Member Info for mrtibbles

Ruffle feathers indeed?
There are more than enough member well rewarded members on the board to be able to cope delivering production figures and ensuring the best interests of share holders which includes that the terms and conditions to a contract are honoured in good faith and delivered in full by all the parties of the contract.
In fact Centamin has honoured and exceeded its obligations in Its contact with the Egyptian government by delivering over and above what is is obligated to.
How it can be absurd to for the patient share holders of Centamin now contributing so much to the Egyptian economy to ask the board via its legal team to take this opportunity to ask for some equality of treatment or consideration along with the 32 other companies?
Ruffling feathers it you choose to call it that doesn't appear to have done these 32 companies any harm, quite the contrary in fact!

Today's email sent to Buchanon & Centamin PR , hope a few more share holders will start pushing for some answers.
See the email from June 2018, I wonder if you may be able to clarify this situation please?

17th June 2018-06-17
RE: Diesel fuel case
The subsidised diesel price in Egypt was increased 16th June 2018 by 50% ( from 3.65 to 5.50 LE), howevert did not affect Centamin as the company has been paying the international price since 2012 and so the company currently is not benefiting from any subsidy.
Egypt aims to completely lift the subsidy according to instructions from the IMF I wonder then what implications may this have for the outstanding and as yet unresolved Centamin diesel fuel subsidy case?
As you are aware Centamin had been asked to pay the subsidy back for the period between 2009-2012 which Centamin is challenging in cour

Kind Regards

Well spotted Cowichan!

Thank you Siko for all your help and contributions to this forum.
I hope that you have successful and enjoyable trip to Eygpt

Tibbs

Crude oil has also dropped very considerably in price which may well reduce AISC (diesel)in the future.

From past experience these valuations are not reliable anyway, although I think Goldman are just playing safe with this.
None of these brokers are to be relied upon anyway we most probably know more about Centamin than most of them!

I think the difference from what I have been told is that Mr Sawiris as an Egyptian is somewhat envious of the El Raghy Centamin Sukari agreement and he is on a personal crusade to further a personal cause and saw his influence in in Endeavour as a way to do this.
Also Endeavour are desperate and saw the Centamin cash pile as a way to solve their cash flow problems.
There is still the court case that remains on hold whilst the SCC supposedly continue to consider whether to ratify or reject Law 32, agreed this did not deter Endeavour but then then desperate situations dictate desperate actions!
So until some sanity or common sense becomes more apparent in the Egyptian judiciary and the Centamin court case remains on hold and the never ending procrastination over law 32 go on it will not encourage company like Barrick to make any serious commitment to Eygpt.
New mining laws are all very well but actually seeing them through in Egypt may well be quite different if past events are anything to go by.
So I don't share your opinion that Barrick will be champing at the bit to get involved in Egypt, certainly not until there is some definite proof in the pubbing as it were!

Hi Dasut,
You are of the same opinion regarding both the Barrack business model and the Sukari Centamin agreement as a well informed acquaintance of mine!

Aton Resources Inc. – The CEO’s View on Mining Reform in Egypt
“I have been recently asked if I could give my views on the landmark amendments to the Mining Law and Executive Regulations, as well as my views on what remains to be done,” said Mark Campbell President and CEO. Here is my take on these changes....

https://www.juniorminingnetwork.com/junior-miner-news/press-releases/1485-tsx-venture/aan/72623-aton-resources-inc-the-ceo-s-view-on-mining-reform-in-egypt.html

The opinion of experienced mining analyst Kees Dekker
A 5% royalty is very onerous. You can equate it to 15%-20% income tax. The article is however quiet on all other fiscal regulations and without those it is difficult to come to a view about the overall tax burden.

Quite interesting really.

Sorry typos below -The markets are as crooked and bent as Trump and his puppet Boris!
RBC are the stinkers who were trying to help Endeavour get hold of Centamin on the cheap so that Endeavour could asset strip the company to cover up their flawed strategy!

The Republicans won't allow the evidence to be heard confirming the US has a "Crook" for president and so all is well with the dollar again, so it's dump safe havens & risk on!
In reality the markets care not a jot about the underlying qualities an d potential future value of of a company, all the LSE and the markets care about is churning the shares for a quick ptofit and lots of lovely trading fees!
The markets are as crooked and bent as Trump and hid ***** Boris!
Whi is going to trust RBC

https://www.bullionvault.com/gold-news/gold-price-020320202
Monday, 2/03/2020 14:24
GOLD PRICES fell from 3-week highs on Monday in London, as risk sentiment recovered – and Western stock markets rallied – despite a plunge in Chinese equities as Beijing vowed to ensure financial stability amid the fast-worsening coronavirus emergency, writes Atsuko Whitehouse at BullionVault.

