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The above deadline is from a very interesting article (IMO) for anyone looking to find defensive stocks in a world of turmoil.

Utilities have traditionally been seen as a safe haven (secure revenues and healthy dividends) in a crisis, the article points out that Gold Mining stock prices have been so badly mauled that the dividends are now higher than utilities.

That suggests that the sector is grossly undervalued and I suppose the real issue is if Gold prices will hold as market perhaps starts taking heavy losses as some predict - generally I believe they tend to dip initially and then outperform as the safe haven rationale kicks in.

The article is not from some obscure publication, its the Nasdaq and one contributor suggests:

“As long as the gold price holds up here and starts to rise again, gold stocks will have a big reversal rally.”

I think AAZ are due a rally based on their assets alone but a general rally in the sector would be even better.

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/gold-miners-approach-unusual-landmark

$3billion Acquisition according to AAZ's lawyers, yes it's Billion not million, is the value of the deal Dentons say they assisted AAZ with in Azerbaijan.

Last time I poster about lawyers (many years ago for a different company) the article was quickly taken down at the request of a CEO - often confidentiality means lawyers are not supposed to comment. Have AAZ mentioned $3bn anywhere?

They say the deal with the Azeri government was of that order (and they should know), the amended profit sharing agreement and deal for the new mining districts are clearly not worth that at the outset but are also clearly seen as of great potential value.

AAZ have indicated what a great deal it was, but also have to temper their comments so that it's not mis-interpreted as a give away and in the Azeri national interest - everyone's a winner.

Operationally: The company has presumably got the existing exploration data now and hopefully have access the the national mining company's viewpoint - and are analysing and planning their own programme. The company will need the support of the Azeri government to get various permits and permissions along the way so having such a great relationship is invaluable.

https://www.dentons.com/en/about-dentons/news-events-and-awards/news/2022/july/dentons-advises-anglo-asian-mining-plc-on-us-3-billion-mining-deal-with-the-government-of-azerbaijan

Are not intended to chase the SP up (are not permitted to), so buying is likely to be modest and sporadic, but it serves important purposes nevertheless. Demonstrates confidence, financial strength and a belief that the company is undervalued and buying is value enhancing for remaining shareholders. Also tells shorters that they are wasting their time.

This may be an unloved share in an unloved sector, but IMO it is one of the better gold/copper plays with so much upside.

They may be unloved but it looks like Libero is finally finding some supporters - up another 12.5% today.

There has been a protracted period where the company has been constrained from taking actions which has caused frustration as shareholders have seen them as obvious. The presentation explained that they have had their hand tied by the lender wrt hedging and activity they could undertake, further tied by the need to support the costs of CUDA through the sale and the restrictions on communications and spending. They have really not been in control IMO, just fighting their way through a swamp of their own design.

In effect they have been unable to progress drilling, buy necessary materials or undertake improvement to the field. All the uncertainty appears to be clearing now that CUDA is bought and the prospect of a new lending arrangement is imminent (within months).

It's sad that the company has been unable to increase production as planned, but the reasons have now been communicated and we can look forward to that long awaited upward trend in production and hence more cash available to increase faster.

One very interesting aspect of the presentation was that the flaring is considered to be their own gas so no royalty payable and strictly speaking no permissions should be required (though they are) and that pipe cleaning includes recycling of the gas/fluids so the cost is minimised - all good and guess the flaring of gas will recede as the pressure drops to acceptable levels. I wondered how they got it through against a backdrop of climate change activism and an unsupportive government.

As it stands now we just have wait for the company to take the necessary actions now they are able to do so, I'm happy to wait but for those that are not please just sell up and more to your own happy place.

Good news WRT Libero, they have announced they have started drilling Big Red and their SP is currently up over 10%, if they get good grades we can expect a lot more with Macoa drilling kicking in as we start getting results.

They are also waiting for approval to restart in Argentina - loads to potential good news even before AAZ start delivering on their programme.

The drilling at Big Red is very exciting with the potential for very good grades and an extensive resource and Macoa is already delivered world class result with one of the worlds best exploration holes just drilled - these prospect appear to be on a much bigger scale than the Azerbaijan areas.

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/libero-copper-initiates-drill-program-110000551.html

I've got News for some of you, "MANY POSTERS ON BBs TELL LIES, there's been plenty this morning, and other pretend to have a stance which is different from their true position whilst other groups post just for FUN and are simply trolls. Really, it's true people pretend to be shareholders, pretend to sell shares, pretend to have lost money, pretend to know something they don't, shocking isn't it!!!

Some of you are giving far too much attention to obvious enemies of the company (that includes rampers who are ultimately harmful) and endearing them with a credibility they don't deserve just because they hog the BB with constant BS.

