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From my calculation using the RNS', we have drawn down about 50% of the funds made available.

Some people are asking what has happened here. In short the company was talking about non-dilutive financing and patient treatment in about a year. They are now talling about patient treatment in about 3 years and have taken the equivalent of a highly dilutive Wonga loan. They are required to take £13M from Bracknor and if they take doube that in the next 2 years, can have the same again in the following 2 years. Every time AVO get money from Bracknor they give them discounted shares of that value - which will usually be sold on the market asap. No news on why there were delays and if this is ongoing. Nothing positive coming up that I can see. They are basically on life support and saying isn't it great we can continue. The tech may survive but I am not so sure about AVO longterm.

Agreed. The only positive from that RNS is that legal action wasn't mentioned. I'm sure we'll be working out how much our 20% should have returned to us but it has been about a year that they have been in talks and still no resolution.

According to the South African Weather Service, the rainfall in Johannesburg in January was 115mm which is 85% of the norm. The basin water level rates I have been comparing are from the TCTA document on CRND's website. None of the data I have found points to this years rainy season at the time of the large water level rise around Christmas as being out of the ordinary, but if you have data saying otherwise then please let us know. As of the 19th, the water level was still dropping - then at 149m below surface. A few months ago the Vaal dam was very low and almost hit the critical 25% capacity. During November they began to divert water to it taking it up to 36%. I read that on Monday it could hit 100% capacity but I do not think that is unusual during the rainy season. The last 2 years of the drought have not seen the level above 85% but outwith the drought I think the dam is relatively full at this time of year. I do not know if this means the basin level is going to rise again, but I hope we don't need to rely on a drought to get the water level down.

I think right now the hopes of the company lie with the concentrator circuit enabling us to extract more gold from the material we have. The government are looking to move to the next stage of the dewatering program in 2019 but that isn' t going to impact the water levels of the Central Basin. The water level has been decreasing faster in the last month than when it was last at these levels - even though less water has been pumped. Not sure why but hopefully it continues. It may be that the cyclone raised the water levels faster as the actual rainfall has been about average for the rainy season. Could the basin be naturally draining faster now? I guess we won't know without some kind of report, but fingers crossed that the current dewatering rate continues and the water level increase we just had is not a seasonal thing.

So are we to expect an EGM? The agreement with Metric was the funding would be in place by end of March. I would assume we need to vote on this before 1April - they can't just do their presentations and hope for more funding so they can get a better deal.

Must admit I wasn't expecting an update as we have just had one a month ago. The material being processed 'changed state' which has led to problems, but they are working on a way to ensure this doesn't happen again. Due to the lightning storms, the power station had power outages which affected the production at the mine. There was a small amount of downtime at the water plant too in January, but we still don't know what was happening over the Nov-Dec period other than the seasonal rain that brought the water level up so high. I really hope this is not a seasonal thing that we should expect each year. We seem to be back to the level we were at mid-August. The company has been working the problems and seem to be on top of everything they can influence right now. Water will hopefully continue to fall at the current rate and hopefully the PUNO case will be heard soon. Not a great news RNS, but nothing the company is doing has been the problem. What problems there are have been looked at and actioned. Hopefully that hard work will pay off soon.

I see this as a positive and hopefully we'll get the rest of our questions answered in the presentation. The location of the first machine still looks like it is to be Harley Street though as Pebble Mill doesn't get mentioned anywhere. Until we have an idea of the testing that remains outstanding and the estimated timeframe for completion, we can't really make an informed decision. Not the best financing option, but it not the worst either.

Last year the pump data looked like it could be accurate. Not sure how accurate the data is now (not that I think it is misleading). When one pump has problems now the other seems to reduce to the same level. Also the water level looked more accurate before - not ending in .84 I suspect we will see a Bergen sale soon - they don't hold shares long term. I tried before to find any geology reports on the Central Basin to see if we could work out the possible volumes required to make progress with the dewatering but came up empty. Looking at the current water levels and pumping data doesn't help much either. We seem to be pumping less than the volume last time we were at these levels and yet we are making more headway. The Basin's are not interconnecting but that extra water must be going somewhere. In one of the RNS' they said they could start reaching the mining areas at 185mbs and after a period of rehabilitation should enable mining to restart. So a few months after 185 is reached I would say - and after the rainy season.

