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Part 2...

"But Solgold shares have since lost 54 per cent of their value, partly because a maiden resource statement published in January 2018 did not live up to the hype created by Newcrest and BHP's interest in 2016.

The drilling results in the resource statement were considered to be "encouraging” by prominent geologist Richard Schodde, but he said Solgold would need to find more copper grades above 1 per cent at Cascabel for it to be considered a "tier one" copper asset.

Newcrest chief executive Sandeep Biswas echoed those thoughts in February 2018, saying Solgold's Ecuadorian assets had the potential to become "tier one" assets but drilling to date had not yet proved them to be of such elite calibre.

Newcrest confirmed on Wednesday that it had Ecuadorian tenements in its own right, but none of them shared a border with Cascabel.

"Newcrest is happy with its investment re SolGold. We can't comment on BHP's intentions," said a spokesman for Newcrest.

The 54 per cent slide in Solgold shares over the past 16 months allowed BHP to make this week's swoop in counter-cyclical fashion, and emboldened the miner to pay a 20 per cent premium to the recent market price of Solgold's London-listed shares.

"We now we have effectively two majors on the company's register, and I don't think it is in the nature of either of them to want to sit still as minorities," said Mr Mather on Wednesday, adding that his company had defence advisors at the ready should a full takeover offer emerge.

"It is not in my nature to sell things under value and clearly the strengthening register suggests the world's major mining companies are coming to the same view as us in respect of its value."

BHP is understood to have locked up exploration acreage in close proximity to the Ecuadorian tenement that has made Brisbane-based explorer Solgold a takeover target, suggesting there is serious intent behind BHP’s $49 million investment in the explorer’s scrip (reports The Australian Financial Review).

BHP acquired 6.1 per cent of Solgold's London-listed shares on Tuesday evening, in a move that was not flagged to Solgold management and comes almost two years after BHP first revealed its interest in the copper and gold explorer.

The purchase triggered a 23 per cent surge in Solgold's London shares on Wednesday evening, and suggests the explorer could yet be the subject of a bidding war between BHP and Newcrest Mining, given the latter owns 14.5 per cent of Solgold and has loomed as its most likely acquirer over the past two years.

Solgold has published encouraging drilling results from its Cascabel tenement in northern Ecuador, raising hopes the geology in the region is effectively a continuation of the copper-rich belt that has turned Ecuador's southern neighbours (Peru and Chile) into major copper exporters.

BHP already owns copper mines in Peru and Chile, and has joined Fortescue Metals Group, Newcrest and Gina Rinehart's Han**** Prospecting in pegging exploration ground in Ecuador.

Combining adjacent assets is one of the most tried and trusted ways to create value in the resources sector, and BHP is understood to have secured strategically located tenements in relation to Cascabel in Ecuador's Imbabura Province.

Solgold chief executive Nick Mather said BHP was not the only Australian company that had sought to get close to Solgold.

"Han**** Prospecting are on our southern border," he told The Australian Financial Review on Wednesday.

Mr Mather, whose effective ownership in Solgold is close to 5 per cent, said BHP had not informed him of its plan to buy the 6.1 per cent stake off Solgold's existing shareholder Guyana Goldfields Incorporated.

"We didn't know about that, but it is good to see that BHP loves copper, loves Ecuador, loves our management team and loves Alpala," he said, in reference to the main drilling target in the Cascabel tenement.

SolGold shot to prominence in October 2016 when BHP and Newcrest vied for the right to acquire a strategic stake in the company, which at that stage had drilled just 17 holes in the Cascabel tenement.

SolGold chose to partner with Newcrest which paid US$22.8 million for 10 per cent of the company at the time) rather than BHP, which offered a higher price for Solgold shares but also sought to buy control of the Solgold subsidiary that held Cascabel.

Newcrest has since subscribed for more Solgold shares on several occasions, sending the explorer's market capitalisation as high as $1 billion at one stage in 2017.

