Member Info for SharketMare

Two weeks into the New Year and we're already speculating that no news means a bid's imminent? Must be a new record!

Ella, as a disgruntled investor here I appreciated you highlighting some of the reasons why we have seen such a bleak decline in share price over the last 6 months. The communication from the company has been poor, particularly around the ongoing court cases, and we have not done nearly enough with the drill bit to assuage investor concerns (hence us trading around 2.5p). However, over the last few weeks you've gone from prudent researcher to outright troll - to the detriment of this board. I am all for a counterbalance to the rabid optimism that is so common across LSE message boards, but your endless repetition and rhetoric has strayed into the unhelpful and purposefully disruptive category.

Would you mind giving it a rest for a few weeks?

SM

Thought exactly the same thing earlier swest. We may finish marginally in the red today but the sustained activity without any news is a massive positive. Mid-30s by Feb?

addicknt, you're wasting your time.

BBG writes: "SOLG towards have also become incredibly quiet. Almost muted."

In December the company updated us on Tandy, on Porvenir, held its AGM, and updated us again on Porvenir (MRE). But don't let facts get in the way of baseless speculation.

Bozi, the only thing I'd add to your post is the third option which would allow for JVs - selling off just Cascabel.

Copper, interesting take on the publication of PFS and DFS at the same time, that would certainly wake the market up. I can't say I'm holding my breath for such news as the former has been painstakingly delayed for quite some time now. But I would be more than happy to be proven wrong!

Slug, simply put I don't know. But the leap from that to Blackrock is manipulating the SP is not one I'm able to take.

Just so I'm clear - the theory is that Blackrock on the one hand offers exposure to SOLG to its clients through funds and ETFs (whereby they have a vested interest in the fund/ETF performing well, to attract more capital), but on the other, is actively holding down the share price so that they can sell their 5% stake at a profit when a bid eventually comes?

To me this smacks of a breach of fiduciary duty and, as rcgl2 pointed out, is extremely counter-intuitive (surely a higher share price now would lead to higher bid when it comes - when the SP is 'in the doldrums' we are vulnerable to a lowball/hostile takeover). In short it is nonsense.

This whole way of thinking is akin to those who believe there are users on here on the payroll of market makers, trying to seed doubt into LTHs minds to pick up a few more shares on the cheap (because MMs can tell the future apparently...). As if the odd 10k here and there will make a difference to them.

Rather than believe the system is rigged and there are dark forces against us, I choose to believe the simple, rational explanations that have been laid out here time and time again by the likes of rcgl2, Lunch, addicknt and others.

CD - you highlight recent trading activity as an example of Blackrock at work. Where were the TR-1s?

Happy New Year
SM

@dgs99 - the shares will list on ASX, we don't know what price they will IPO at.

30p on the ask! Well done to all LTHs of this share and a big thanks to Vince and Len for delivering. Plenty more to come.

"BHP made a big annoucement regarding their intentions for Ecuador last month and we all know they want Solgold. BUT, why would they strike now when in 12 months time the Board of Solgold would had been white washed with neutral individuals."

BBG, very rarely do we agree but this is bang on the money. I see no reason why BHP would bid now and think our hopes lie with Nick having a third party lined up to take them on.

Quady - you are categorically wrong (again). The majority of people admitted to hospital after testing positive with COVID are vaccinated. Only around 35% are unvaccinated.

See here for the hard numbers: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1027511/Vaccine-surveillance-report-week-42.pdf#page=14

Because the vast majority have now been vaccinated, and because a % of these will still end up in hospital when they get COVID (because the vaccines aren't the holy grail some say they are) there are more people in vaccinated people in hospital with COVID than unvaccinated.

Yet again you attempt to rubbish and belittle posters on here on a topic you are uninformed about.

Hi red, thanks for taking the time to reply - you know more about corporate governance than I do, so I'm always keen to read your thoughts.

Let's start by looking at SOLG's current BoD and where their loyalties may lie.

Liam Twigger - Chair - part of the old guard
Darryl Cuzzubbo - CEO - still a question mark over him and his intentions
Elodie GG - seems to be against the 'old guard'
Keith Marshall - unsure where his allegiance lies
Nick Mather - old guard
Maria AA - unsure
Kevin O'Kane - seems to be against the 'old guard'
Jason Ward - old guard
James Clare - unsure

I think the situation is far more precarious than you make out. Both BHP and NCM can nominate someone onto the board without going through the nominations committee (by my understanding). There is a very strong chance we lose Nick next year, and we might also lose Jason Ward (that was pretty close). If we lose two of the 'old guard' and they are replaced by the board members that BHP and NCM are entitled to, then the make up of the board starts to look very different indeed.

From your discussions with the company, you will know more than me about where allegiances lie. But you've hinted strongly the KoK and Elodie at the very least are anti-Nick (which for my money is as good as being pro-BHP or NCM). I'm not sure where Keith's heart lies, nor James or Maria.

BHP and NCM may have kept themselves out of the boardroom as a tactic - much easier to throw stones from the outside and undermine the BoD and leadership when none of your own team are part of the decision making.

Keen to hear your thoughts on the above and seasons greetings to you too.
SM

Hi zoros, thanks for the personal callout / attack. As addicknt has rightly pointed out, your 3000 figure appears to be plucked from thin air, and certainly isn't true for the UK. As of early December, 5% of total hospital beds were filled with COVID patients - still quite a high number, but tempered slightly by the massive decrease of those in hospital that we typically see at this time of year in with bad cases of flu.

