Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
HI Addick
Can you give me a bit more explanation of what you think is clear. I would like to know what you are thinking about this
Montecristo, You could well be right. I hope indeed that the relationship with BHP is good. But I am not sure about that. NM is apparently single minded and driven and not necessarily a consensus minded guy, although I do not know him personally. But even if the relationship with BHP is not that warm I don't think it matters to the outcome. BHP would know it wants this resources and BHP is not in a position where it can low ball Solg, due to the sheer size of the resource that has been proven up, IMHO. I tend to think if the relationship were really good that BHP would have appointed a director to the board. But I hope you are right. I agree with you that their hands were tied while a very large resource was built up
Thanks BNC. It is encouraging. RIO is out of coal. Glencore has limited its coal production. BHP is obviously sensitive about thermal coal. The political and popular emphasis on climate change makes these moves away from carbon inevitable over the next 10 years. This is a reality regardless of one's personal views about climate change and the contribution of coal to it. But they are all major miners and their businesses directly reflect commodity sales. Copper and gold are not out of fashion and there is no sign of that happening. Thanks for posting the article. The issues that seem to be critical now are twofold. The first is whether Solg is aiming to become a miner or to sell Cascabel and prove up the other tenements. The second, which is related to the first, is what is the funding it is seeking for: to become a production company or to further its proving up of its great resources. Time will tell. But I think we will know soon as some have said today.
Iceberg, Bozi and DBW, I am in agreement.
It seems to me (imho) that if NM was doing a poor job there would have already been a low ball offer come in from BHP or someone else. One has to ask why BHP has not made an offer if Solg is in as bad a position as some people on this board say it is? It is because BHP know they cannot steal the company. They must realise that route is not open and that NM knows better than anyone the value of the resource. He also has the share numbers to prevent a hostile takeover. I have no doubt that BHP would have swallowed this company already if they could have. It would be a no brainer and could be done at relatively little cost to BHP. The fact that it has not happened suggests that there is a battle of wills going on. NM only gets a great pay day if the PI's get a great pay day. People who whinge about his salary are penny wise and pound foolish. He stands to gain the big win from a big share price. I want the PI's who have put their money into this company to have a big win. And I enjoy reading this BB whether the opinions be optimistic or pessimistic. Good luck to all. We few, we happy few
Pretty accurate Earth
I think the patient will inherit the earth. Keep the faith mate.
It is a really interesting dynamic. I interpret the comments of Newcrest's CEO as him being concerned that Newcrest could be left out of the party. Newcrest also has great skills at block caving which is the most economical way to mine alpala. BHP, in my view, would do a JV which included Newcrest. I think that they would both be concerned about 3rd parties getting involved. And I expect that NM will be playing the 3rd party card pretty hard in the weeks ahead
Addicknt and Colonel, thanks for your comments which are both appreciated. I always enjoy reading you both.
Today I completely agree with what Addicknt has said.
The report explains a lot which a lot of us PI's have been wondering about for so long. That is a good thing as it has been frustrating to a real degree not knowing why there has been silence.
It is now an exciting time and it is now high stakes.
I would be interested in your views about BHP. I have wondered why BHP has not appointed a director to the Board of Solgold as distinct from Newcrest. My concern for a while has been is that BHP has wanted to see Solg discovery something great, burn its cash, hold a significant stake in the company, and not bear the directorial risk of trading while cash is low and then pick its time to make an offer. I may have this wrong as perhaps BHP has a policy of not appointing directors to exploration companies. I hope this is not perceived as negative. I would be interested in your views though.
Also, Nick Mather is a very talented geologist and also a form of high stakes gambler. He is not in unfamiliar territory now. I do not see the current situation as a set back but rather as a catalyst for a big game to develop. I am just very glad that we now have transparency about why there has been radio silence. The games will begin now. What cannot be denied is that Solg has extremely significant resources and enough cash to see it through for long enough to negotiate with different parties. So I would predict that NM has a few cards still to play. I really want to see the Solg PI's who have stuck with this company to get a great result, including myself and NM. I still think it is possible and that if negotiations are conducted well by NM we can see a great outcome.
Hi Bozi,
I was amused by your Pessimus Gol comment and believe I deserved your admonishment for pessimism. It is good to get a correction every now and then (except at home) . I am a long term holder of Solg and believe that the share price is totally out of kilter with the true value of what we have. I don't know NM personally but do know people who know him well. He is said to be a totally driven guy. I have never doubted that he will want to sell for the highest price or develop something big. Thanks for your messages which I have enjoyed reading and believe I have learnt something from
Why do they do this? They don't want to seem to say a word about the elephant in the room. It is great that they have some positive rock saw samples from another tenement but the RNS essentially tells us nothing that people are waiting to know about
Jerry and Quady,
Thanks for your comments and good luck to us all.
I do believe in this company and the medium to longer term is very bright
KB, I agree with your sentiments and you have written it very well. I will not add to the articulate way you have put things.
But I don't agree with some of the views expressed on the board (by people I like reading) that a listed company is entitled to impose some kind of unilateral news blackout on itself. If it is negotiating funding or is undergoing due diligence that would have to be kept confidential but this does not mean that ordinary drilling results (which have previously been disclosed) should not still be disclosed. If that were true, that there could be a blackout on all news, it would give a private equity investor or a funder an advantage over the market (and all small shareholders) in being privy to information that the market is not aware of and so able to get a potential bargain which is not reflected in the share price. I don't want to start any kind of acrimonious debate but only to register my disagreement with those views. I reiterate that I enjoyed your post and believe you put things very well
Cookie, I hope you are right. But if they are getting great drilling results in other areas they have an obligation to release that information to the market as price sensitive information don't they? Or am I missing a basic principle that applies to all listed companies? Why would Solg have a discretion to keep great drilling results, that are price sensitive, away from the market? Sorry, but I don't understand this.
