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Why are the old board selling?

I’ve hypothesised about this before. Here is what I suspect happened.

Jason Brewer and co have got and awful record getting mines up and running (see Brewer’s other company Marula Mining as prime example). Recognising this, Brewer brought in Theo Botoulas as Neo’s CEO due to his proven delivery record and previous experience of working the Beisa mine. Credit to Brewer there.

Botoulas quickly becomes fed up working with Brewer and the old BoD as they are not experienced miners and says that either the BoD needs to change or he goes. Brewer and co know they don’t have the skills to get mines into production and that they are stuck without Botoulas so a deal is reached. The deal being they will exit if they can award themselves millions of shares first (as was done earlier this year).

Botoulas agrees knowing what a massive opportunity Beisa is and he will get in a new heavyweight board to help him deliver. I suspect there may have been also been an agreement that the old BOD must sell all or a percentage of their shares by a certain date as part of their exit. This explains a large part of the continued rounded selling of the past couple months.

All just a guess from me but regardless of if I’m right or wrong Neo now has a top tier board and a huge in situ gold and uranium resource.

I’m continuing to add at these levels as I just can’t believe that a SAMREC verified resource of this size, with the addition of Neal Froneman as Chair, is available as a penny stock. It’s a bonkers opportunity in terms of junior miners.

Agree. It’s actually a more positive update than first appears.

Firstly, the regulatory approval does not impact the overall production timeline at this stage (as has been stressed repeatedly by the new BoD).

Secondly, there is no suggestion in that RNS that Sibanye have any concerns. Indeed, they appear to be pushing as hard as NEO for the approval. I suspect the new NEO Chair, being the founder and until recently the CEO of Sibanye, is playing a huge role in keeping the two companies in sync. What an appointment he was!

So the RNS is highlighting no material issue but instead showing NEO and Sibanye are well aligned. This is a gift of a top up day in my eyes.

Agree that with the speed the SA govt mines department moves we are likely to see an extension agreed between Neo and Sibanye beyond 6th June.

That doesn’t change the investment case here any, unless as part of the extension the terms with Sibanye change. So watch out for that through both a positive and negative lens.

What an extension would also do is push key milestones closer together (keeping in mind the new BoD have stressed that approval delay has no impact on overall timetable for production at Beisa by end of 2027). And with key milestones closer together that’s an even better catalyst for a large SP rerate.

Yes, that was my take as well.

I mentioned this yesterday as to why I think the risk/reward question fundamentally shifted with what Froneman said at the AGM.

He spent the first twenty minutes talking about governance and running the company properly. In most penny stocks you simply do not get someone of Froneman’s experience and track record setting out, in detail, the importance of governance. He’s not here for a sound bite, he’s not here to muck around, he’s here to ensure NEO is run properly.

Yes, it’s still a penny stock. Yes, risk remains with regulatory approval and funding (although both addressed confidently at the AGM). But NEO is now run by a big time board (not to mention Sibanye’s stake).

NEO is now de-risked in terms of leadership. Couple that with the in-ground assets it has (SAMREC measured!) and I genuinely can’t fathom what more people could want from a penny stock mining company at this stage.

Presuming it gets funding and regulatory approval (doubtful Froneman would get involved if it wasn’t heading that way) then it won’t be a cheap penny stock for long.

I’d urge anyone who has been on the fence here to watch the AGM video and think about the risk reward opportunity here.

This is Neal Froneman, founder and former CEO of Sibanye, current Chair of the World Gold Council, now the Chairman on Neo - a penny stock!

And he spends the first 20 mins of the meeting talking about what some might consider a boring topic - he talks about corporate governance and how he is going to run the company properly. You don’t normally get this sort of reassurance in a penny stock from someone of this calibre.

But moving on from the corporate stuff here are a couple of snippets:

Skip to 1h 11mins if you want to hear about him planning to buy shares: -

"Let it be well known that I intend to buy shares" 

"I think this company has tremendous potential and future value".   

Skip to 1h 30 mins if you want to hear about why he has taken the Chairman role at NEO - the quality of the board/people and the quality of the assets.

Now Froneman has set is stall out I’ve purchased more shares today myself. Yes, there there are still risks here with regulatory approval and funding needing confirmation (although both of those addressed with confidence at the AGM), but you simply do not get the convergence of both high value mining assets and such a high quality board in a penny stock very often.

This, for me, is a rare opportunity.

My suspicion is Brewer and the old board agreed that a) they could award themselves additional shares as was done earlier in the year, and b) as part of them exiting and handing over the reigns to Froneman and co that the had to sell a % of those shares by a certain date. (Whether that % is enough to trigger a TR1 remains to be seen)

So I suspect the old board has probably left an instruction with a broker to sell all at circa 1p - which is why we continually see the round number sells at that price.

Frustrating of course, but when this overhang clears there should be a free runway for a decent SP increase.

I’m buying more when I can on the basis of this theory as it feels like numbers wise we should be getting towards the end of this overhang.

Europe’s LARGEST cultivated meat facility! And operational by next year!

I’m confident that when a wider range of investors start to cotton on that ANIC has Liberation Labs, Clean Food Group and Meatly all with large and industry leading factories operational within the next year and that revenue starts, then the gap to NAV will close in the space of only a couple weeks trading.