Each year we are told that the NHS is operating at 99+% capacity (pre-COVID) and beds are full of people with cold & flu, for the last two years it's been the same - only beds have been full with people with COVID. The organisation is not fit for purpose and is in need of a radical overhaul.

As mentioned, I'm hoping that our data mirrors that of South Africa and this virus is shown to be extremely mild - particularly for those of us who are double/triple jabbed. If that proves to be the case, we need to return to normal as quickly as possible and just accept that this is going to be around for good (which it is).

Thank you for sharing that tidbit from the company. For those who missed it amongst the nonsense posted over this weekend, he wrote:

"FYI I was speaking to someone within the company the other day asking what it’d take to get the share price moving here ….. you may be surprised by the answer I got .
“ the first bid “
Believe me , don’t believe me , I’m not bothered but that’s the truth"

This is exciting. The market clearly does not give a monkey's what we are doing with the drill bit at the moment. Compare our PF today with the start of last year - we have Provenir and Tandy and promising early results from Rio - yet our SP is down around 30%. Yet there are other factors at play - delayed PFS, changing macro environment - but ultimately this company should be valued at more today than it was back in January.

It's hard not to see us as a sitting duck for a hostile takeover. With Moller gone, Mather's influence over the boardroom will have been further reduced, and in 12 months time he and everyone sympathetic to his point of view will be up for reelection. My biggest fear with this stock is that BHP and/or NCM ensure the boardroom is stacked with 'their' people and proceed to dilute Nick Mather & all of us PIs into oblivion - or the company is sold for a song and carved up by bidders.

Given that we are almost certainly going to be forced to raise capital at some point next year, I feel we are now extremely reliant as PIs on a bid kicking off an auction process. I would guess that this bid will come from elsewhere (a third party)- I do not see BHP bidding for SOLG when they can wait another year and kick Nick & co off the board (and spend the next 12 months lobbying shareholders and the Ecuadorian government against him). We need their hand to be forced by an outsider.

This is where the company comment received by DBW becomes very interesting. Combined with Nick Mather's total disinterest at the recent AGM, my read is that company is very sure that a bid is incoming. The market is turning its nose up at drilling results, it knows a capital raise is on the way (circa Q2 next year) and it also knows that at some point SOLG is going to have to work out how to finance building an actual mine (potentially a huge an enormously complex one) whilst keeping its major shareholders onside. In my opinion the last one of these is not possible - I cannot see BHP/NCM being content with SOLG building Alpala with them owning a paltry 13% each of 85% of the whole thing.

I think the end game is upon us, I think the company realises that, and I hope that Nick has an ace up his sleeve (a buyer lined up) to ensure this ends brilliantly for us PIs.

Merry Xmas and thanks again Dbw

SM

Following this, they'll be running a competition at local schools in Ecuador to see who can translate the PFS into French. #ESG

@ssmith "All majors have their hands full with other M&S deals right now and its XMAS"

This is not just a copper mine...

Ignoring our resident pseudo-intellectual below and a 6.31am example of Godwin's Law, it looks like we're heading towards what will hopefully be a fairly uneventful AGM tomorrow.

All eyes on the Specials and whether they pass or not. Can anyone see any other curveballs for the BoD?

My money is on a very modest extension to the PFS - it will incorporate TAM and then be published before the end of Q1. Allows Darryl to look decisive and competent and would put some steam under the SP.

SM

The 'holding back news' schtick has been a theme here as long as I've been invested. As another poster (who I have since forgotten) quite rightly pointed out, SOLG goes quiet on drills/targets when the news isn't positive. I don't think I've ever seen evidence of them withholding positive news to be released at an opportune moment. Happy to be proven wrong with Rio or Sharug - but I'm not holding my breath.

Much more likely IMO is that 1) the news isn't ready to release (they love a missed timeline!) or 2) the news isn't going to have material impact on the SP.

Whilst we like to pretend that a game of 4D chess is afoot, more often than not the most simple answers are the right ones with this share.

Happy Monday...

Thanks for sharing Ship. A good opportunity for him to build some credibility by setting out a date and sticking to it (or better still, releasing it ahead of time). Under promise and over deliver.

Hi Bozi, I set myself price target when investing and sell a fixed % when it is hit. I find this discipline has helped me bag profits. When I occasionally I deviate from the strategy and get greedy, more often that not I lose out. With SOLG, my strategy was to sell 50% of my holding after 100% rise - so at 50p, and then leave the rest to play out. With hindsight, yes, I should have sold at 42p and then bought back in at a lower price. But I don't think this is quite what Nick had in mind when he suggested 'multiple exit points'.

As I think I've said to you privately or on here, I've watched SOLG from the days when it was a penny share and the likes of AKGold, pinot and others were regular posters. The board was much more convivial back than. But at that point I was a rookie investor and mainly put my money in FTSE 100 or 250 stocks that I'd researched. With SOLG, when I saw it rise from 1.5p to 4p, I still didn't really know what I was doing and thought I'd missed the boat (you can only imagine how I felt when it hit 46.5p several months later!). I opted to invest in IRR (now ALL) instead and learned a hell of a lot about AIM, the mining sector and investing more broadly through that company (and given where we are today I'm glad I did!).