside, can anyne seriously explain out of all the millions of people in the US.. why the most powerful country in the world (apparently) would head into their elections with two candiates... 1. An old man that can't string a sentence together or even stand up properly without falling over and 2. An absolute nutter who's associated with failed business, tax fiddles, call girls and laughed at global media? I just can't work that one out? Surely the US can find two better candidates than that??? That's how sad the world is... the fact that Russia can't get rid of Putin shows you that the 'free world' is far from free and the fact that the US has two absolutely 'wrong' candidates running for president tells teh west is not any different.

It's madness. Utterly bonkers world we live in today.

Oh no... it's all kicking offffffffff! PoG going to $3000oz this year... Copper $11k...

Scott... put them brakes on... don't sell until 2025!

Sarcasm aside... things are looking rather chipper for SOLG apart from current share price. Surely the market is not that dopey? We should be in the teens by now.

We are long overdue a few 15% and 30%+ days and once through 8.9p... we should be back to double digits pretty fast.

Addicknt, I don't think Scott signed anything with Noboa at PDAC... but happy to be corrected on that one.

I thought it was the mining minister that signed it with Scott?

Addicknt,

We have already signed the exploitation licence. That's done. It's in the bag. Sorted. However, SOLG has thus far declined from 'executing' that agreement. They have until June 6th to 'execute' it. Thus one assumes there are reason's or things for SOLG to do/achieve before June 6th that enables them to confidently 'execute' on that agreed deal and my guess like others is that it requires a finance package or partners to be involved. I doubt it.... but there's always a chance that Noboa extends the agreement till Dec 2024 so SOLG have more time... but with Ecuador elections in Feb 2025, I'd say Noboa is motivated to see things kept to the timelines he signed in Dec 23.

From my point of view, finance is the key simply because anyone partaking in the finance will want to know what the game plan is. SOLG cannot string it along on basis of optimisation etc... as if doing a royalty stream again.. they'll want to be sure it's moving along as it should.

So I think timelines are more important this time around than say last year or year before and I think Bob and co are motivated to ensure all involved stick to the timelines... no slippage allowed.

Alpala will not be producing until 2030 if these guys faff about any longer and that's not acceptable to Shareholders, Noboa, Ecuador people and of course the IMF.

So it's long overdue... time to deliver... time to execute that exploitation agreement. They have just under 3 months left to do it.

BBG, hardly missing? Wasn't he signing a historic deal with Ecuador for $3.2bln investment protection at PDAC couple of weeks ago???

He's an ops man not a CEO... so I doubt he likes the public facing stuff at all. I can't knock him for getting on with the job but he's not a CEO and he's not doing a CEO job. He's doing an operations role.

Bob couldn't get a proper CEO in as whoever it was would just leave as soon as they found out that Maxit were running the show.

We'll get across the line soon but not because of Scott and co... simply because of the amazing resosurces that Alpala holds. Too much gold, silver and copper to be ignored.

The share price should reflect the asset value or bid when it comes. It doesn't matter too much how they try and hold it, but there is one benefit in that the longer they keep it sub 10p, the more shareholders (new and old) buy in and as such many will be happy with a 2 or 3 bagger. Some happy with just 50%.

So if a low ball arrives somewhere near 25p... it tests the shareholder base a little more than it would before simply because you have newbies in at 6p or 7p all nodding away to 25p bids.

At end of the day, what matters most is what Maxit, Mather, Irwin, BHP and NNM want. These guys hold almost 50% or over.

So it makes you wonder why the controller is trying so hard when inreality... the big players won't take low balls ... end of.

BBG, as I'm a bit cynical.. I'm expecting some director share bonus awards to arrive first befoee any major event. Would be refreshing change to see it the other way around though.

Apparently the algo bot machine is missing it's fuse this morning. Did someone break into China town blue dragon and nick it and some soya sauce?

You are absolutely correct. It's June 6th deadline.

But considering we'll be down to almost zero cash by then, I think you'll find we'll be executing it before June 6th.

They'll need to get it all sorted within next 8 weeks IMHO.

Yes... plenty due before May 6th exploitation deadline. Of course... like the Technical Report, they can execute the exploitation agreement any time they like leading up to May 6th. So it could be next week if they wanted to do it then. But there's a few things that need releasing before then so should be steady news flow over the next 6 to 7 weeks.

All parties involved will be acuteoy aware of the May 6th deadline, which incidentally is roughly where our cash pile runs out so looks like Bob knows that funding is coming before then and has been working toward the May 6th date for a long time.

