Member Info for goldgnome

Perhaps of interest, I see that Capital Drilling forms strategic partnerships with companies, which includes drilling for equity, which it does for a range of companies. Other drill companies do the same. It may have been a good thing for Centamin at the time tohelp it get ging? It also is rapidly expanding into West Africa, including Burkina Faso and Cote D Ivoire. It may of course be a coincidence that that is where Centamin is expanding, and then again it may not be.
http://www.capdrill.com/about-us/strategy

You can see in their 2010 Ann Report "Since late January 2011 there has been some significant political upheaval in Egypt, with the fall of President Hosni Mubarak and the installation of an interim government untildemocratic elections are held in September this year. Itis important to clarify that operations at
Centamin Egypt’s Sukari Gold Project, which accounts for approximately 20% of Capital Drilling’s total rig fleet, were not materially impacted by the upheavals and that development, grade control and exploration drilling continues as per normal. Indeed, it is anticipated that Capital Drilling’s operations in Egypt will see further growth in 2011."

Good point MrTibbles

There would be room for significant and worrying conflicts of interest in this arrangement as you suggest. I hope El-Raghy is not a shareholder in Capital drilling but, there seems to be some link up suggested in the ICIJ offshore leaks link below, and in fact through Josef, and Centamin (seperately) who have shareholdings in Capital Drilling? I hope my reading is incorrect, but this is a matter that should also be looked at carefully by people who have more time than I do. What do you think MrTibbles, Cowichan and rest, please look carefully at the link below.
https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/82006106

ICIJ ..."Find out who’s behind more than 785,000 offshore companies, foundations and trusts from the Panama Papers, the Offshore Leaks, the Bahamas Leaks and the Paradise Papers investigations."

a concerned gold gnome.

Certainly the poor people are suffering in Burkina , but this has been going on for 30 years now, so nothing new. Baise Compaore the former President and self professed strong man, is rumoured to be playing games behind the curtains as he has done all his life. He came to power by an assasination of one of his best friends the former President of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara, which is again rumoured to be approved by the French and the US. Had a hand in diamonds in West Africa, dabbled in politics in Cote D Ivoire and now fled their under diplomatic immunity.

What people have to remember there is a lot of form in ramping up the threat of terror, as security, arms sales and trading is a big business. What one also has to remember is that a lot of the arms if not all, come from the destabilisaiton of Libya, a master stroke of the US, French and UK, that had no idea of what their stroke would create as en end game, and certainly not how to solve them. An appalling error of judgement that has created mayhem across the sahel.

As an aside, and this is not solution, but they do have tradional security forces, whom I have met in several countries. These people can more than defend their own territory, and it was the mass mobilisaiton of the Dozos and their threat to march on Ouagaoduogu which finally led to the big man running from his own country.
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.rfi.fr/medias-partenaires/20170313-burkina-faso-part-dozo-lutte-contre-insecurite&prev=search

the gold gnome.

gentlemen (and others)

I attended the expose by the Egyptian Government, and must say my overall impression was very good.

They are obviously challenged by such countries as Equador who have jumped way ahead of Egypt in the main metrics regarding investment in mining.

They have engaged the same people, to assist in dragging Egypt into the modern world, and from what I heard it is a very positive process and likely to happen quicky.

I am very optimisitc of positive change and I think this will happen in the short term !?

If positive change does not happen there will be substantial social unrest, which maybe v difficult to explain

Hang in, and dont let the trolls talk you out of our money...to their gain

best
a cold gnome in Toronto.

Thanks Cowichan

I have arrived and yes it is winter..a Toronto winter at that! I will report back to you and Mrtibbles

a very cold old gold gnome..!!!

Rebess

You guys might want to consider your position in the light, that you can be wishing the shares lower, which might be to your disdavantage.

Any suggestion the remuneration refusal last year is cause of the poor performance is delusional. It does not follow that if they put in a bad performance they will get the remuneration recomdendations through again this year, and as I said I would certainly be voting all against it. If these guys cant perform, they should go and get a job elsewhere, which rewards non performance. They are all very well paid for the perfromance level they demonstrate. If not too well. I would like to see them take a pay cut equivalent tot he pay cut the shareholders have been forced to take, ...

I might be able to attend Any particular questions you want me to follow up on?
best
Gnome

Contacting the Management direct is the best way. These guys have a long way to go in terms of investor {owners] communications. Right now they are in the bottom quartile in my opinion. I would in fact be replacing the people with the Investor relationship manadate and getting someone far more professional in. The content needs to be more complete, needs to reflect properly operational, development and exploration...needs to be consistent, and follow through the important threads in a logical transparent manner. I have no problems with the earth assets {the human element is the issue], but will be vigoriusly complaininig to the management about comms and perf.

