Of course there *has* been news lately, it's just it hasn't been communicated to the market.
We've had our Exclusive Prospecting License renewed for Hope / Gorob, allowing us to continue defining the larger asset that exists in addition to our open-pit mine (the one we're currently awaiting the mining license for).
The problem is that there's been no RNS, and so nobody has been appraised of the development. Given the Regulatory News Service "ensures that company announcements are seen by the international financial community and helps them comply with regulations around transparency of information.", then it's incredibly poor that nothing's been issued by the company.
We've raised Bezant's lack of communication with Colin previously, and sadly it's a drum that's going to need to be banged again.
Hi Mr.T
I obviously have no more knowledge of the company's processes than yourself, but I would have anticipated an RNS this morning, and I'm surprised the company hasn't issued one.
We last spoke to Colin on 19th October, so given we look to catch up every six weeks or so, I guess the next one will be in early December. Like you, I suspect that it'll be a case of "steady as she goes", but that may all change if we get the mining (rather than exploration) license.
Hi all
It looks like we've had our Hope/Gorob *exploration* license renewed until October 2024. It expired on 19th October 2022, so we've been granted an additional two years to keep proving up the larger mine.
Let's hope the *mining* license for the open-pit mine follows in short order.
It's nice to have some timeframes added to the picture at last.
The Kanye license defined by the end of the year, ready for a resource report. A potential trade sale of Mankayan by February / March '23. A mining license for open-pit mining at Hope/Gorob (hopefully) coming soon.
One of the things we said to Colin was to remind him of the projects we'd started and later abandoned at Kalengwa, the "Buffalo" license and now Cyprus. He needs to have real focus on our now smaller portfolio, and by the sound of it he completely understood this.
I appreciate I'll get some stick for this, but once that mining license is obtained in Namibia (*crosses fingers*), this share will begin to reflect its very real potential.
RNS out - CMRS retain 100% of the assets and we don't contribute anything to the development so far. We therefore return to a position as if the JV had never existed.
The new Board's willingness to blame all the company's ills on the old Board is quite remarkable.
Colin has said on a couple of occasions that the Cypriot authorities haven't issued a mining license for over 50 years, and I wonder whether the recent loss of the exploration license by that military base sealed our decision to put a line under the JV? I also imagine no one was too happy when CMRS announced without any consultation that they were reviewing their Cypriot copper assets and might not take them forward following that review.
As a company, BZT has to take a look at situations when the opportunity arises, but it's pretty evident that CMRS under Martin Churchhouse was a very different beast to the company today.
Hi Assword
To be fair, there was a serious amount of sabre-rattling by the new CMRS board against a number of parties, not solely Bezant (Martin Churchouse's old board get a real kicking).
If we do owe the sum as noted, then at least there was no threat of CMRS instructing solicitors or such like. I wonder whether we might pay for our share out of revenues generated at either Hope or Cyprus? Alternatively, given liquidity is currently tight across the markets, we could always cash in our 27% of Mankayan.
I don't believe the issue to be terminal in any way, but there's no doubt that Mr. Market has now noticed CMRS' RNS, thus the fall in SP.
Agree with Overtrader. BZT's RNS needs to be read in conjunction with the CMRS interim results. CMRS claiming we owe them about $500,000 for the exploration work at Troulli - for a company of our size, they're serious numbers.
I'm sure there must be more to the story. If the original agreement was that both sides pay half of the anticipated costs pre-drilling, why would CMRS plough on with exploration on its own for a 12 to 18 month period? Is there a supplementary addendum to the original contract?
All very strange.
Yes please, Zak. I’m not sure it’ll add much to what’s already stated in the article, but it would be useful to see.
Given we’ve been told the IPO is not imminent on the Australian SX, I wondered what Colin was calling the Australian project leader “three times a week” about.
This might be my answer.
Hi all
I stumbled across a website (https://maps.landfolio.com/Namibia/) that allows you to track various mining-related applications across Namibia.
If you untick the "Active" box on the left of the screen, it'll get rid of a lot of the detail we're not interested in. If you then type "Hope" into the text box on the top right of the screen, you'll see that our application is one of the four listed beneath the text box (for the avoidance of doubt, we're "5796 - Hope and Gorob Mining (Pty) Limited"). The license is then outlined on the map of Namibia.
