Member Info for goldgnome

Switzerland’s Federal Administrative Court has decided in favor of four big gold refineries that were under pressure to disclose their gold suppliers. IS ANYONE SURPRISED? The Swiss have probably hid a litany of crimes, illicit transfers, tax evasion etc etc behind their wall so self serving secrecy.

This content was published on March 31, 2022 - 18:27March 31, 2022 - 18:27
Other language: 1 (EN original)
The Bern-based Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) said Thursday that it took note of the court’s decision to “protect business secrecy.”

“Importers can now hide behind trade secrecy and are not accountable to anyone regarding the origin of the raw material and associated risks,” the organisation said in a press release.

In February 2018, STP had submitted a request to the Federal Customs Administration to examine the files relating to the origin of gold imported in Switzerland .

This request was made due to “the complete secrecy in the gold trade”. The had STP raised the question whether Switzerland is a hub for risky goldExternal link in a report focused on gold sourced in the United Arab Emirates and Peru.

“Swiss gold importers fail to take their duty of care seriously enough when it comes to trading gold from the UAE and Peru,” that report concluded.

The Swiss customs authority rejected the request presented by STP, which then launched an arbitration procedure through the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC).

The FDPIC recommended that the demands of the STP be conceded and, as a result, the customs administration ordered the disclosure of the data.

Toothless due diligence
The gold refineries appealed against this order at the Federal Administrative Court, which decided in favor of the refineries and rejected the NGO’s request.

"Transparency in the gold trade is the be-all and end-all for a clean and fair gold business," says Christoph Wiedmer, co-manager of STP. "Without this, due diligence is toothless, as no one can verify the decisions of this audit."

The decision imposed procedural costs of CHF1,000 on STP and CHF 8,000 on the customs administration as compensation for the refineries.

The STP considers this a punitive measure that discourages simple requests for information that are in the public interest.

The gold refineries arguments – notably that trade relations are subject to commercial secrecy – persuaded the court!?

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/may/06/swiss-politicians-vote-against-loosening-notorious-banking-secrecy-law

https://www.occrp.org/en/suisse-secrets/historic-leak-of-swiss-banking-records-reveals-unsavory-clients

very poor form as usual!

Had to have a dig, so deserving
best the gnome

Lodan, relax

Gold is a great investment. In 1972, the price was $38 and then raised to $42.22 in 1973, and so on, we have charged on, with the most outrageous Ponzi scheme ever created.

Led by Central Banks of various flavors, all acting in collusion, (illegal behavior amongst the peasants?) who are so blinded by their own ideologies they could not see inflation looming large, and those that did thought it was a spike?!
Being disconnected from the real world seems to be a key criterion for employment, as one wag suggested! Perhaps it might be a next career move for Boris?

So as the (bull) dust settles, gold will live on

CEY is trying to rebuild from years of "marginal management", and is in a good position I believe,

The gold exploration business has performed according to its historical performance, and failed to allow large companies to grow at a rate which replaces reserve and resource depletion. THats what happens when you get too big, and what happens when exploration (continues0 to underperform, despite the hot winds that blow.

If you want to make a quick buck, then go for trading, time the market, and good luck! Don't complain when you lose your shirt. I have not the time to time the market, so I am in for a longer run. Happy to get the dividends and I have not lost as I have not sold. Happy to see the pipeline develop, the mine develop on engineering grounds rather than whims of a Geologist, (always a good time to head for the exit in y opinion...geology and engineering is a problematical risk exposure I avoid)

CEY have a solid foot hold in one of the most prospective, and most underexplored, gold provinces in the world. Very itereested how they develop this strength!!!

good luck and good night!

the gnome

When you cannot grow by exploration success, and you need to grow or diversify your earnings , then MandA is the way. This is the history of the larger gold companies, and here we go again. The trick is to not overpay.

Exploration success int he gold industry, is very poor, and replacing gold ounces by exploration is a rarity.

With the acquisition oy Yamana by Gold Fields which will add much needed diversification, with projects in Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Chile to its mines in South Africa, Ghana, Australia and Latin America. The combined company will have a market capitalization of $15.9 billion, making it the world’s fourth-largest gold miner, behind Newmont Corp., Barrick Gold Corp. and Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.

...an attractive takeover because of its existing mines and pipeline of projects in the Americas. Gold Fields has in recent years worked to diversify its operations outside of South Africa, where it faces declining and increasingly hard-to-reach gold reserves and other issues (!).