But Solgold shares have since lost 54 per cent of their value, partly because a maiden resource statement published in January 2018 did not live up to the

Newcrest is aiming to have five tier one orebodies by 2020, which Biswas said was an "aspirational target".

"We're not going to die in a ditch or do something stupid at the end of 2019," he said.

The company already has Cadia, Lihir and Wafi-Golpu, and is hopeful Fruta del Norte and Cascabel are possible fourth and fifth tier one projects.

"We think the potential is there [at Cascabel] for a tier one and that's why we're there and we'll see how that transforms over time," Biswas said.

Well that didn't happen...but its interesting commentary (from ADVFN posting...)

"What Mackay said last year..(nothing much has changed since then)

"McKay sees the deals as an indication that Newcrest is positioning itself for a bid by improving its relationship with Cornerstone. “If I had to make a bet, I would say that Newcrest is the front runner and it may be that Newcrest and BHP will do it as a partnership,” he says. “I think something will happen before the end of 2019. We’re hoping that another interested player comes in and starts a bidding war.”

From..

Future of Cornerstone Capital Resources: Mining Executive Glen McKay Weighs In

http://www.finsmes.com/2019/04/future-of-cornerstone-capital-resources-mining-executive-glen-mckay-weighs-in.html

I'm confident this will be followed by a steady stream of news...

Franco Nevada signoff;

Regular drilling reports, especially from the 'shallow' prospects;

All them making the CGP offer more tasty by the week...especially as the SOLG SP rises steadily...

BHP cannot bid for CGP before Oct 15 unless CGP divests itself of the remainder of its SOLG holding...

So in a way this acts as a SOLG bid defence also...if it comes off SOLG will be even more valuable, but in the meantime the steadily rising SOLG SP means a bid from anyone will have to be higher...

Unless they get in quick...

But as I've said, the first bidder won't win here unless they come in with a 'knockout' bid, or unless they have a significantly higher bid than the opening shot up their sleeve...

Le the auction begin...as I've said, there's a giant game of 'chicken' about to be played out by the major gold, copper and copper/gold players...

Who will win...? Fait dos jours mes amis...my chips are on Barrick...

AIMHO as usual...

If this doesn't smoke out a bidder I don't know what will....

Breakout would be above $2.76/lb...

Meanwhile...

https://www.kitco.com/news/2020-06-29/If-history-repeats-itself-gold-prices-headed-to-4-000-in-three-years-Frank-Holmes.html

Three-month LME copper may test a resistance level of $6,075 a tonne this week, a break above could open the way towards $6,343, said Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.

https://www.kitco.com/news/2020-06-30/METALS-LME-copper-set-for-best-quarter-in-nearly-a-decade.html

Copper on the verge of breaking the 2.1/2 year downtrend...

Bullish article on Bloomberg:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-30/four-charts-that-show-copper-s-powerful-rally-has-room-to-run?sref=Hny5JH2p

I'm bid 20.8 for 200,000...

No that was from last Thursdays webinar hosted by Proactive, which I 'minuted' on here and ADVFN...

I doubt if its NCM, because they would have to make a declaration and that would immediately show their hand...

Oh dear iceberg...did you really say that...?

You've obviously never been a Director of a major organisation or especially a plc then, because just by sitting in a Board meeting you are privy to 'inside information' all the time...duh!

Or do you think quoted companies have an inner cabal that keeps all the juicy bits away from Directors responsible for 13% of the company's shares...?

Nick Mather is either a Private Investor or a Director...he is not an institution...yet...

And where do you get off slanging off someone about whom you know nothing...such as I wrote the first computerised Strategic Planning models in the Financial Services sector...I wont trouble you with the rest as you didn't read it the first time.

So assuming the price action is shortly going to kick off (and taking account-that some may have a similar strategy to me which includes selling half when the price doubles...), here are a couple of IMHO undervalued opportunities...

I'm not ramping them, just sharing...

ADT1 building an attractive portfolio including PGMs and copper having merged with Tethyan Resources...

ATYM...peaked at over 260p...Rio Tinto mine hitting max capacity of 15/16, 000 tonnes of copper (see June Qtr Production report due soon); already exploring for more resource onsite; Toure as yet unpermitted; throwing off cash....

