Member Info for Johnywaz

Paying off the Corus loan would leave them without a pot and having to refinance any deal that came along. Why bother with the paperwork.

Stroll on... thats a belter, Dans a crackerjack on a rampage.

DB: Not specific projects. There are places I've been where I think it would be fantastic to work.
When I first turned up in Liberia, there was a lot more opportunity there than I realised. I think the projects that would have been available to get involved in at the time were largely iron ore projects, and the more I start to learn about the industry, I don't think those are projects for me, really. In a way, that's probably a good swerve. Ignorance is bliss. I'd love to do some more work in South America, I think Peru's got some amazing mineral endowments, and amazing people, and amazing place to work.
MJ: You founded the company with your dad [Hummingbird non-executive director Stephen Betts]. How do you find working with him?
He's fantastic. He couldn't be more supportive. He's a sage old hand, he's seen a lot of it all before. He's not a miner per se, but he's been a businessman all his life in the gold industry.
In our board meetings he's often the voice of reason, and sometimes boards can get carried away with red herrings and issues and not focusing on the core values of the business, which ultimately are the people and wellbeing of your people. He's great, he always brings it back to reality. I know he's totally supportive. Ultimately, the old family business has been going since 1760, I suppose we've grown up in a business environment and always working together as a family. It's totally natural as far as I'm concerned.

there?
DB: It's the worst day of my professional career, without a doubt. It was a horrendous event.
To be clear, it wasn't the community, it was an isolated group of people within the community. It was a very depressing event from our point of view because ever since we inherited the project from Gold Fields, a massive priority for us has been the community and environmental issues and all the projects we are developing in the community. Speak to the government of Mali, and they will tell you Hummingbird is years ahead of where any other mining company or peer company has been at this stage of development. It was a massively depressing event.
What happened is as we mobilised to pre-strip Komana West, the second pit, which was a well-communicated date, it had been communicated for probably two years beforehand. The artisanal miners in that area would have had to be demobilised by that date. Right up until the day before, there was no anticipation of any issues. Everyone knew this was happening. Most of the artisanals had already demobilised, and it was as per the community engagement plans we had.
In the morning, we mobilised to start pre-stripping the Komana West pit, and there were a few artisanal miners who were still there, who objected, and I wasn't there at the time, the national guard were managing and overseeing the eviction, but the official reports are that the artisanals protested and opened fire on the national guard, and the national guard returned fire. In that, three people were killed, and I think a number of others were injured. It was a horrendous event.
Obviously [this led to] a complete rethink on how this happened out of the blue, our communication, our intelligence. I would say two months on, our engagement with the community is better, there's been massive support from the surrounding communities and the community at large for Hummingbird, or the local company which is known as SMK, and this was absolutely an isolated group of illegal, artisanal miners.
That said, there is no situation that should ever come to the point where people get shot, so even though it was the national guard, and not directly reporting to Hummingbird, it's on our licence area, it's because of the activity we're doing, and we as the owners of that project have to take responsibility for it and all we can do is engage more and step up our level of community activity.
MJ: You've been in the resources game for a while now, are there any projects you'd like to have another crack at?

MJ: Now the mine's up-and-running, can you give me a highlight and lowlight of the Yanfolila development process?
DB: There were lots of different individual challenges. Probably the specific one I'd highlight is the day I was told the mill, which was ahead of schedule, had been demurred in Abidjan, and [we] went down to get it and it wasn't there. We had the paperwork saying it had landed, and it wasn't there. There'd been a cyber-attack with lots of companies affected, and Maersk had had a big cyber-attack and lost lots of freight. Their system had told us the mill had been delivered, [but] it was still on the boat, and we didn't know where it was. It was lost in amongst tens of thousands of containers all around the world.
Through our relationships in the team, we knew someone who knew someone, and this thing turned up in the port in Angola. That was a bad couple of days.
The intensity of the situation probably brings about the highlight, which is the team. Everyone says it's a challenge to go from exploration into construction, then operations, and I totally agree with that. I think the highlight is overcoming that challenge and the team we built during that process and for that process.
MJ: In May, three people were killed by the Malian National Guard on the Komana West site at Yanfolila. The statement at the time didn't have a lot of detail around why things had turned, and then ultimately why people were shot. Can you fill in the details there?

Hummingbird has recently also looked outside West Africa, with a US$1.5 million convertible loan to zinc-lead-silver developer Bunker Hill Mining, which has a project in the US state of Idaho.
Mining Journal: Yanfolila has had its first full quarter after ramp up, but you're not out of the development zone yet as Dugbe in Liberia is still in the permitting stage. Does it feel different as a developer in Liberia now that you've actually built a mine?
Dan Betts: They're pretty unconnected, to be honest. That said, if we were to build the Dugbe mine in Liberia, I would go at it with a lot more confidence, having done it before. There are differences; different geography, different terrain, different politics, but in terms of the physical nature of building a mine, the main bit is the logistics and the team building and the execution, I think we'd be in a much stronger position to deliver that project now.
MJ: Looking at an investment Hummingbird has made recently, Idaho is quite different to West Africa, and it's also a base metal project. What made you put some money into something so different?
DB: It's a good question. A few people were surprised about it. It's worth explaining our thinking. What is Hummingbird? People want to say we're a West African gold company. I would say we are an ambitious mining company that wants to be a lower cost-quartile, cash-generative, profitable, well-managed, mining company. We want to be able to exploit opportunity where we find it. Liberia was an opportunity; we found that gold from scratch, Mali was an opportunity from our relationships, what's next for Hummingbird, it could go in lots of different directions. As a team, we've been screening literally hundreds of projects around the world, and there's a lot of different criteria on which a project can succeed or fail.
If we go off-piste, out of gold and out of West Africa, the rationale for doing so would have to be exponentially better, and the further afield you get from that, in any discipline, be that the metal or the geography or the complexity of the project, the terms would have to be materially better. Idaho, lead-zinc-silver ... I accept it's very different to what we are doing in West Africa. That said, if the terms are exceptional, we've got to look at it.
We have done some preliminary due diligence, and in terms of our financial discipline and all the returns and ability to execute, it was worth a second look. That second look takes a lot of time, and there's going to be a lot of detailed due diligence, and that would not have been possible had we not given Bunker Hill this convertible loan because it would have gone bankrupt, and then the whole thing would have unravelled.
For us, this is not so much an investment as an opportunity to lock down that opportunity should it pass that due dilligence. It's abso no way a commitment to get involved in Bunker Hill and build it.
MJ: Now the mine's up-and-running, can you give me a highlight and low