It's exactly as Art said they would twist a difficult to decode information to fulfil their agenda and unfortunately the vulnerable and trusting amongst us will believe and old tried and tested scary BS (like it or not many of us know sod all about hydrocarbon geology).

The presentation was fine (very honest with lots of information about problems they are grappling with that other companies would have glossed over), they have explained the financial issues but refused to provide ammunition to the companies enemies, as a shareholder I agree with that stance. If you believe in the company proposition then grow a pair or relax, if you don't then sell and move on but stop helping the companies enemies create fear KEEP TO FACTS.

Absolutely no chance of AAZ operations being affected by scuffles or even serious fighting on the demarcation line in the peacekeeping area, we need some action in respect to the Armenian militia accepting they have to stop acting as though the territory is still legitimately occupied by Armenia or that they can return to the days of occupation. Then there is a chance of getting peace and the company getting the last of the 3 mines back that the war made a possibility.

The dispute is likely to drag on for years running into decades - so the ups and downs will come and go but AAZX will continue to produce Gold and Copper

The Armenians have being accused of dragging their heels and not pulling out as agreed or building roads etc and have appealed to Russia for help, for their part the Russian can't de anything unless they are prepared to face off to Turkey. Azerbaijan are accused to provoking battles to gain ground. Independents just look at the situation and are confused at how ridiculous it has become, for people to die needlessly.

In truth it all looks like the fault of the Russians yet again a dominent state failing to provide a demarcation along appropriate historic/sensible lines, just like the British did in India which supposedly led to around 1m deaths as people scrambled to get to the right side of the border. Irrespective of the background they need to resolve it with the Local looked after and guaranteed safety with Armenia and Azerbaijan reaching agreement where everyone get something. Russia has caused a lot of it's own problems, even the fight over Crimea was because the Ukrainians were given the territory by the Russians. Ethnic disputes are so tricky and everyone loses.

IMO it is a non-issue for AAZ as no one is expecting the last mine to become available any time soon in any case.

Of course anyone is entitled to sell, but why announce it?? Just move on if you've had enough - no one tends to care if you sell.

Back to the real business - Hasan or will soon be producing Gold from a very high grade area and Libero are currently drilling what could be a significant unexplored area at Big Red and will start major in Mocoa (Columbia) in Q3 - so the news/potential is good yet we appear to be focused on the negatives. I believe Mocoa could be worth well in excess of £500m once proved up( judging by, Big Red also has the potential to provide a very significant uplift for AAZ.

It is no surprise the SP has been trashed again, it's really frustrating but those that can't see this is the norm are just kidding themselves. It happens to lots of companies where an element of RISK is hanging over the future.

The news is great, but the company keeps issuing debt and shares at stupid rates, others have pointed it out already today

The interest rates that take on are right out of a Wonga loan shark portfolio, so we need the refinancing at a REASONABLE interest rate, not just any old number a lender throws the company's way with clauses that ensure we need to go back cap in hand.

There will be an element of "sell on the news" and shorters having fling with this, but it really all boils down to RISK reduction to get the SP motoring, they've got the reserves confirmation and that removed/reduced one significant risk (great stuff), but now they need to remove/reduce the others with solid financing so we don't fear a discounted placing every few months and also the small matter of showing they can execute a ludicrously delayed production plan in a timely manner and get some revenues flowing in.

Having said that I still think the SP will enter an upward trajectory in the coming weeks and months. We just need to be realists whilst the management spring into action.

It nice to see some flicker of optimism, though optimism may be too strong a word "hope" perhaps more apt.

Unfortunately, I can see no reason for it, learn19 says "What made you think that ?", I can't see any reason to be optimistic or hopeful - I read the annuals again yesterday, looking for genuine positives, and it makes shocking reading, not least because the BoD do not recognise ant failings glossing over a pathetic performance. Still claiming the objective of long term shareholder value creation - totally insensitive to the disparity between their outcome and ours.

Whilst the company was transitioning into a basket case they paid themselves huge bonuses (now admitted as a partial explanation of why costs dropped post the Covid crisis. They also have written off a huge amount of goodwill (intangibles whey purchased with Meeting Zone, what a disaster that purchase was). I saw no mention of the Cisco initiative, the partnership with a Telco that should be active NOW, and most damning IMO is that they don't discuss the main meetings business and Cisco sales which are the main revenue sources - the report is hiding important detail IMO.

How that translates to optimism I really don't know, unless I missed it there is no section on the current situation, except cherrypicked statements they bear no relationship to reality - yet again we don't know how they are performing.

Lets face it Cloud Comms and the new Hybridium business is contributing peanuts (and net loss makers) and the acceleration in clients sign ups has just not materialised.

So sorry guys I can't be positive, I've written off significant losses here and wish I could see some positive, but it looks like more BS to keep the gravy train running to me, the problem is they are presumably burning through the remaining cash.

