Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
40 million shares is essentially 4% of the company and hence a notifiable transaction. The only 2 shareholder with disclosed over 3% holdings (apart from 5 major retail platforms that have a total of 33%) are
Westward Investments
(Adonis Pouroulis – CEO) 8.2%
Mr Askar Alshinbayev 5.6%
It seems highly unlikely that our CEO will have sold shares so logic would say it’s Askar Alshinbayev.
Tomorrow should be another interesting day when hopefully the rise we expected on this mornings news will get underway.
4 small upticks and CNR is Up 3.36% at 30.75p on volume of just 182000. The largest trade so far was a 63000 buy at 31.5p which is full ask. Now CNR has broken 30p it will probably move quite quickly to 35p if some volume kicks in.
Augmentum Fintech plc
Portfolio Company Onfido Acquired by Entrust
Augmentum Fintech plc (LSE: AUGM) (the “Company”), Europe’s leading publicly listed fintech fund, notes the announcement by Entrust that they have completed their acquisition of Onfido, a portfolio investment of the Company.
Augmentum’s understanding of the terms of the transaction implies a valuation of the Company’s investment in Onfido at £10.1 million (30 September 2023: £9.7 million representing 3.6% of the value of the portfolio).
The Company initially invested in Onfido the AI-powered digital identity verification business in March 2018 with a £4.0 million investment as part of a US$50 million funding round, with a further £3.7 million in December 2019. This exit will represent a multiple of 1.3x cost and an IRR of 6%.
The sale to Entrust, a global leader in identity, payments, and data security solutions, is Augmentum’s sixth exit, each of which has been at or above the Company’s holding value.“
Trades have continued to be reported after the close including 800000 buy at 8.98 and 2 small buys at 9.2 and 9.5p. This has increased the volume to 13.7 million which is very high in the absence of a news release. Tomorrow morning should be interesting.
Another 1 million trade has been late reported it immediately followed the 600k and 400k mentioned earlier and at the same price 8.87p so definitely a buy. That takes the volume to 12.5 million. The market clearly thinks news is coming and let’s hope the market is correct.
2 late reported trades from an hour ago 600000 and 400000 both at 8.87 which were buys by reference to trades at the time and indeed now. This takes the volume to 9.4 million which is the highest volume since the 40 million on 7th December 2023.
A 100000 buy at 7.5p has taken the volume to 7.46 million very close to your suggested target volume. There have been no sells for hours so let’s see if the last 45 minutes of trading produce the rise you would normally expect from buy volume of 5 million against sells of 1.6 million.
Equinox Gold Commences Processing Ore at Greenstone Project: First Gold Pour on Track for Q2 2024
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 9, 2024) - Equinox Gold Corp. (TSX: EQX) (NYSE American: EQX) is pleased to provide an update on commissioning progress at its Greenstone Project in Ontario, Canada. The Greenstone Project is being developed as a 60/40 partnership, respectively, by Equinox Gold and Orion Mine Finance Group and will be one of the largest gold mines in Canada, producing approximately 400,000 ounces of gold annually for the first five years and more than five million ounces of gold over its initial 14-year mine life.
Ore was introduced into the grinding circuit on April 6, with first gold pour expected in May. More than 1.5 million tonnes of ore have been stockpiled and 70,000 tonnes of low-grade ore has been pre-crushed to use for early commissioning feed. Progressively higher-grade ore will be fed into the mill as production ramps up toward planned throughput of 27,000 tonnes per day, with commercial production targeted for Q3 2024.
Greg Smith, President & CEO of Equinox Gold, commented: "Following 2.5 years of construction, Greenstone is on schedule to commence gold production in the first half of the year, as planned. This is a significant achievement and a testament to the experience of the Greenstone team. Greenstone is a world-class asset, and reaching production will be a pivotal milestone for Equinox Gold. Once operating at full capacity, Greenstone will be our largest and lowest cost-mine. We look forward to first gold in May and continuing to advance the project to commercial production."
There appear to be 3 bed and isa transactions so far with both parts of the trade being shown in the sell trades. So 290460 of the 381000 sell volume is bed and ISA. A bed and ISA is a vote of confidence and if it is to be recorded at all it should be as a buy. In reality the buys exceed the sells today and let’s see if we can breach 30p before the close.
A holdings RNS was issued after the close relating to a minor decrease in POW’s holding in terms of percentage. POW have not sold any shares and the change is due to the recent exercise of warrants leading to new shares being issued thus increasing the total number of shares in issue. POW have a significant number of warrants they could exercise which would increase their percentage holding again. I suspect that if the US Government grant doesn’t come fairly soon Ollie will be asking Shaun to exercise the warrants to further boost his cash. Ollie has had cash recently from a strategic investor and the exercise of warrants so he is well funded in the short term to get drilling underway . He will be wanting the Grant funds so he can ramp up the drilling when his permits arrive. Exciting times with regular news to look forward to.
From Malcy’s Blog today:
Chariot
“ Firstly today apologies, in the Bucket List on Friday Chariot was omitted from the text although was tagged in the header. The piece got lost between Word and WordPress, my apologies!
Chariot remains in the list as it is on the threshold of significant progress with both its operations in Morocco and has addressed the funding of the Transition Power division by way of a strategic review. Here, power and water solutions in Africa are being addressed and renewable energy generation with particular respect to South Africa, where interest has already been expressed and given differing differing funding solutions are required, that is understandable. At Loukos drilling is imminent and if successful would be fast tracked to development, at Anchois Chariot are working with Energean to progress further drilling this year. All this leaves me confident that there is substantial upside at Chariot.”
This is the concluding part of the article:
“ Reflecting the strong start to the new financial year, Singer Capital Markets predict a step change in profitability, pencilling in 162 per cent growth in cash profit to $16.8mn on 16 per cent higher annual revenue of $53.5mn. The forecast doubling of cash profit margin to 31 per cent reflects a four percentage point improvement in gross margin to 90 per cent), the benefit of cost savings and the operational leverage of the business.
Moreover, with Bang forecast to be cash flow positive in 2024, Singer have reduced the interest charge in their financial models and raised their 2024 pre-tax profit estimate by 8 per cent to $5.7mn, thus reversing last year’s $7.8mn pre-tax loss. On this basis, expect earnings per share (EPS) of 7.3c (5.8p).
Rated on seven times 2024 cash profit estimates to enterprise valuation, and given the upbeat start to this year’s trading, Bango’s share price rally is likely to gather momentum. Buy.”