Q&A: Hummingbird CEO reflects on first mine build
Hummingbird Resources CEO Dan Betts is now a gold miner. He graduated from developer by building Yanfolila in Mali, which produced 33,100 ounces of gold in the June quarter.

Dan doesn't bet: the Hummingbird CEO says the swerve to investing in the Bunker Hill base metal project made good financial sense
• Exploration / Development > Leadership
• 01 August 2018
• Comments
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Alex Hamer

Hummingbird has recently also looked outside West Africa, with a US$1.5 million convertible loan to zinc-lead-silver developer Bunker Hill Mining, which has a project in the US state of Idaho.
Mining Journal: Yanfolila has had its first full quarter after ramp up, but you're not out of the development zone yet as Dugbe in Liberia is still in the permitting stage. Does it feel different as a developer in Liberia now that you've actually built a mine?
Dan Betts: They're pretty unconnected, to be honest. That said, if we were to build the Dugbe mine in Liberia, I would go at it with a lot more confidence, having done it before. There are differences; different geography, different terrain, different politics, but in terms of the physical nature of building a mine, the main bit is the logistics and the team building and the execution, I think we'd be in a much stronger position to deliver that project now.
MJ: Looking at an investment Hummingbird has made recently, Idaho is quite different to West Africa, and it's also a base metal project. What made you put some money into something so different?
DB: It's a good question. A few people were surprised about it. It's worth explaining our thinking. What is Hummingbird? People want to say we're a West African gold company. I would say we are an ambitious mining company that wants to be a lower cost-quartile, cash-generative, profitable, well-managed, mining company. We want to be able to exploit opportunity where we find it. Liberia was an opportunity; we found that gold from scratch, Mali was an opportunity from our relationships, what's next for Hummingbird, it could go in lots of different directions. As a team, we've been screening literally hundreds of projects around the world, and there's a lot of different criteria on which a project can succeed or fail.
If we go off-piste, out of gold and out of West Africa, the rationale for doing so would have to be exponentially better, and the further afield you get from that, in any discipline, be that the metal or the geography or the complexity of the project, the terms would have to be materially better. Idaho, lead-zinc-silver ... I accept it's very different to what we are doing in West Africa. That said, if the terms are exceptional, we've got to look at it.
We have done some preliminary due diligence, and in terms of our financial discipline and all the returns and ability to execute, it was worth a second look. That second look takes a lot of time, and there's going to be a lot of detailed due dili

And this years prize for waffling goes to........

Better luck next time Funky.

Anyone in the industry got any idea what a 2 stage Ball Mill and an extra CIL tank could do for our output ?
Trying to look on the bright side and ignore the Carp SP.

Yeah, when it hits certain percentages the top 2 or possibly 3 candidates get a re run with just those on the ballet paper. The first sheet started off with about 20 faces on it.

Its easy to call a man spineless when you arent face to face.

Hes about done with RSHoles so gont hold your breath waiting for a reply.

The Cora deal also gave us exposure to Tekeledougou that we never had. Considering that all of our drilling budget was spoken for proving up our "low hanging fruit" any Further drilling up would have been kicked down the road. The Cora deal got it fast tracked. Makes sense to me.

Share the lot if you dont mindTom.

I am intrigued to see what comes of it and what case if any the company put forward for Bunker Hill.I dont believe that the Hummingbird Board would pursue a SH***er. There has to be a compelling case for investment.. Time will tell if it turns out to be a fruitless folly or a shrewd diversification.

Shaun Bunn
Senior VP Project Delivery
Shaun is a mining executive with over 30 years’ experience in exploration, mining, processing and project development. Shaun has a BSc and GDip (Metallurgy) from WA School of Mines, and an MBA from Deakin University. Shaun has managed mining projects through all stages of development, from grass roots exploration, feasibility studies, financing, construction, commissioning and operations.

I was under the impression that Shaun Bunn with is 30 years in the game would have built more than Yanfo.

To have it as an option. But i think as the money comes in the company become more empowered and the ambition and drive will steer them to a project and not buyingbacks. Now if we had a second producer up and running i think that would be very different. But just not yet. If you listen to Dan on the CC you can tell he is less than enthusiastic.

Wont happen. They are asset hungry and want to keep hold of the team. The blokes who put Yanfolila together are project builders. They arent interested in sitting in an air conditioned prefab in africa watching the ounces go by. They want a project and HUM want to keep them.