Member Info for schlemiel

I bet his opinion will be keenly sought and taken on board by BHP..I wouldn't be surprised if he's an external consultant for BHP

WMC was taken over in 2005...by BHP. Schodde's a BHP man

Mr. Richard Schodde, BEng(Hons), MBA, MAusIMM serves as a Non-Executive Director of West African Gold Limited. Mr. Schodde has extensive experience in Africa evaluating political risk issues and minimum economic target sizes for specific gold, copper and nickel exploration projects. Mr. Schodde served for 15 years at BHP Billiton and WMC Resources in exploration, strategy and Business development roles. Mr. Schodde is an Internationally recognized mineral economist and with over 30 years of industry experience.

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BHP

A third ASX-listed company, DGR Global, also owns 11 per cent of SolGold.

While there is no official regulatory definition of a "tier one" geological deposit, the term has become part of mining industry lexicon since BHP developed a charter that vowed to invest only in "tier one" assets that were large, long-life, low cost and expandable.

Mr Schodde said the majority of the value within the Alpala deposit, about 71 per cent, would come from the copper, suggesting Alpala would likely be a copper mine with gold byproducts rather than vice versa.

The heavier copper focus could make BHP a more natural owner than Newcrest, which is broadly known as a gold miner, albeit one that produces copper byproducts at some of its mines like Cadia in New South Wales.

SolGold's Australian managing director Nick Mather said he was very happy with the "rapid and inexorable growth of this resource".

"Alpala has got more to grow yet and we are pursuing that aggressively over the coming months," he said in a statement.

"Alpala is just the beginning for SolGold and we can see the emergence of the company as a copper gold major and Ecuador becoming one of the world's largest copper producers as a result."

Gold was fetching $US1221 per ounce on Wednesday, while copper was fetching $US2.79 per pound.

end

Peter Ker - I like this fella, a lot

Experts say SolGold's Ecuadorian asset now deserves to be ranked among the world's best copper discoveries. Paul Jones

The Ecuadorian copper prospect pursued by BHP and Newcrest Mining now deserves to be considered alongside elite copper discoveries like Chile's Escondida, Australia's Olympic Dam and Indonesia's Grasberg, according to an analysis of the latest drilling results by one of Australia's top mineral exploration consultants.

​Minex Consulting managing director Richard Schodde said the updated mineral resource estimate published by Ecuador-focused SolGold on Tuesday night had confirmed its Alpala prospect within the Cascabel tenement was a "tier one" copper and gold asset.

SolGold told the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday that the Alpala resource was now estimated to contain 13.1 million tonnes of copper equivalent metal; a 77 per cent increase on the previous estimate published in December 2017.

Perhaps more importantly Alpala's high-grade core is now estimated to be 99 per cent larger than the previous estimate with a copper equivalent resource of 6.1 million tonnes, and that could prove pivotal as many copper mines are now built small with a focus on a high-grade core leaving potential expansions for later when commodity prices make them viable.

Mr Schodde said Alpala, located in northern Ecuador, easily met his criteria for "tier one" status.
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"As part of my job I maintain a database of over 58,000 mineral deposits of all types around the world and 304 of these are classified as being 'tier one' so they are very rare and special by definition," he told The Australian Financial Review.

Mr Schodde said only 47 of those 304 top tier assets had copper as their primary metal.

"In other words Alpala has joined a very elite group of deposits, which includes Escondida, Olympic Dam and Grasberg," he said.

"In practice only one or two 'tier one' deposits are found in the world each year.

"In my opinion [SolGold's] claim of Alpala being world class is valid."

The progress of Brisbane-based SolGold has been closely watched in Australia since Newcrest and BHP made rival offers to invest with the explorer in October 2016.

Newcrest was preferred by SolGold on that occasion, winning the right to subscribe for a 10 per cent stake in SolGold, which has since grown to more than 14 per cent of the company.

But BHP has shown renewed interest in the past two months, spending $131.9 million on an 11.1 per ce

https://www.afr.com/business/mining/solgold-now-a-tier-one-copper-discovery-20181120-h185c9

lotto - relatively speaking of course...

I own shares 110k in SOLG. I have no need to trash the company. I post positive articles.

thanks

brilliant find Hesiod - reposted it on t'other relevant website (AD--V--EF-HEN)- thanks

'at the timing we (BHP) choose'...not SOLG but BHP

KB - tell that to BHP's McKenzie (CEO) and Beaven (CFO) -

''In comments that may also prove to be pertinent to BHP's newly acquired stake in SolGold, Mr Beaven said BHP needed to "own or have control of access to embedded options" so it could "execute at the timing we choose".''

That statement alone screams TAKEOVER or ENSA buy-out. I'd prefer the second option which would allow us to continue exploration across the other tenements controlled the remaining 3 subsidiaries...imhumbleo

another 250k sell order at 40p. Someone doesn't want this stock to appreciate in price..

sell side weight now at around 2.9m

Who is the mystery 250k'er? Kiss my arris you muther-foooooocka

'own or have control of access to embedded options'...and therein are the words of BHP. They want to own and control these assets NOT share Tier 1 assets with a poorly capitalised exploration company like SOLG. SOLG is nothing more than a means to an end for BHP

'It is likely that the most recent strategic investment in to Solgold by BHP anticipated this higher-grade core improvement. '......................or

BHP knew about the contents of yesterday's news before the market and chose to pay 45p for 100m new shares based on the aforementioned!