I will not support any pay rise for any management or board. Both are underperformers.

cheers

Having been approached almost continually about investing in corporate debt, been interesting to see wher we stand globally. Just not a good look. The ballooning edifice of corporate debt across the world is of ever lower quality and potentially more dangerous than it was at the outset of the Lehman crisis, the OECD club of rich nations has warned. Global issuance of corporate bonds has doubled to $US13 trillion ($18 trillion) over the last decade and standards have deteriorated dramatically, raising the risk of "fire sales" and a self-feeding chain reaction in times of stress.
Interesting times ahead.
Those companies that rely on debt to "maintain" the cashflow are likely to suffer some shocks. Banks in Oz are making the timing of loans blow out 3-400% now, same for housing. Much more onerous after the Royal Commission.... have a great affinity for companies with solid free cash flow, and cash in the bank right now.
the goldgnome

It is quite interesting how there was a sharp contrast between the SP reaction to the mine visit, where I presume we had a informed analytical experienced group of professional investors get up front and personal with the managment, and the SP reaction by the broader investor group, who may or maynot be following the announcements very carefully (I have seen this numerours times). My tip is the analysts visiting site were more informed, reacted accordingly, and will see this as a marvellous buying opportunity to get in as the lemmings depart on emotions..

My bet is the COO performance was poor and he was managed appropriately and departed.

warren buffet, on the best time to invest ...?.

the gnome, accumulating slowly.

good luck to us all.

Analysts at Peel Hunt said: “The only real difference in reported results versus consensus is a slightly higher dividend payment than forecast and thus lower cash at year end. However, we still think production guidance for 2019 is at the lower end of historical production in the 500,000 550,000 ounce range.”

You wonder what the market is thinking with the SP action. Was it paying attention? Is this a great buying opportunity. Going against the Lemmings. Or is just the shorters doing their fun thing before they run? I suspect the latter.

Burkina Faso must be on the blocks, as I intimated sometime ago. If so the company just needs to make a simple statement... why leave this hanging. Simply lacks credibility

The reference to 3d seismic continues to bemuse me. Why dont they spend a little time explaining exactly where they are with exporation on their leases in Egypt? I would be far more inclined to invest in a professional independent de-bottlenecking assessment of the project, something like what Gerald Whittle does. It provides a better analysis to derive decisions on the use of project capital for the project LOM...http://www.whittleconsulting.com.au/integrated-strategic-planning/

The company needs professional communications staff,

Be very interested to see what the Directors do. This should be their time to vote with their money if they believe in what the company and CEO (and the Directors) is saying, and BUY up. If they dont beleive in the company, then they should move on themselves.

the gold gnome, ...accumulating

Apologies, the remark about Ampella was off colour, so to speak. On colour, about Ampella, and the Batie Project, is that it remains to be seen how this project fails to fire up, just from a technical stand point [regardless of who was/is in charge of its development], after so much money has been spent by Ampella and now Centamin. There is something missing, or perhaps I have missed something.
From a technical point of view, there is the refractory nature, but are the figures that bad, is not their a work around? Is there not a way of starting with oxide, is the profile so prevasively stripped that there is not enough oxide along a gold bearing structure that has 150 kilometers of strike? Is there a problem with stripping ratio which is a show stopper? What was the drill program focussed on? So looking forward to the scoping study release, but what did the share holders get for their money, who was responsible for this, not 1 ounce of resource upgrade??? Bizarre at best.

Stuff on Mark ... interesting read ...
https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmorcombe/

So as we all know not a good performance from the Mine Ops and the Development Ops at Centamin in last 12 months, and the COO is the man in charge, who gets the pay and has the accountability. Accountability for the CEO on the issues.... watching with a lot of interest, but would like to see the information far better reported for the West African Projects.

Good to hear through the traps that the Burkna Govt is taking a more competent and agressive role against the violence, and robberies.in east Burkina.

CEY SP has a lot of room to move upwards. Newcrest has outperformed in OZ (finally). Barrick’s statement on Friday re: considering a takeover of Newmont, to be followed by the sale of its Australian mines to gold miner Newcrest. Interesting times we live in, but this sort of talk and action must have some proper stimulus? Future Gold price? Lincluden Investment Management in Canada...> “There’s an argument that can be made that for the gold sector to come back into favour, capital will move first to the largest players so there’s an incentive to be a large player.” ?

the gnome.

