America Square Pt 11 May 2019 12:44
Please see Michaels contribution, posted below by Van
Did my usual drive to Oxford Park & Ride then Oxford Tube bus into London because of lack of late night trains to Telford, so late night and late start today!
Anyway. Generally more of the same, little if anything new. The presentation was very assured by Dr S, getting better with time tbh, with contributions from MDV also. No questions were ducked, and all answered (even daft ones from me).
So in addition to Michaels contribution. All of this is a brain dump so don’t expect logical structure:
Zack van Collier was I the audience, and contributed on several occasions. He is obviously rightly appreciated as important part of the team.
We can expect costs from the current mining to remain on a par with those recently reported, both in the recent quarter and foreseeable future. Oil is a very significant element of the companys costs, so the relative stability of PoO at a level significantly less than previous highs is welcome.
There is still significant undistributed funds in the JV, the amount was not however specific. Holding cash back in the prudent, and I personally support that, though would be nice to see a number!
I disagree with Michael on one point. There was discussion on the free cash flow post the completed repayments of the Kiziltepe loan - the BOD did not dismiss returns to shareholders, and were aware of s/h expectations, but that the needs of the ongoing business was the priority. They did point out the many potential uses of such money. On a general point they cannot commit to never seeking placings/ right issue but are not implying that any are likely. There are many uses for such money and I’m sure that free cash could be spent several times over on advancing exploration (and shortening timescales), maintenance of licences etc etc – the latter is a concern as progress has to be shown to maintain/ renew, although as the Companys reputation grows this becomes easier. The BOD were confident of the Companys standing with the Turkish authorities (including the current lending Bank).
Support from Turkish government, for mining in general as well as Ariana, is solid. They don’t see any immediate threat to the Turkish economy but acknowledged that external influences cannot be predicted (but that is true pretty much everywhere).
I have to expand on what Michael said about Arzu South. It is starting to reach exhaustion, maybe towards the end of this year. However there is still the possibility for deeper mining there as originally the drilling only extended to a maximum of 280m (I think that’s right), at which point mineralisation was still being encountered. There is also the possibility of further exploitation at the Northern End of Arzu South, though it may be in the future rather than continuing mining there now. I raised a concern that the move to Arzu North and Derya would cause disruption to production figures, but it was implied that this would be managed using stockp
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