Hope I'm wrong and thing turn around, but they have provided no reason for optimism, I wish I could be less gloomy, I don't even post much now as my investment is worth so little.

Libero have announced they have increased the amount to be raised through the private placing previously notified, they have also mentioned AAZ as an insider and that they are taking their proportion of the offering to maintain their position.
Looks good to me that Libero have the strong support of institutional investors. Apparently if AAZ wanted to increase their interest higher than 25% there are implications wrt getting permission for a Canadian listing.

"LBCMF
-0.67%
Thu, July 21, 2022 at 11:30 p.m.·2 min read
In this article:

LBCMF
-0.67%

NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR THROUGH U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES

VANCOUVER, BC, July 21, 2022 /CNW/ - Libero Copper & Gold Corporation (TSXV: LBC) (OTCQB: LBCMF) (DE: 29H) announces an increase to the previously announced non-brokered private placement now consisting of up to 10,500,000 flow-through common shares and up to 2,800,000 common shares all at a price of $0.33 per share (the "Offering") for gross aggregate proceeds of up to $4.4 million. The net proceeds will be used for exploration at the Big Red porphyry copper project. Existing insider, Anglo Asian Mining Plc, will invest in common shares in the Offering to maintain their 19.9% interest in the Corporation."

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/libero-copper-announces-increase-flow-223000921.html

As well as the main focus on Gosha (Hasan) and Vegneli into production and all the other bits and pieces of the long standing developed asset estate they now have the new contract areas and even Libero's massive potential to support. They are going to be very busy with all that, but on top of all that there are also other assets that have not features because of access problems. However, events are moving quickly that suggest all is about to change.

AAZ has the right to mine and explore Nagorno-Karabakh in the Kyzlbulag Contract Area, the exciting thing about this is that they could take possession of an existing mine with supposedly decades of resources and hundreds of $millions worth of plant and infrastructure. The current problem preventing development is safe access and Armenian troops are still stationed in the region with Russian peacekeepers guaranteeing safety so gaining physical access doesn't appear possible.

However, the Armenians are supposed to be leaving and supposedly have been doing so, the Azeri premier has recently complained it's too slow, so its great that the Armenians have just announced they will fully withdraw by September. That comes after various meetings between the sides and the EU and Russia, culminating in a meeting of the foreign ministers a few days ago. The Russian peacekeepers also have a schedule to withdraw and I suspect can't wait to get out and with Ukraine war dragging on, therefore I'm hopeful AAZ will gain access very soon.

WRT the Ordubud contract area the company said:
"As part of the agreement to cease hostilities, a corridor through the southern part of the region will be given to Azerbaijan to build direct road and rail links between Nakhchivan and the rest of Azerbaijan. These projected transport links will greatly aid the Company in its efforts to develop and exploit the resource potential of its Ordubad contract area in Nakhchivan. "

They also said "adit cleaning and re-sampling of adits in two regions, Pyazbashi and Agyurt,

Little has happened for the past few years but the Azerbaijani government are claiming great progress on the road rail links which are expected to link the wider region from Turkey through to Russia bringing in Iran. I suspect the access to the mining area is already greatly improved and may not need to wait for final completion of all aspects (expected in 2024) So it is very promising that they could kick start work on prospects already identified. I mentioned the comment on "Adits" (surface access tunnels) as that confirms previous mining, hence minable reserves in the vicinity. If the adits are also accessible that means mining can be established much quicker at lower cost. Not a priority of course but yet another option.

Loads of Irons in the fire and IMO no need to look for new opportunities unless they are complimentary .

https://www.euractiv.com/section/azerbaijan/news/armenia-says-will-withdraw-its-troops-from-karabakh-by-september/

Libero also released news yesterday, they are raising $3m to fund their exploration drilling at Big Red.

I hope AAZ choose to take more than their guaranteed allocation as it is a great opportunity to increase their % share of the company whilst the SP is low. A couple of million would see our shareholding push up towards 30%.

It is a placing that PI's can never take part in, these capital raises for an exploration company explains why II's don't care about a low SP and don't step in to buy in the open market until the are actually sure they can't grab more of the company in placings - I suspect (it's almost certain) there will be placing to come as they have so much to explore .

I suspect in the end AAZ will finish up owning a very significant chunk of Libero hopefully approaching the proportion they were likely to get of Conroy.

Investing in AIM companies is so frustrating, irrespective of news being good or bad trades which amount to peanuts and very often looking like manipulation can knock millions , sometimes tens of millions off a company's market cap.

Share trading and commodity trading have never been effectively regulated with a UK government happy to see shareholders fleeced as long as they get their cut. I noticed the other day an article about 3 US traders from one of the big banks are being prosecuted at the moment for decades of manipulation, in the Gold price specifically - they are just the ones that got caught, there is a small army of these opportunistic guys getting away with it.