AIMHO as usual and PLEASE DYOR....

ssmith...every now and then you throw out an opinion as fact, when it is completely wrong...

"Colonel, as I have said many times before on a DCF, today this is not worth $3bn..."

The Franco Nevada deal is at an equivalent of $3 billion...do you read anything the company puts out...?

"The raise wasn't done well. NO other institutional institutional investor got involved...."

“The Board of Directors of SolGold (LSE & TSX:SOLG) is pleased to announce a proposed fundraising (the "Fundraising") to raise minimum gross proceeds of approximately £16 million (approximately US$20 million)...”

“A total of 121,359,680 New Ordinary Shares in the capital of the Company ("Placing Shares") have been placed with new and existing investors...”

“The Placing and the Subscription raised gross proceeds of approximately £26.1 million for the Company (approximately US$32.6 million)...”

“In addition to the Placing, Subscription and the Retail Offer, the Company remains in dialogue with a potential investor for an additional subscription of up to US$5 million at the Placing Price....”

“The Board of Directors of SolGold (LSE & TSX:SOLG) is pleased to announce further to the results of the Placing, Subscriptions and Public Offer on 5 June 2020, certain INSTITUTIONAL and private investors have irrevocably agreed to subscribe for a further 21,440,186 New Ordinary Shares at the Placing Price...”

“the recently completed equity raising of US$40 million...”

So...the original proposal was $20 million but $40 million was raised...

There undoubtedly WERE institutional investors involved...do you think ALL that money came from private investors...? And any new institution doesn't have to declare until a threshold is crossed...

Please think before you post...

I'm bid 20.6 for 100,000...

phat...its widely documented that both BHP and NCM told SOLG not to go down the funding route they are currently pursuing, insisting that they should use equity instead...

So I think your suggestion is unlikely...

My personal view remains the same...this is one giant game of 'chicken'...the first mover will not get SOLG unless with a 'knockout' bid. When you look at the stats about the scale of `Cascabel alone, let alone the 72 other projects and 5/6 which could be bigger than Alpala, a knockout bid would need to be around 125p...

I think a rumour of a starter bid at 48p by Barrick makes a lot of sense...how many counters will depend on any discussions Barrick has had with the major players. Frankly SOLG makes the most sense to Barrixck who openly want to become a copper/gold player...

AIMHO as usual...

BHP has no current JVs with NCM:

"The portfolio of joint ventures includes Antamina (copper mine in Peru), Cerrejon (coal mine in Colombia), Nimba (iron ore project in Guinea), Resolution (copper project in United States of America), Samarco (iron ore mine in Brazil) as well as the Renova Foundation (designed to remediate damages caused by the Fundao Dam breach in Brazil).

We partner with Anglo American, Glencore, Mitsubishi, Newmont, Rio Tinto, Teck and Vale."

Newcrest: GGP; Harmony; Antipa; Imperial Metals; Encounter;

Barrick: Newmont; Saudi Arabian Mining. Barrick dropped their bid for Newmont to JV with them in Nevada...

Meanwhile...

https://www.thebusinessyear.com/ecuador-mining-boom-promises-big-rewards/focus

"According to government officials, by 2021, the mining industry could represent up to 4% of the country's GDP, up from 1.6% in 2018.
In order to make that possible, the Moreno government has had to attract development partners in the Western world. The Australian SolGold, in particular, has a mighty job on its hands. It is tasked with developing Cascabel, located to the North of the capital Quito.
At 20.3 million ounces of gold, 84.5 million ounces of silver and more than 9.5 million tons of copper, Cascabel, which should start operating by 2021, will be the biggest silver mine, the third biggest gold mine and the sixth biggest copper mine in the world, which speaks loads for the country's potential and a mineral exporter."

phat....surely Barrick cannot do due diligence without approaching the company...?

Then SOLG is obliged to put out a notice saying "the company has received an approach which may lead to a bid..."

Result? Boommmm!