Good point re ease of different types of mining practices. 2 points in relation to Neo which are both positive.

The Henkries project is open free dig so falls into the easier and low cost category. Worth searching out the previous scoping reports on that project.

Beisa is deep shaft, so more challenging and costly. However the main shaft already exists! So it’s not a new venture just the cost of bringing it out of care and maintenance (still not cheap of course though!)

Agree with this with the caveat until SA Govt clears the acquisition there is still an element of risk.

Undoubtedly the logic is obvious though. Froneman would not have got involved if there was not a significant level of assurance and confidence that the clearances will be forthcoming. He’s simply too big a name to get involved with a penny stock otherwise.

For those catching up on Froneman please Google him. He founded Sibanye Stillwater and was their CEO until retirement last year. Current Chair at the World Gold Council.

And that’s now what changes the risk/reward debate here in my view. Yes the risk remains, but one can only be confident that Froneman has joined as Chairman at this stage for a reason.

To expand on a post from earlier:

This appears to be a huge green light for completion of the acquisition. Froneman simply would have not got involved if the transfer from Sibanye (the company he founded and was CEO of until last year) to NEO was not going to go through.

Froneman is about as big an appointment you could get to the board of a penny stock mining company. But stop and think about the information he’s been given to secure his services and interest. Someone of his calibre is not joining the board of a penny stock company unless they have been given clear and positive information on the acquisition completion as well as on funding and operational plans.

Agreed. Huge green light for the acquisition. Froneman simply would have not got involved if the transfer from Sibanye (the company he founded and was CEO of until last year) to NEO was not going to go through.

I urge anyone on the fence here to read up on Froneman. This is as big an appointment you could get to the board of a penny stock mining company. Genuinely transformative.

Like others I feel the need to praise the appointments here. Make no mistake - these are huge players which should hopefully bring confidence in NEO from all quarters.

Want to research if you are considering buying? Just Google the Miningmx article on Neil Froneman from 31 August 2025 to see how big a deal he is. For a small cap to have him as Chair is huge!

I think the big momentum shift won’t come from any particular announcement, it will come from sustained revenue.

Once that is demonstrated then the share price rise should be steady as revenue grows.

The California Cultured news is great, but still in the category of revenue yet to be generated. Although that list of portfolio companies due to start generating meaningful revenue this year is now even longer - that’s why for me this is a particularly exciting time for the stock.

Agreed. He could have phrased these comments better.

On the positive side I see those comments as him indicating that he’s taking a more involved role in the running of the portfolio which I don’t think is a bad thing.

Also, it appears we have a run of new interviews/podcasts recently. Investors have been calling for increased PR for a while so this is good to see. These along with the recent website relaunch and CFG videos (including Richard Reed making a rare appearance) indicates to me we are entering a new phase of PR which should hopefully help boost the SP back towards NAV. Indeed, it may be a coincidence but as this interview has got a bit of traction we have seen the first +5% daily rise in quite a while.

No. Accounts are not due this Friday.

As per Companies House page which is easily looked up: “Next accounts made up to 30 September 2025

due by 31 March 2026”

Companies House website for UK listed companies is a vital tool for investors to check important information about companies they are invested in. This includes information about when things like accounts and confirmation statements are due.

Agree with you to some extent Frogman about delays creating uncertainty. So does unclear communication so it would be interesting to hear why the Q1 estimate given in the last RNS for DMRE approval has now moved to later in the year. Presumably some communication had been given to Neo for them to publicly state a change to that window? Like you I would like clarification on that.

That said, it states in the video this has no impact to the overall timeline so I find it difficult to categorise this as a delay.

Where I disagree with you is where you state it doesn’t matter how much resource is in the ground. It matters very much. Junior mining companies are usually explorers and if you trust the Lassonde Curve theory (worth Googling for those that aren’t familiar with it) get a large boost in share price upon mineral discovery. For some reason I’m not entirely sure all are aware that Neo is quite different to other juniors in that it has a measured mineral reserve and infrastructure in place. It’s already in the traditional orphan period in the curve and at the final stage of the feasibility section (the existing and proven infrastructure at Beisa massively helps with that) and entering the development section. It’s at this stage of the curve the share price commences its biggest rise. Importantly development requires finance and the value of the gold and uranium in the ground plays a huge part in that.

Sanguine83 - a good question about what might the near term catalyst be to boost SP if there is to be a delay to the approval of the sec 11 by the DMRE.

Oddly enough I find the delay a positive. It’s been rare in my investing career that such clearly known about and signposted government approvals for small cap companies do much to the share price when received. The reason for that is traders in the small cap market often accumulate to sell on the news. I’d suggest those exiting this morning fall into that category.

This clears the way for those wishing to hold mid/long term to increase their holdings.

I’m not saying that the s11 approval being later in the year isn’t a small disappointment. It is. But as stated in the interview it doesn’t impact overall timelines.

I hope for and anticipate steady growth in price as the company moves towards production next year. The key thing to remember is Neo isn’t an exploration company - it has the resource estimates in place. If uranium and gold prices continue to rise as the company moves towards production, the value of those resource estimates should naturally put positive upward pressure on the share price regardless of RNSs that might cause spikes.