Expect this to continue at the larger end of town, and CEY is well positioned (as a target) with a pipeline of near mine opportunities. Trick is to make your bid at the right time and price.
Egypt is looming now is the most under explored gold province in the world, and with regulatory reform to boot. West Africa held that mantle for decade or 2, and is still a very good place to explore

Going to be an interesting next 6-12 months!
best
the gnome

Dear Dr
You should not assume all of the players in the market are intelligent. Nor should you assume the market is fair and equally well informed. At one level it is a chaotic clash of get rich

the gnome

More seriously, it would be more pertinent if the "owners" of the artisanals wrote an ESG plus an end to slavery, and signed a fair work employment agreement.

Cowichan

Most artisinals cannot wirte their name

Don

They will surely drill a hole in any investors pockets, LOL.

Madness to grant exploration permits to companies that at best can only flip the tenement to a professional company, and at worst just sit and do nothing for years. This when coupled with the vast array of illegal miners now working Egypt with their 35-ton excavators etc. (not paying any taxes etc.) indicates the appalling management skills of the government in managing what are primarily the assets of the Egyptian people. No wonder there are revolutions. Quite a shame, as it is not too hard to do significantly better

the gnome

Thanks Cowichan

A "small" matter perhaps, but a lot of the "small scale mining" in areas of Egypt I have seen are anything but small, pick and shovel.
These are medium scale, highly destructive illegal mining using 25 -35 ton excavators. Sure, some of the excavator operators make some money, but 99% of the money goes to the owners of the excavators and that not a peasant.

The questions are

1. Who are the excavator owners?
2. Why are they allowed to rape the land, avoid paying any tax to support local communities, health, education?
3. Where is the government who are meant to be protecting and managing the natural assets of the country?

A: Lost in administrative detail and comfortable in their air conditioned offices, or writing new amendments to the legislature...all while Rome burnt

Q: Really, cui bono?

Cui bono is a Latin phrase that means “who benefits?”, and is used to suggest that there's a high probability that those responsible for a certain event are the ones who stand to gain from it.

sadly
the gnome

Thanks Duster

Very happy to be a shareholder, very clear

best
the gnome

I wouldn't go slashing my wrists just yet. Time for very cool heads, and sadly there are not many of those around.

A market correction has been forecast ad nauseum. The current S&P500 10-year P/E Ratio is 30-35. This is 50+% above the modern-era market average of 19.6, putting the current P/E 1.4 standard deviations above the modern-era average. This suggests that the market is Overvalued!?
https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/datafile/pedata.html

The ever charging earnings of some of the darlings in the US looks like it is going to run out of steam, and to be frank a lot of is so much hot air. The market in the US believes its own BS, which is generally not in short supply.

My investment is in companies that produce something of value, have a decent moat, good management, and good fundamental assets to keep producing from.

For CEY, I would like a smart Mining Engineer to have a look at how best to do the underground mining.

https://finfeed.com/investor-101/australias-gold-mines-by-production-grades-and-costs-part-1/

cheers

If Endeavour takes away a man or womans livelihood (scratching for gold), and there is no replacement and no social security payments, then what do they think is going to happen? If Endeavour had redeployed these people doing some purposeful dignified work from which they earned a small income, then this would not have happened. Today people can waffle about ESG and employ well-meaning consultants to invent various metrics to measure ESG, but in time gone by it would be called commonsense and been done immediately as part of solid community relationship building.

the gnome

One of the prime outcomes of education (my humble 2 bobs worth) is to give the educated persons the power to be able to see through the mountains of misinformation or manure, and discern the truth and the relevant.

Sadly, the education system has failed many, which does lead to one of the lead assumptions in democracy, ... each person one and equal vote being flawed. So in the end and as we experience it, we have a flawed political system, which produces such natterers and nutters and similarly flawed individuals as we see around the world in democraticised nations...and we get the ludicrous shenanigans that thinly passes for "politics"...lets invade Ukraine, regime change in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan etc etc...

Lets tune up the education system

Twitter being worth us$45b about sums it up for me ... what a lot of twats

best
the gnome

Could not agree more Cowichan. The board of Centamin looks

> relaxed and comfortable
> irrelevant
and is underperforming in its key duties to share holders

... lots of senior roles, and lots of professional experience, and member of the right professional societies and tea clubs, but rarely have been leaders and one would wonder how they define success...

I would like to see a large shake of the board and get in new people who are successful in areas of importance to the company.

just passing by

best
the gnome

Warren Buffett once said that it is wise for investors to be “fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”

good luck all... Let's invade Finland!

Western pressure on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine lowered the country’s crude-oil output by 9% in April and reshaped the global oil market as Russia sought new buyers for its production outside the West, the International Energy Agency said.. so just who benefits...Saudi Arabia and the good ol US of A..funny about that?

the gnome

In a new report, MONEYVAL, the Council of Europe’s financial crime research arm, offers a scathing rebuke to governments across Europe for failing to tackle illicit money flows.