Alpala Exceeds Expectations

Impact: Positive

SolGold has exceeded expectations with its recent resource update for its Alpala deposit in Ecuador. The expansion of the high-grade core has exceeded our previous estimates, resulting in an increase to our NAVPS estimate. This resource update paves the way for company to publish initial economics on this world class project in early 2019E. We continue to view Alpala and the wider Cascabel project as a world-class deposit with scale potential that separates it from the pack.

Highlights:

- Expansion of the high-grade core exceeds expectation, benefits our estimates. Besides our expectation of a doubling of the Alpala resource, we expected a 50% increase in the high-grade core at Alpala Central (Figure 2). High-grade core results beat our estimates by 17% on tonnes, 17% on grade and 33% on contained metal. In our view, project economics are driven by the high-grade core, and this growth has boosted our estimates.

- A significant increase in contained CuEq. Using the 0.3% CuEq cut-off, contained copper increases by 77%, while grades remained relatively consistent. Importantly, there was a significant increase in Indicated tonnes both overall and for the high-grade core, improving our confidence in the potential of this deposit (Figure 1). It is likely that the most recent strategic investment in to Solgold by BHP anticipated this higher-grade core improvement.

- Better grades, better payback. To remain conservative, we have modelled the continuous portion of the high-grade core (mined years 1-7) to be 180Mt grading 1.85% CuEq (was 180Mt grading 1.67% CuEq), which has allowed for a better payback, reflected in an increase in the project IRR to 24% (was 20%). The increase in grade has allowed for a 19% increase in the projects after-tax NPV to US$2.82B (was US$2.38B).

- Valuation:
Resource update drives increase in our estimates. By accounting for the recent resource update at Alpala, we have increased our NAVPS for SolGold to C$1.47/sh (was C$1.30/sh). SolGold trades at a slight premium to peers (0.44x NAV vs peers 0.36x) and we believe a further premium is warranted given the scarcity and scale of Cascabel and that willing suitors are ready to pounce. Upcoming catalysts: 1) Ongoing exploration and 2) Maiden PEA (Q1/19).

http://www.redcloudks.com/companies/solgold-plc

'The biggest dog in the Bowen Basin, BHP, was clear during an investor briefing on Wednesday that it was unlikely to make further acquisitions in bulk commodities like coal and iron ore, preferring to focus on copper and oil.'

https://www.afr.com/street-talk/regal-funds-emerges-in-takeover-target-stanmore-coal-20181121-h1865m

Street Talk
Nov 21 2018 at 5:00 PM
Updated 39 mins ago

addi - I like the cut of your jib. I concur with how you perceive events. I see the story unfolding in an almost identical manner to yourself

I do like the word 'strategic'. It suggests an investment of great importance to the future fortunes of a company. It is my belief that BHP management see SOLG as a future building block of their business. When NCM's CEO talked about SOLG having enough for both it and BHP this did suggest SOLG's assets are of great size and importance

apologies but imagination running away with me now

https://www.bhp.com/-/media/documents/media/reports-and-presentations/2018/181121_CapitalAllocationBriefing.pdf

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'Strategic position in Solgold copper exploration project' (page 15)..not the words 'strategic' and 'solgold' not Alpala

page 13 - 'Ecuador exploration (copper)' = 'HIGHER RETURN'...so BHP see a much higher return from Ecuador and Solgold....

Why make reference to SOLG? BHP's spent around $100m on SOLG stock which is an absolute pittance for BHP and yet SOLG is continually highlighted by both the CEO and now this Beaven fella. A nice mention of 'Tier 1 assets of the future'...I wonder what that refers to?

I believe BHP attach a huge degree of importance to SOLG and the assets SOLG control. Mather talks about SOLG becoming as large as BHP in terms of output. That's a bold claim but why say it if he thinks the assets we own wouldn't be able to deliver? BHP want SOLG and BHP want SOLG's assets because they know those assets will provide huge amounts of value in the years ahead for BHP.

Embedded options

In comments that may also prove to be pertinent to BHP's newly acquired stake in SolGold, Mr Beaven said BHP needed to "own or have control of access to embedded options" so it could "execute at the timing we choose".

He said BHP was keen to add to its copper and oil project options, but indicated the company was unlikely to acquire new assets in bulk commodities like iron ore and coal.

Mr Beaven said BHP had created a more "objective" assessment process where the company's commodity divisions were responsible for suggesting project options, typically brownfield expansions that built upon existing assets, but not acquisitions, which were the responsibility of a central strategy team.

The changed structure is designed to separate those doing project analysis from those doing project promotion.

The capital allocation framework introduced by BHP in early 2016 requires investment in projects and acquisitions to be measured against returning cash to shareholders, and Mr Beaven said the company's focus on shareholder returns would "not waver".

Since ditching its progressive dividend policy in February 2016, BHP now devotes 50 per cent of underlying attributable profit to dividends every six months, and may add to those dividends if there is surplus cash available after paying debt and maintaining its existing assets.

end (3)

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A full takeover of SOLG by BHP is a fait accompli, imho