Member Info for Shedulike

Seems the Execs didn't spend Easter agonising about the budgetary measures. Maybe I was being optimistic thinking they'll spin wage cuts into May, probably kick the can down to June now. Sorry everyone truly p*^%ed off now.

Brickz I don't recall that one, sounds interesting though. After a tough old year we could do with a big week starting tomorrow. Just think if the mets come with a bit more zinc recovery, confirmation of low contaminants, funding fears allayed and Spain getting back on its feet it could be a stonker. What could go wrong........ :)

SwearinNige I think we're a tad short on cash to go it alone :) The only way would be with a partner, though it's never been a secret that the board favour a complete disposal. These are however unprecedented times and that Brickz find is the first time I have seen an estimate that 200 jobs being created - plus as ever, an operation on this scale has a further knock-on effect to the local economy. These dreadful events have been a short term blow to EUZ but could also have created unique circumstances which could actually be a company maker. The local jurisdiction will want Toral built more than ever so could we benefit from direct government investment? Could it be nationalised? Local politicians will know it could take a multi-national years to get round to building a mine, yes there would be clauses about that in any licensing contract but I would guess you'd likely be looking at a minimum of two years leeway. How much more of a nimble solution to finance EUZ to crack on with it, fanciful thoughts in normal circumstances but these aren't normal circumstances.

The Lundin relationship is intriguing as when FCR (later EUZ for anyone lucky enough to be new :)) took on Toral they paid very little for it. However Lundin did stipulate they would require payments on construction of a mine, first production and a small smelter royalty. Seems they were either confident that their payday would come when FCR/EUZ eventually sold the asset or did they think the one-off payments amounting to US$7.5 would guard against another player coming in? LR stated recently when facing down questions that Lundin could get in by the back door that they aren't even talking to Lundin. I'm starting to wonder if Lundin massively underestimated Toral, they certainly did with the silver, not to mention the copper and we know for certain that LR, Luis R and JM have just produced the best cores discovered by anyone who has been over this hill. The low capex nature of Toral makes US$7.5 a pinprick in getting a world-class mine operating and the smelter royalty might be a slight irritation to a new operator but could it be that EUZ's best path to success for shareholders is without Lundin?

From the BBC....."Sir Jeremy, a member of the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show the "remarkable" scale of testing in Germany had been key to keeping the number of hospital admissions for coronavirus lower than in the UK. Sir Jeremy said testing allowed countries to isolate people with Covid-19, preventing them from transmitting the virus to others, as well as buying time for hospitals to prepare".

Sure Brikz, it would seem the neatest transition as they already have an interest in the mine being built and a small smelter royalty in the event of production.

I could only guess what a discount for not delivering a PFS might be. Suppose it depends on our relationship with the buyer, if has always been hoped we've always worked closely with potential buyers hopefully it won't be used as a pernicious bargaining weapon. Similarly the fantastic results from TD025 aren't in the JORC, will we get value for that? Good news that non-essential workers return from lockdown next week in Spain.

Looks like we're all sick of gardening, sorry except Brickz who is marooned somewhere. One extra thought, this 3rd phase mets is apparently all about spatial representivity. I think that's about further proving the core you have pulled out will be as representative as possible of what you find when you actually start mining, de-risking the chance of the mine under-performing. I'm wondering if the stunning cores at TD-025 prompted this and they think they can model that more widely across the entire resource.

Trade don't forget that although the silver is eye-catching, in terms of total value it's the lowest earner compared to the lead and zinc, albeit we don't know if the copper is economic yet. Thinking about it didn't LR say something like 'the operator will be mining copper' in the last interview so maybe they already know it is. I'm a bit more optimistic than Brickz on value but we need to tick some more met boxes yet. If we knew the copper was a factor it could be immense - copper is going to be huge with countries trying to hit their carbon targets, as I can see direct government investment into huge wind power projects being fastracked. Also it's often forgotten the significance of this being very low capex, Toral is in exactly the right place.