MONEYVAL prominently credits the work of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which for the past decade has published extensively on the flow of dirty money through Europe to the rest of the world. "ICIJ’s repeated exposure of the role of lawyers and accountants in aiding money laundering caused the group to focus its attention last year on these so-called “gatekeeper” professions."
https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/pandora-papers-shed-light-on-gatekeepers-of-dirty-money-says-european-watchdog/

Atone have a board consisting of an investment banker, an Egyptian entrepreneur and a former derivatives and financial engineering specialist.

Any Met studies?
Hope they have a good handle on Geomet?
Have you calculated the stripping ratio?

"Hamama West is by far the most advanced
gold project in Egypt, and closest to
development"......well, well , heard of Sukari

Good luck with this punt Dan

Looks a but speci to me

the gnome

Thanks

"The AIRBORNE GEOPHYSICAL survey commenced flights during the quarter marking a first for Sukari and more broadly the mining sector in Egypt. The programme is scheduled for completion during Q2 and has been designed to identify potential exploration targets within the concession and further provide insights that could be used as we explore our highly prospective exploration ground secured in the Eastern Desert."

AIRBORNE GEOPHYSICAL SURVEY? Thats a Helicopter Electromagnetic Survey. NOT AIRBORNE MAGNETICS. Lots more information, but at 5 times the cost? ATTENTION TO DETAIL?????

I only just picked this up ... so thanks

CEY! LOOK AT YOUR COMMUNICATIONS, YOU ARE APPALLING. ISNT THERE SOMEONE WHO HAS THIS SKILL IN A BILLION DOLLAR COMPANY, UPGRADE NOW!

SIMPLY NOT GOOD ENOUGH,...

the gnome

One of the surprising things (not) is that the RSERVES of GOLD held by the top 20 or so companies is going down and has been for many years..and there are very few new discoveries on the horizon,

The SCORECARD
YEAR M OZS of GOLD RESERVE
2007 700
2008 830
2009 849
2010 898
2011 959
2012 967
2013 860
2014 818
2015 766
2016 744
2017 713
2018 614
2019 584
2020 582
Source: S&P Market Intelligence, Company Filings, Public Disclosure

THE COMPANIES: Companies include Agnico Eagle, AngloGold Ashanti, Barrick, China National, Freeport McMoRan, Gold Fields, Goldcorp, Harmony, Kinross, Navoi Mining & Metallurgy Combinant,
Newcrest, Newmont, Nord Gold, PJSC Polyus, Polymetal International, Randgold Resources, and Shandong Gold.

and whilst the amount of gold reserves is going consistently down, the amount of debt is going consistently up, and there are NO CAPS on the most magnificent of debt issuers, the USA (despite the odd rumblings)..

The debt just goes on and on , upwards and upwards.

So logic in a free, fair and transparent market would argue that where there is limited supply of something (lets assume demand is a constant) for the next several decades of gold, then the price of gold should go up especially in terms of pricing using the endless IOU's which have and will continually increase over the next several decades.

But it is not like that?

the gnome

I am far more concerned about the relative economies once the pandemic support trillions are withdrawn. Support for the paper IOU's not looking that flash...Lot of the rhetoric of economic recovery was built on prodigious money printing, and loose free flowing debt, to those who soon will not be able to pay the interest rates as they cruise to 3%. The bank said it expected many recent borrowers to cut discretionary spending next year given they had less time to build up buffers, poor souls?. We have the fallout of the ridiculous “wagyu and shiraz” case, in which the Federal Court found Westpac had not broken responsible lending laws by loose lending practices (surprised??)...and we are off to the races again, but with a twist which will not end well for many.

Perhaps CEY needs to add a twist into its asset base and see if they have any Lithium on their leases.

the gnome

I would favor the likes of the Maasai, over those of the likes of Bristow and the gun blazing mates.

I have been interested in the long term effects of the closing of the commons in England. https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/towncountry/landscape/overview/enclosingland/
On one side greater productivity from the land, to support greater populations.

On the other hand, it did force the common people to migrate to the industrial cities and become the fodder for the Industrialization of the many and profit of a few. Living in such squalor (Charles Dickens said it well), with few ways to sustain oneself, did lead to an outbreak (endemic?) of crimes, which in turn led to the exportation of the (excess of) common people (convicts) to Australia.
Interesting to note that with the exports of convicts came the export of the enclosure laws, which meant the local aboriginals lost their access to "their commons", which came as somewhat of a shock with liberal doses of disbelief and misunderstandings which echo to this day, to many fine legal firms advantage/s.
Quite a racket
But of many ...

the gnome