Gold prices slipped 0.8% to $1577 per ounce as the US Dollar rose and so-called 'safe haven' currencies the Japanese Yen and Swiss Franc retreated from multi-week highs.

Major Western government bond prices also slipped with gold prices, edging the yield offered by 10-year US Treasury debt up to 1.53% per annum, still one-fifth lower from the start of 2020.

Noting the 8% plunge in Shanghai's stock market – the biggest daily drop in 4 years as it reopened a day late after the Lunar New Year holidays – "Chinese markets are just catching up with the risk off moves in the past week," says Adam Cole, chief currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets in London.

"The fact that we haven't had any more bad news over the weekend means that there is a bit of a sigh of a relief, so risk markets are faring better."

Shanghai-traded commodities from oil to copper also plunged at Monday's opening, hitting their maximum down limits despite the People's Bank of China unexpectedly cutting its short-term interest rates and pumping over $175bn of liquidity into the money market.

The Yuan meantime fell past the key 7-per-dollar level, plunging 1.2% to its weakest so far this year, and Shanghai's benchmark gold 'fix' price – launched 3 years ago – rose above ¥357 per gram, the highest level since last August's new record, but still shy of the record Yuan prices set in 2011-2012.

Quite so, Centamin would never have entered into any agreement base on "Production Share"
Neither would most other mining companies who really knew their business!
Hence the recent changes in Egyptian legislation.
However Buchanon are of the opinion that these new changes will nor affect the Sukari concession T&C in any way?
So will Centamin now be tempted to invest more into Egypt?

http://www.almalnews.com/
Dec 2016
Mr. Youssef El-Raghy (General Manager-Egypt Operations) confirmed that Centamin would not apply for the new licences/auctions in December and would not pump any new investments in Egypt due to the unfair conditions imposed by the ministry of Petroleum, adding that the company is moving new investments to 3 African countries instead of Egypt. These investments were supposed to be pumped in Egypt, but the difficulties and bureaucracy forced the company to take the decision not to pump any new investments in Egypt, especially under the new Mineral Resources Law.

Centamin will not apply under Production Shares T&C Dec 2016
Eng Yousef Al - Rajhi , Vice Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of Centamin ie, that the company would not advance to the bidding for gold exploration that you will ask the Ministry of Petroleum this month, and will not inject any new investments in Egypt.

Al - Rajhi said that Centamin will not enter the auction because of the unfair conditions set by the ministry, which will attract brokers went, not serious investors, according to the recipe, adding that the company transferred its investments to the three African countries as an alternative to Egypt.

The Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tariq Mulla announced last November 14 announced the launch of an international tender to explore for gold in Egypt during the month of December.

Al Rajhi and pointed out that "Centamin" is currently conducting exploration for gold exploration countries of Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Tkfattt so far $ 60 million, as a prelude to pump new investments for gold in these countries.

He said in a statement to "money" that was scheduled to pump these investments in Egypt, but the difficulty of the situation and the bureaucracy, pushed the company to make a decision not to invest in Egypt again, after the completion of expansions Alsukari, especially in light of the new law of the mineral wealth.

And it saw the new law, the mineral wealth heated debate among investors in the sector, prior to approval by Parliament earlier this year.

Egypt and got a $ 40 million profit from Alsukari during the period from July to October 2016, and about $ 80 million franchise fee.

The Centamin only company producing gold in Egypt among eight international companies holds exploration rights for gold in Egypt, owns Centamin Australian listed in the stock exchanges of London and Toronto, the company Pharaonic mines gold, which holds the gold extraction process Alsukari southern Egypt and considered this mine is the main source gold.

Production is about 300 kg of gold from the mine each week, shipped to Canada for the gold purification plants, then sell at world prices, and the supply of value to the bank account in one of the state banks, continued the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum.

Under the agreement signed between the Mineral Resources Authority Centamin that the Centamin funded project Alsukari solo until the operation to be recover these expenses from the return selling gold producer, along with payment of 3% royalty to the body 's mineral wealth, and after completion of the recovery of expenses are sharing sale profits went The mine equally between Centamin and the body 's mineral wealth.

A previous post by me-
Centamin Profit Share with Egyptian Government Explanation Buchanon
29/06/2016
The profit share will be what the profit share will be – the joint venture partner, ie the government, sits in the 50% owned subsidiary Sukari Gold Mines. The management board of this subsidiary has representatives of the government and an equal number from Centamin. All of the investment into the Sukari mine is audited, with Sukari Gold Mines very much being a part of this process. Similarly, all gold sales go through Sukari Gold Mines, where the operating surplus will be divided 50/50 between the government and Centamin, once the original capital has been repaid back to Centamin and its shareholders. The 3% royalty has been paid to the Egyptian Treasury ever since production started (this also goes through SGM).