Jerry, thank you for trying to get information out of the company. I feel a bond of fellowship with the regular contributors (whom I read) on this page and who have investments in Solg that are serious to them (as are mine). The news blackout seems likely to continue for an indefinite time. It is no good for increasing the SP. The only positive is that the SP seems to have bottomed out at 19/20 p. There is simply no good excuse for the company not publishing drilling updates and also explaining why MRE3 is delayed. NM may be following some cunning private plan of his own. But he should think of the effect of an information vacuum upon loyal investors who have real money tied up in the company. I would find it very disappointing if long term holders sold out now due to the dearth of news and then there was a big development in the months ahead that saw the SP surge. Information is apparently being carefully guarded and not released. I should say that I am grateful to all contributors who share useful insights, including but not limited to Jerry, DBW, Earthling, Rich3R, Addickknt, pinot, Broken Novice and many others. I still hope to see us have a great pay day in the end. I sincerely hope that the news blackout actually has some cunning plan behind it (not like a Blackadder plan) and that it has nothing to do with ego
Thanks for doing that Jerry. I hope it produces some results. I am not sure what Newtoit (whom I enjoy reading - like him I want this share to go very well) means by repeatedly saying DYOR. If we could do our own research we would. I have made what inquiries I can and they reveal nothing. So we have to rely upon the company to do the right thing.
Addicknt, I think there is real sense in what you say. I wish it was not the case!
I interpreted the comments by NB as a public aside to BHP and Newcrest. Basically a bit of bravado. But I don't think either of them would be very concerned, sitting on 14% each of the shares and with the share price low, and being sustained at a low level, and BHP holding enough shares that it has one foot on the company without having to have paid too much to acquire it all. If there is no news for a considerable time BHP can sit this out. It does not have a director on the Board who would owe duties to shareholders.
Not only is funding for large mines very difficult to source but particularly so when Solg is a company without a proven track record as a mining producer and the time horizon for funding before production would be several years (4to 5). NM has a great record as an explorer and entrepreneur but no experience (that I am aware of) as a CEO of a company building or operating a mine (in a foreign country with sovereign risk).
As to the news blackout, there is obviously some strategy behind it but we are all in the dark as to what it is. This is not great for us PIs. It is odd that what previously qualified for an RNS (drill results) no longer qualifies. If funding had been put in place I would expect that the company would have to release that news no matter how much it wants to play hard ball with the news blackout. And there would not be funding in place prior to MRE3 and a bankable PFS unless you were getting funding on very onerous terms.
Like many have said on this BB, patience is going to be required. I am very positive about the resource and what NM has discovered. Full credit to him and he should never be underestimated. But I am not convinced that he and BHP/ NC are pulling in the same direction. Good luck to all. With time and patience hopefully we can all see a great upside here. But the news blackout has gone on too long and the share price is suffering.
It is worth noting that of the USD 84 million, BHP spent about a quarter of it (USD 22 million) on acquiring the further interest in Solgold
This is an excerpt from BHP quarterly report delivered today:
"Minerals exploration expenditure for the December 2019 half year was US$84 million, of which US$67 million was
expensed. Greenfield minerals exploration is predominantly focused on advancing copper targets within Chile,
Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Canada, South Australia and the south-west United States.
Consistent with our focus on copper, in November 2019, BHP increased its interest in SolGold Plc, the majority owner
and operator of the Cascabel porphyry copper-gold project in Ecuador, by 3.6 per cent to 14.7 per cent.
At Oak Dam in South Australia, the third phase of the drilling program commenced in November 2019 and is expected
to be completed in the June 2020 quarter. This follows encouraging results from the previous drilling phases, which
confirmed high-grade mineralised intercepts of copper, with associated gold, uranium and silver."
I hope that there is an RNS today but we are all guessing about this. The company is now weeks behind with MRE3 ad there has been no excuse offered for the delay. I find the waiting very frustrating and particularly given that, if there is a simple explanation, the company has not given it. I do hope that the reason for the delay is a positive one as some have said on this BB. That is, I hope that there is some good strategic reason for the delay. I think we will see the troublemaker(s) back with new identities if we don't get good news soon. I have a view that things won't really move until there is more certainty in Equador politically and until later this year when BHP gets to the end of its restraint period. I think it is also odd for the infestors to claim that NM is occupied by his own self interest. I certainly hope he is! His self interest is to see the share price climb as high as possible and to sell out for bomb. That helps all of us. GLA
Thanks Earthling. Appreciated. I had not realised this. One can learn something new every day.
GLA
Solgolders, I put a post on this site today, in response to a post from Earthling (whom I enjoy reading) and my post and a series of other posts have disappeared from the site. I did comment upon what I perceive to be the sadness of the intrenched negativity of Fnecba21 but I consider that entirely justified given the regular tenor of his/her comments about others on this site. Does anyone know why or how this happens? I am not familiar with the censorship of the site but if genuine opinions expressed in good faith are to be removed I question what the point of reading it is. Share markets are meant to work upon the open flow of information and not censorship. Or is this just some administrative / logistical issue of which I am not aware?