Was the condition not that the funds raised were non dilutive? Or am I reading more into that RNS than is there - they were just to raise funds which the company intended to be non dilutive?

Just a pity there's no timetable we can go by. I'm pretty sure the case has been heard and we're just awaiting judgement. Is that right? It's been so long i'm losing track of it all.

It must be custard pies rather than custard creams in the boardroom. The ongoing silence here is getting ridiculous - since the Interim results in August all we have had is news that the Chairman was replaced and that another company is drilling. Nothing about what Stratex are doing. And I always thought I knew what a laughing stock was.

John, have you traded the troughs for this share? If you are convinced that prices are being moved for Bergen then you should be taking advantage of that - selling at the peak and rebuying when the price drops again. I have been too heavily invested in another share to be able to do that, but if you are in a stock that has reached what you feel to be the base level, then reinvesting a small amount in this manner and any profits from that can be effective in bringing your average down. I'm hoping we get an update soon, but the first news I know will get RNS'd is if we get the other ½ of the Wang loan at the beginning of April. It looks like we are relying on the concentrator circuit to not rely on Bergen (with just under $2M used). If we hear about the Puno case then that might make a difference - don't think it is even cited for hearing yet though.

that the water was at this level, the dewatering rate was higher, but the level dropped slower. That means we must assume that less water is flowing into the central basin now (during the rainy season) than in May last year (during the Autumn) when rainfall is low. So how do we wrap our heads around that one?

Winston, while I would love to believe this is a one-off, I cannot find any data to back that up. It is quite hard to find the data but it looks like the recent rainfall is close to the rainy season averages. The january levels seem to be below the norm. Anyone able to find the relevant data on weathersa.co.za ?

I think your original assumption still applies Meldrew. A standard machine that could do everything, both high or low level - but a smaller trust could get a lite version of LIGHT and add modules for a greater range of treatments as more funds became available.

I have been looking to see roughly how much we have taken from Bergen and I reckon there is still 52.34% of the loan available to draw down on if required (approx $1,953,000 used). We still don't really know how the concentrator circuit worked in real life trials - only the lab testing that took place. Maybe we'll get some news on that as well as the income from the tolling agreement and the waste dump material we bought ourselves in an operational update. Potentially another 6 months before the concentrator circuit is online and we know what results are going to be achievable long term. Still no news on the Supreme Court case with Puno so I can't see the SP improving much until that is out the way. I found the following in an old RNS: "At 28 January 2016, the water table measured at Central Rand Gold's operations, was at approximately 143 vertical metres below surface ("vmbs").  The Board anticipates that it will be able to access Central Rand Gold's underground mining areas when the water table is approximately 185 vmbs, which following a period of rehabilitation, should enable Central Rand Gold's underground mining operations to re-commence during 2017." Now we are almost back to 143mbs, so if all goes well we can think about mining again in maybe 2019? I can only see that happening if the water level is sustained at well below that level - CRND would not spend money to start mining again only for the water level to wipe out everything. That said, the target for the government and TCTA will be to get the water below the Environmental Critical Level (ECL) which I believe is around 255mbs in the Central Basin (or 1,467m above mean sea level). Not sure if there is a record of when the water level was last there. We don't need to pay anything towards the dewatering until it gets to that level - if only. (Westerrn Basin has ECL of 160mbs - I think I mistakenly used that number in a previous post) The current water treatment plant is able to to process up to 82 mega litres per day. South Africa is currently experiencing a drought so the question is what will happen to the water level during the rainy season when there is no drought? I am not aware of any plans by the government to expand the amount of dewatering for the Central Basin. Hopefully they have other options available to them before the decant level is reached - whatever that may be. I guess we'll get news at the beginning of April if the 2nd tranche of the $500,00 goes through, but hopefully some good news before then.

Thanks Meldrew - had it in my head that a few million had been deposited as milestone payments. It might have been the sum of all milestone payments I was thinking about.

I am hoping that the deposit was refunded as it would have cost more in legal fees than it was worth. As the milestone payments were to be put towards the cost of building the machines I guess that is also going back to Sinophi. Fingers crossed that there is positive news in the next statement.

Nope - nothing. Seemingly both parties are keen for profits to be distributed but they are still talking about mine closure costs. No news on production or profit. Thanistratex have drilled a few holes - that's about it.