With the above in mind, there is no issue with regards to the money that has been ploughed into Sukari, particularly the costs of Stage 4 (c.$350m) – this needs to be recouped before any of this operating surplus can be shared. This is not due to kick in until later this year, or possibly in Q1/Q2 next year. It is all a function of the ramp up in production and the gold price.

There is no dispute between Centamin, the Egyptian government and/or EMRA, nor the 50/50 Sukari Gold Mines subsidiary. What you are getting is probably a series of people mouthing off that they want profit share now. This is a political game more than anything, as the deal is the deal (in fact Centamin have advanced the country a few million dollars as a demonstration of their faith in this deal – this will also be recouped out of future operating surpluses due to the government).

What is wonderful is that very few people seem to understand what this 50/50 deal is – it is effectively a 50% tax on free cash flow. In fact the 50% will not kick in until 2016, as in 2015 this will be 45%. To counter this there is no VAT, no corporation tax, no other taxes to pay all beyond the above and the royalty, which on a blended rate compares reasonably well with other 1st world mining jurisdictions (like the US, Australia, Northern Europe etc).

Hi Rebess, yes that may ell confuse many who read this article, Centamin has a "Profit Share" agreement with EMRA.

See some links originally provided by Siko-

http://gate.ahram.org.eg/Media/News/2017/2/26/2017-636237441861789391-178.pdf

Hi uncertain, I will give you the ultimate answer. You will find in the link above a pdf file of law 222 year 1994 (The concession agreement) .
In page 51:
After the deduction of royalty payments and the recovery of costs and expenditure as provided in paragraphs b,c,d and e, any remainder of sales revenue shall constitute net proceeds and shall be shared between EMRA and Centamin.

(You will find all the details in the pdf file. One page in Arabic, then one page in Englishttps://www.arabfinance.com/2015/pages/news/newsdetails.aspx?Id=416470&lang=ar

http://www.alarab-news.com/ebusines/article-1421687.html

some figures from Mr-Yousef El-Raghy in case some of you find it useful:

-$12.2m advance profit share paid to EMRA in October 2017.
-$136m total advance profit share have been paid to EMRA since October 2016

.

I fully appreciate that this email from Centamin is from 2014 but I thought it is a reminder that many of the issues we discuss at present have been going on for years now.
So in view of recent events and that some may not have been Centamin investors for as long as some others I thought I would post it.

Thanks for the email. Burkina Faso has its issues, as do many West African countries. The fact is that Burkina has seen the highest number of new gold mines built out of all Africa in the last few years – there are 8 or 9 now, when 10 years ago there were zero. In Egypt there is only 1 gold mine in production – of which you are a (patient!) shareholder. The companies who have built mines in Burkina Faso will have weighed up the pros and cons of doing business in a country such as this one – and they will have considered what the long term benefit/challenges would be for shareholders. The view remains that this is a place where you can do business, despite its challenges. The advantage which Burkina has over Egypt is a well defined Mining Code – notwithstanding the prospectivity of the country which to date has only had limited modern exploration. Remember why Centamin acquired Ampella – it is not just for the existing resource, which in itself could be interesting (but not at where the gold price is at the moment), but for the exploration. The Batie West deposit, which has over 3m oz of resource, also fits neatly into Centamin’s potential development pipeline of projects – Ethiopia is still pretty much grass roots exploration, whilst Sukari is full production. This fits the middle part of a profile of what a proper mining company should have.

I also think it is sensible to have some diversification from Egypt – if all the eggs were in that basket it gives Centamin much less leverage. The opportunities of discovering cheap ounces in Burkina, in an environment which is much easier to permit (due to the mining code), gives Centamin the option of either developing assets themselves, or otherwise.

Hope this helps.

As stated by my friend Cowichan -It is A good reminder of how long we've been waiting and the concerns that have been present from the start. Mining in Africa is going to have risks, but the more investment the developed world can provide the less despair troublemakers will be able to exploit.
Also, having a responsible miner like Centamin extract the resources is a thousand times better than what's going on currently - the environment is being trashed by mercury etc. and the artisan miners are risking their own health and safety too

Mr Bond, was this announced anywhere?
I find it interesting that a severe rainstorm in Egypt of all places could have such an impact on a conveyor?

This would explain why they bought yesterday, they would have had access to the results during the due diligence, who says that the markets are not run like a bent bookies!

Hi Miz,
I know for certain that Cowichan has never or is ever likely to have invested in Endeavour!
Cowichan is a long term and loyal investor in Centamin who has always worked tirelessly to show the positive aspects of the company and increase the share value by encouraging the management to deliver on their past promises.
Cowichan deserves our gratitude.