Armani funding fears have dogged us ever since that awful 2nd raise with DB last year. Valuing is quite difficult now because there are so many unknowns. First we need to know that deleterious elements are not problematic. Rubiales had low levels of Cadmium so that's the one that gives me sleepless nights, hopefully low for us as well and no smelter penalties. With deleterious elements ticked off we need to know what the new recovery levels are on the zinc and finally at long last what the copper means to this project. Basically forget the NPV from 2018 it's now a joke. Even the JORC is in a sense history because of the amazing cores from TD025. We just have to hope that any sale is indeed frictionless as promised and this good work is recognised in the valuation, though I think we have to accept that if we can't deliver a PFS then the project will be significantly discounted particularly in the current climate.

It's just that technically there are four precious metals of which we only have one. If he'd said 'precious metals' he might have been using the term loosely but I don't think so (was that a direct quote?). We have also heard about 'various things giving us non-dilutive optionality', so that's why I've always wondered if the copper is more significant than we know as yet.

Interesting Cjen we have one precious metal in Silver (which is clawing its way back from the drop), sounds like he sees that as the key to mitigating against dilution.

I agree with your observation generally Bobby but I do have a strong conviction that LR is also driven by the potential career prestige that a high profile success would bring him here, he wants a Toral result on his cv. If this was to whither and die then his professional currency also drops, yes he will still have been well paid for the privilege of losing us money (though I know he doesn't think he is well paid). I'm certain that to prove and dispose of a world-class asset is what really drives him, not to mention his warrants. So specifically, I can't agree with your comment 'there is absolutely no advantage to them if shareholders make a profit or loss'.

Brickz I'm just narked (haven't used that for a while!) that we haven't heard yet. Obviously I don't know what the hecks going on in reality. Maybe they'll surprise us and announce some cuts that amount to a genuine sacrifice. It might be a cut in cash terms but topped up in shares which obviously means we end up shouldering the burden. I would favour a cut to a comfortable living wage with reparations made up in the success case of securing partner funding or complete sale, not optimistic though.

Fair play Alfe not often you see people big enough on these boards to say 'I stand corrected'. It's still not a great situation but I'm as certain as you can be the issue is with the third party transaction. We'll see, it will be a nervous wait to see who the new Nomad will be and the bashers will no doubt use the opportunity to have their sport.

Would have been nice for shareholders to have had some reassurance about the budgetary measures before Easter. My suspicion is they'll be getting out the fine pencil on all cash outgoings, squeezing the pips out of suppliers, before looking at the impact on salaries. If they'd done it the other way round we'd have heard something by now. Not too impressed.

No Alfe they can resign with immediate effect if they so wish and then the one month rule kicks in. I think it's to do with the related party transaction for which they were partly fallible so they have agreed to work with us to the end of this month, looks fairly cordial to me.

I wonder if the WH Ireland resignation is partly an admission of a failing on their part - "A Nomad is responsible for advising and guiding a company on its responsibilities in relation to its admission to AIM as well as its continuing obligations once on market". When a Nomad is unhappy with the actions of a company it would normally resign with immediate effect. Giving EUA notice is a good sign in my opinion and suggests there is joint responsibility for the related party error.

Trade - the Spanish lockdown shouldn't affect the mets as the cores were already with WA in Cornwall. Despite WA initially not being affected by the CV problem here, it later transpired that there would be a delay in getting the data out and that's when they estimated 'early April'. Even so, I wouldn't be surprised to see another delay as there always is, it just wouldn't be because of Spain being in lockdown or not, IMO.

No that would definitely be mid-April Storey, perhaps MC has forgotten about Easter like he did with Christmas :) On delays did anyone else not understand this (from 27th March) "A delay has unfortunately occurred in completing the last metallurgical laboratory test and consequently also in transferring the data to Wardell Armstrong International in the UK". Wouldn't the data be transferred from WA to EUZ, we deliver them the sample and they deliver the data to us. Also why would there be a delay in transferring data? Is it delivered physically on a secure hard drive or similar, I had assumed it would be accessed through some sort of secure shared database. Wish I'd asked at the time as it has been bugging me since.