The turquoise outline colour suggests we've applied for a Mineral Deposit Retention License, even though the text box states we're "Pending Renewal" of an Exclusive Prospecting License.
Anyway, take a look, it'll hopefully be of interest. : )
Thanks Mr. T : )
I'm 29 minutes through the total meeting of 1 hour and 9 minutes. I'm looking to work on the notes this evening and I'd hope to have them ready for review by Prickly (as the other meeting participant) on Wednesday or Thursday.
Following their review, they'll be passed to Richard for distribution. Apologies for the delay.
Morning all
If anyone has (sensible) specific questions or points they'd like raised during our call with Colin Bird, please feel free to share.
As Mr. T suggests, I suspect the reduction in share price will be blamed on the fall in the cooper price from over $10,000 a tonne to under $8,000, however I also think there are questions to be answered regarding both the lack of an application to mine in Namibia (having checked our previous notes, we've been promised this development for just under a year), and the strategic review of the Cypriot assets by Caerus' board.
We've also had the renewed mining license in the Philippines for over three months now, so what progress is there to report regarding Mankayan?
The funding facility has been taken and the clock is now ticking on its repayment. It's no longer appropriate to wait for the results of this or that drilling campaign - we need to see funding options, processing plant construction and contracts signed to get the ore out of the ground.
These will be the points I press Colin on, but please add others as you see fit.
Many thanks.
Sorry to disappoint guys, but the two 5M buys were mine.
Colin has always said the costs of extraction come to around 60% of income. As such, the profit (subject to tax etc.) should be around -
8,000 tonnes x £8,000 = £64,000,000 (based on an exchange rate where $1 = 80p, and copper is $10,000 a tonne)
£64,000,000 x 40% = £25,600,000 of total "profit" to be split with Caerus
£25,600,000 x 80% (being BZT's share) = £20,480.
Colin's always suggested that Hope/Gorob would produce a similar result, which is where his £40,000,000 of income every year came from in a recent interview. The interviewer then suggested a P/E ratio of 4 would be perfectly possible, which is where the potential company value of £160,000,000 was derived.
From Caerus' Twitter feed -
https://twitter.com/CaerusMineral/status/1521438287231074306
We ask how Caerus' share price rises 10% on news, whilst ours doesn't move. It's not entirely down to putting some effort into getting the word out, but it must surely help.
We were told by Colin some months ago that BZT would be taking someone on to oversee general communication with the market, but lord knows where that got to.
I think we’re not seeing SP movement because this (decent) RNS is just more of the same. We know there’s a mineral resource at Troulli, but we don’t yet know how it’s to be extracted and at what cost.
Let’s see who’s paying for the processing plant (and how the funds are being raised). Let’s see the mining application submitted and understand the timeframe to start mining. Let’s understand the revenue that will be generated.
Without these issues being addressed, I think we’ll continue to see the SP drift.
Am I right in thinking that the maiden resource analysis has identified 20,000 tonnes of copper (and also a quantity of gold)?
Given we need, according to Colin, 64,000 tonnes (being a minimum of 8 years production at 8,000 tonnes a year), then I guess the balance of 44,000 tonnes still has to be found and confirmed?
This RNS is good as far as it goes, but it doesn't appear (to me) to be a slam-dunk with regard to the viability of the license. That having been said, we're still moving towards designing the mine and applying for authority to mine, so maybe there's huge confidence that the missing 46,000 tonnes will yet be found.
I suspect this might be why the SP isn't moving (yet).
Hi Mr T
I seem to recall that the Namibian authorities have asked for the mining application to be submitted by the end of this month. The Cyprus application is being submitted by Caerus, so I'm a little less certain about their timeline. I have no idea how long these things take to process.
I also agree that the Cyprus assay results should have been with us by now. I never understand why companies leave themselves hostages to fortune by declaring the results will be published by X date or Y date . . . . given the pandemic, they were always likely to be delayed.
I still think there are hurdles to jump before we see the big leaps in the SP. For instance, when can we start mining? The applications will contain detailed analysis as to how and where, and should contain the prospective tonnage expected. Once the application is granted, that'll be a massive step forward.
How will we fund the processing plant and initial mining? This is the big one for me. Colin believes there's money out there, but what kind of deal will he be able to pull together?
Once these details are agreed and shared with the market, then I think we'll see this take off.
I know we say it often, but this SP still seems like a genuine buying opportunity.