It is somewhat ludicrous that participants gambling on the price of imaginary gold control the price at which real producers have to sell - what a pathetic system the desire to bet big on something in short supply has created - it's almost as silly as the Bitcoin ponzi, pyramid selling farcical scheme (great for easy money, money laundering despots and oligarchs though).

Rant over, I must say I enjoyed that, everyone should try it now and again. lol

All good - we know the existing mine grades are reducing as they have already worked out the best grades, they've never tried to hide that, but they are doing very well in maintaining production and profitability as they get ever closer to bringing significant new operations into production.

As well as maintaining production they are spending on the new developments with generated cash and maintaining a healthy balance, Vejnaly and the Hasan vein are being developed without any drama, and they still haven't advised on the production expectations from those developments so nothing is factored in.

I suspect Vejnaly could be a bit slow to come on stream but Hasan looks like it could be producing significantly very fast as all the infrastructure is in place and the reserve has not been touched and very high grades could be accessible. Vegnaly has been previously worked and it is logical that the previous operator will have taken the nearest available high grade ore and I suspect AAZ will need identify and move operation to access better grades. I could be wrong though if the previous operator closed the mine abruptly.

It is the nature of mining, it takes a really good operator to be methodical and not take all the low hanging fruit (best grades) , and it is suggested the Armenian operators where anything but good operators. So its taking time to sort the operation out and I'm confident AAZ have the expertise and discipline to do the job right.

All good IMO though - as an AIM company what I really like is the fact that AAZ don't throw in a new problem with every positive RNS - so many AIM companies do just that, always having a new issue to deal with.

They are due to start their drilling programme at Big-Red next week and their SP has been under great pressure but has recovered quite a bit of ground in the last week. They have huge potential for new discoveries in North and South America.

But IMO are are suffering from the election of left winger Pedro in Colombia - there is huge uncertainty about what will happen and if he'll stop new projects in the extractive industries, especially oil.

I think reality will bite very quickly for the Colombian people as his promise of a Green energy, Tourism driven left wing Shangri-La financed by raiding the saving of the rich falls in a heap - he wants the National Oil Company to switch to Green energy. It's a great aspiration as long as he does it logically with support of the establishment (unfortunately parliament is controlled by the right and the Judiciary is very powerful in blocking all manner of things). The danger is that investment dries up and money is kept offshore (already happening) - in the modern world money is moved almost instantaneously as an instruction is given.

I cannot see him fulfilling his promise, some of his plans genuinely have admirable goals - but he could hold up progress of many projects and trash the economy if he is not moderated. It is suggested even if he does attack industry that if he has any sense he will push Copper mining projects like Macoa because they will need loads of Copper for any Green transitions.

So the Libero SP has been under pressure, but there are catalysts to move the SP up strongly.

The news was great but has already been drowned out by the poor sentiment for commodities in general as fears over economic activity grow, and in the case of Gold there is fear of further falls as the price hit a year low this week and the $US is surging - as the $US rises oil and gold weaken. Oil has the positive momentum of strong demand and fear of disruption but Gold is fully exposed.

Clearly AAZ have very good AISC compared to peers and will turn in a good performance - nevertheless it puts pressure on the SP.

It can all change in a day though, we'll just need to bide our time.

A giant step forward - now it's up to the BoD to make the most of the broad range of opportunities.

No dramatic response to the news, but everything is in place for a great H2 and a steady SP rise.

Olderandwiser - I was pre-occupied yesterday afternoon and must confess I missed the afternoon RNS.

I agree, it is not best practice, especially as the reasoning for the loan is bot disclosed.

On the plus side, they have disclosed it formally and I'm sure they would not have done so if it was in any way illegal or underhand.

The loan is fully secured and pays interest - so shareholders are not put at risk.

So the perhaps guy needs money and is presumably a key person in pursuing "something undisclosed at this stage" on behalf of the company and therefore cannot sell his shares or perhaps the guy wants some cash and doesn't want to sell his shares and it is also the last thing the company wants. Selling his 772,665 shares to market would not exactly be a win for the company.

We won't know unless they tell us later, but I am not really concerned.

Failing to get your results approved is not a good look, irrespective of the suggested reasoning - yes we should be thankful the news was not much worse.

However, NONE of the resolutions should be voted upon until the results are available, they are interrelated and should be nul and void IMO as we are giving directors more power and potential ammunition to use against a shareholder revolt if there are any surprises in the results to be challenged

IMO the company is well positioned to switch up a gear on many fronts in H2 of 2022 and it could really be the start of a transformational period for the company.

They have so many great catalysts that could make a significant difference - I'm not saying news is imminent or that the SP is about to surge, AAZ is a steady type of company and it is more likely to be a low key transformation that will go unnoticed by the thrill seekers on AIM.

Nevertheless I expect to make a very healthy return on my investment here, a few pennies a week on the SP will do nicely.