SOLG has a history of a 'marching' share price when leading up to big news releases but recently the controlling hand has been playing its part on the share price. If it wasn't there... we'd likely be 14p levels right now.

Alot of of pent up steam building and when it blows... it will blow fast and hard.

45% higher than our current PFS PoG price

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-13/gold-is-jpm-s-top-pick-in-commodities-with-price-eyeing-2-500

Newmont do have a larger market cap than Barrick post Newcrest merger. So Barrick very much the minor player compared to NMM and BHP.

If Barrick 'want' to be a bigger fish, then acquiring SOLG would enable them to build their market cap much higher and compete with NMM at the very least.

Equally, you could say NMM could do the same and edges them up toward BHP... but lets face it... the latter are enormous... absolutely massive... they could buy SOLG for £3bln and it would be minor investment yet future output / growth would be massive. BHP might not need SOLG as much as those lower down the market cap range.

Chinese would obviously blow them all away... but they have a habit of going for smaller projects with low hanging fruit. Can't blame them as less risky. Are the chinese really up for a block cave mine?? That's the question.... have they ever owned a Tier1 mine outright?? Any examples? Have they ever mined underground ... block caved an asset from scratch?

There's always a first for everything and as witnesses recently... even the Saudi's and UAE are getting stuck into metal resources.

Have they take us back to 7's again yet? Very predictable and one giant wash tub with someone pressing the buttons when it suits them.

I didn't read it that way myself. I thought the TR alluded to expressions of interest and various parties etc but did not set out timelines so could have been historic.

If you recall, Mather said at the time of doing the Franco deal (or before it was pen'd) that he was implying they had interest to fund up to $1bln with ease.

Many dismissed this as a bit of bullish bravdo but I think from 2022 onwards, the likes of Franco have been interested and clearly want more.

The Franco deal initially scoped out a deal of $150m with SOLG doing $100m and then having the $50m available to tap at latter date at 0.5% royalty cap. Hence DC went straight to that viable option in 2022 as made perfect sense. Little did DC know, Bob was lining up a more expensive 0.6% deal with his buddies at Osisko.

The rest is history... but it wasn't DC that upset Franco or caused issues... it was Bob that did that.

We had 0.5% for $50m ready to go with Franco... so came as a shock to see Osisko get it for 0.6%. But I guess is Osisko are chinese connected as many believe... then it tied in with the rather generous 16p placing Bob also gave them. Bob's also gone one further recently by gifting them a fly on the wall seat on the board. So we can only hope that Bob's efforts to please the chinese leads us all to riches.

Any buyer will want the SOLGOLD brand as it's embedded into communites. I'm not ENSA will carry much weight.

Based on Bob and Irwin et al wanting a clean exit as that's how they get a full pay day... it's SOLG lock stock and barrel sale imho. Still room to do a regional deal or hive off a few blocks before a full sale is done etc. That would make more sense as would allow Mather to head it up and carry on as before... and find another Tier1 asset. That's the sensible thing. Otherwise.. 60 odd licence blocks go for almost free.

We know Franco and Osisko are already involved in royalty deals totally $150m. I think Mitsui and a few others would like a slice too. Ironically, Newcrest (or now Newmont) had deals with Lundin on Fruta del norte but think Lundin paid these back or a portion of it.

The difference is Fruta del Norte was producing so payback was quite advanced.

Two things to consider with stream and prepaid deals.. 1. The stream deal ranks ahead of equity holders and 2. Super majors do not like them one bit!

So should SOLG reveal a plan to finance Cascabel via stream deals, then I would expect a buy back clause in there so super majors can reduce impact of any signed deals and cash advances. Ultimately, it draws out a counter offer or bid situation.

Of course, it could involve a mix of entities. The benefit of the reduced capex of circa $1.5bln is that it could see $500m from Osisko, $500m from Franco and $500m from Mitsui... but I'm guessing these guys will not want to be carrying the can for $1.5bln so you'd expect a key partner to be involved like Valuestone or Jingxi or CRCC Tonguan etc. In that event you might see less from streamers/royalty deals although I reckon Osisko are as good as chinese in my book so it wouldn't really effect them but it would upset BHP or Barrick et al.

SOLGOLD have until May 6th 2024 to execute the Exploitation agreement which they signed on Dec 6th 2023.

Hence ... within 6 months... it has to be actioned.

As far as I'm aware... they would need to have credible funding package/partner involved before they executed that.

Not long now before fireworks... but the clock was ticking from Dec 6th 2023.