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To be fair the resource as it stands is still pretty small at 600koz, but there is a large oxide portion and the grades are good. Its the near surface stuff that has the value, not deep extensions. More importantly there is upside potential which is what the bigger companies will be looking at if they want to get a foothold in Guinea Activity in Guniea definitely picking up: http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail/AVM/12994546.html
Why would they be interested in another acquisition if they are selling up? RTO has been mentioned, but again where would the new acquisition fit in? Is some kind of JV more likely?
2M here. Took a punt at 0.35 in July. Can't grumble :-)
2M here. Took a punt at 0.35 in July. Can't grumble :-)
There is huge upside at Mandiana-Delagna and that's one of the biggest selling points. The current resource only covers a tiny area of the licence and there are artisanal workings everywhere else. Marela, not sure, too far away from the other projects but some additional decent results for both areas wouldn't do any harm.
I'm hoping the acquistion is contiguous to their current licences, there were a couple of beleagured companies holding ground nearby which could be got on the cheap. I'm a big believer in the upside potential of the area and that is an important selling point, which I'm sure Capt Sparrow is well aware of.
Me neither! The board have done well to weather the storm over the last couple of years and are now very well positioned. Onwards and upwards with Captain Sparrow!
All going to plan, just a little patience required but things definitely taking shape nicely
A lot has happened in that year. Ebola over and gold price rising, bigger companies will be looking at Guinea again. This is only going one way.
Isn’t it rather worrying that the biggest project that BNC has been working on over the last two years does not even get a mention? Indeed, especially considering their revised plan with a shortened mine life for Trojan. Four years of high grading is not enough to justify the smelter. As for mining only low grade after that, well, I'm not sure they can even make that profitable. In addition to the low grade there is a huge issue with MgO content. This material cannot be treated by a smelter and even the concentrate itself may be unsellable due to the high MgO content. So from where I'm sitting I can't see any point of proceeding with the smelter, (which of course is what I've been saying from day 1). This will obviously raise some interesting issues with the $20 million bond... As for Hunter's Road it is even lower grade, about 0.5% if I remember. I am extremely sceptical they can mine that profitably, especially with trucking it to Bindura. Have they done a BFS? If so shouldn't shareholders be able to see it? As seems to be the norm with their press releases you have to read between the lines. Personally I don't think things are quite as rosy at BNC as some people seem to think... Oh and I’d also like an update on the shaft deepening project, in particular what it’s costing.
The fact that the smelter (or the bond to pay for it) was not even mentioned tells me that they've realised its a complete white elephant.
All the mid-large sized gold companies are desperate for projects at the minute. I'm sure one of them will come to the party. There is definite upside potential in the permit as well which is a big selling point
How much of that resource is inferred? What are the recoveries? The fact is that Freda has always struggled with maintaining grades. I wonder how much grade control drilling is being done? This is usually one of the first thing accountants cut to save costs, but can create huge issues going forward. The poor grades to date this year suggest to me that they are not on top of this. And when you are having grade issues the absolute last thing you should be thinking about is increasing tonnages as the problems will just be magnified
What 3rd party mines indeed. The nearest mines are in Botswana, where there is already a smelter, though its shut down at the minute.
100koz won't happen. They are struggling with grades already, increased tonnages will make it even more difficult and with grades sub 2g/t an underground mine is going to struggle. Are they going to tell us what these mills are costing?
The issue at Freda is the grade. So for this year they haven't got it above 2g/t which for an underground mine is marginal at best. Increasing tonnages will make keeping the grade up even more difficult. So I don't see production increasing and 100koz will never happen. Its an old mine and the best bits are long gone..,,
The issue remains what are they going to put in the smelter? They are currently mining less than half of what is required to fill it.
to advance a gold project in DRC, so Zani needs more exploration, a large scale mine won’t fly as it stands. I think they could have got there if the previous team had been given the chance, but as I said they all left (which tells you what they thought of the new management). I'm afraid I have no confidence in the current management to run a successful exploration programme. Their attempts to run exploration in the copper belt have been a disaster and produced nothing. And where are they going to get the money to do this? Let alone the huge amount of money required to build a mine. And remember that they don’t have 100% of the project, I think is 80 or 85% with the DRC government having free carry on the rest. So basically just the rants of a miner with 30+ years experience who disagrees with how this company is being run and in particular the short term decisions being made by a bunch of accountants. And the selectivity of their reporting. Anyway, I’m doing very nicely with the proper gold mining companies I invested in when the price was down, Endeavour and B2Gold. I don’t find myself disagreeing with any of their decisions. But then again just compare their boards with that of Asa…
I have interest in this because I'm underwater on it. I was delighted when the old board were ousted and hoped someone with a proper knowledge of mining would come in and fix it. Instead we have a pathetic board with ZERO hands on mining experience and all I am seeing is bad mistakes being made by accountants running mines. They are making short term decisions to make themselves look good, while ignoring the effects of these in the mid to long term. They are also extremely selective in what they report, particularly in terms of capex. I’d like to know how much the deepening project at Trojan and the plant expansion at Freda are costing for example. A few comments: $950 an oz will never be achieved at grades of less than 2g/t. Increasing tonnages will inevitably result in a grade drop as well. There are reasons why this hasn't been done before. The smelter requires tonnages of over 2x what they are currently mining. Where is that coming from? High grading has also sterilised huge amounts of low grade ore making increasing tonnages even more unlikely. The smelter is a complete white elephant that should have been halted immediately. High grading to break even when prices were at the bottom was a crazy idea and a typical accountant decision. The mid to long term effects are beginning to show. Lower grades due to lack of access to high grades, says the update. That's one of the classic effects of high grading, mining outstrips development and you hit a situation like this. Any miner could have told them this, but no, the accountants decisions win. They have also not considered the large areas of low grade ore which are rendered unmineable by high grading. Also neither mine has currently met indiginisation targets. As for Zani-Kodo, it's the best project the company has by a long way and the main reason I invested. The exploration team that developed it were excellent and did a great job. Unfortunately they were never given a chance to progress it fully. As usual what money there was got thrown down the toilet at Trojan. They should have spun this off as a separate company not have it dragged down by other poorly performing assets. Investors want gold only companies, so as long as it is shackled by BNC it will never attract the interest it deserves. Unfortunately all the good people involved in the project are long gone. Who's running this going forward? NE DRC is not an easy place to operate and it is expensive. The comparison with Kefi is meaningless as it is not in DRC. Their resource is also 100% open pit and largely oxide (important little mining things). Zani has zero oxide the resource is split over several areas some of them low grade. The main Zani mine area has also been depleted at surface so can only be mined underground, i.e. expensive. There are several +million oz projects sitting undeveloped in DRC, there are reasons for that. The general consensus is that 5Moz is the realistic minimum to
A couple of amendments on your nickel calculation: Nickel - all in costs at $6818. Current Nickel price is $10650/t (Asa get 65% of that =$6922) meaning ASA makes 3832per/t/ ( Asa makes $104/t) BNC sold 6613t (Asa own 75% = 4,960t) so that is 6613tx$3832=$25mil (so that is 4,960t x $104 = $0.52mil) Not quite so rosy, eh?