Wel I hope they have swiped "our striker", as I do believe you have to have a goal kicking record to be a "real striker"...good luck to him ont he greasy pole/

There are real strikers around who kick goals, probably good to clear the decks ...and get the real striker....

Mark M did not do a lot if anything with Ampella, as is self evident, and his track record with Centamin was what?
To me, .good for Centamin, I suspect I might have applied a swift boot before this....

but then perhaps I am a hard man

the gold gnome

And a new position by the world largest producer and hoarder of gold
"
China has added to its gold reserves again!!!

At the end of January its holdings stood at 59.94m ounces, up from 59.56m a month earlier, according to figures released by the People’s Bank of China on Tuesday. It marks the second month in a row that China, the world’s biggest consumer and producer of gold, has added to its hoard of the precious metal.. Before its purchase in December, the last time China bought gold was in 2016."
https://www.ft.com/content/82c9dffc-2ec7-11e9-ba00-0251022932c8

and the Central Banks are topping up

https://www.ft.com/content/8148a8f0-2479-11e9-8ce6-5db4543da632

Central bank buying of gold reached its highest levels for almost half a century last year as Russia, Turkey and Kazakhstan boosted purchases to shift their reserves away from the US dollar. Central banks bought a net $27bn worth of gold, driven by Russia, whose net purchases were the highest on record, according to the World Gold Council, an industry-backed body. Volumes came to 651.5 tonnes, an increase of 74 per cent on the previous year.

and there are no new Tier 1 discoveries, let alone discoveries in safe jurisdictions....despite record expenditures.

No new gold exploration technology.

All the low hanging fruit gone in the exploration game .... ?

go gold!

best
the gnome

Very nice looking positions on gold .....
https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/future/gold
http://30rates.com/gold-price-forecast-and-predictions

Tiger
I would be with you. We have the AUD going south, prob 0.6 against the USD....election looming, and no leadership in sight...

good luck, go gold

best
the gnome.

Tiger,

Good catch Tiger. Sounds like those not set, should do so !

Lot of movement in OZ ...
The gold price also has a strong long term correlation to the A$ . This has provided a good natural hedge for Aussie gold producers given that when the gold price is falling, the A$ is usually falling too – which means the A$ gold price has done well in the weaker gold price environment throughout most of the current decade.
The chart A$ V Gold, shows the long term positive correlation between the gold price and the A$. However, since August last year, the gold price has been consistently bid higher during a period when the A$ drifted lower....and we are away to the races down under, and the Melbourne cup is not in sight....

good luck to us all

best
the gnome

Rebess

Yes, remarkable. But the City of London, the center of the web, holds the money laundering crown I believe
The City of London is the money-laundering centre of the world’s drug trade, according to an internationally acclaimed crime expert."The British treat it as not their problem because there aren’t corpses on the street.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/london-is-now-the-global-money-laundering-centre-for-the-drug-trade-says-crime-expert-10366262.html
You just wonder how much money is being laundered...the process of laundering of course has always involved the banks so just a matter of which ones are up to their armpits in it.

"Between 2007 and 2015, 9.5 million payments were made through this tiny branch by about 15,000 non-resident customers, many of them Russian. The total value of these payments amounted to some 200bn Euros ($236bn), about 10 times Estonia’s GDP.".... I am not sure that this was the Gold Medalist for 2018, but a solid effort.

https://www.americanbanker.com/articles/are-more-banks-tangled-up-in-danske-money-laundering-scandal

In Oz of course we have our own issues.Gaping holes in the anti-money laundering systems of Australia's big banks are being exploited by crime groups to wash up to $5 million in drug cash a day, according to confidential briefings by federal and state policing agencies.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/its-not-just-cba-all-the-banks-are-exposed-to-millions-in-money-laundering-20170914-gyhhpi.html

Given how hard it is to send money these days internationally it does make you wionder just how it is done, and who is complicit.

Perhaps...banks and banking empoyees, should be treated as criminals if they are caught handling such transcations, as they are complicit with the crime? ...

"A former top executive at a Swiss bank has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay up over half a million dollars following an investigation into an international money laundering scheme."
https://www.riskscreen.com/kyc360/news/ex-swiss-banker-jailed-over-billion-dollar-global-money-laundering-scheme/
Like to see a lot more of this!

I count using the "Treasure Islands" and transfer shuffling as a form of money laundering ...where would some of the gold miners be without it? Dirty business?

Nice action on gold? and the SP

best
the gnome

https://www.riskscreen.com/kyc360/article/china-emerges-as-money-laundering-hub/