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Actually I was merely poining out, in response to the likes of Robemy and to statements made against proposed new directors by Conroy et al, that:
Mr Bird, excellent geologist though he may be, has also worked for a "failed" diamond company in the past, an accusation the company is quick and happy to level at the proposed directors, whilst ignoring their many previous successes with the likes of DeBeers, Robert Friedland, the Steinmetz Group etc etc.
That he has far less relevant and project specific experience than say Mike Brennan or Steve Grimmer, both of whom the company saw fit to employ in the past, and who for various never disclosed reasons seem to have left.
That his most recent background and successes have been in gold, and that he is based in Canada therefore unlikely to take up "hands on" involvement. It is not even clear if he is an EU citizen, therefore eligible to work in Ireland or Finland?
That his background seems far more appropriate to CGNR, which largely shares the same directors, has the same offices and costs with, and owes KDR for substantial loans.
Draw your own conclusions...
It would seem Mr Birds diamond experience is rather limited, as it was solely with SouthernEra, nearly 20 years ago, and basically on two projects, a small operation in South Africa, which they lost to DeBeers after nasty legal battle, and a project in Angola which came to nothing.
His gold experience in Canada seems rather more recent and much more relevant. Given recent board chatter about CGNR now having a Canadian JV partner, wouldn't it make far more sense for his consultancy and board position to be with the latter company?
Or is this just part of the dark web of cross charging, debt and cross shareholding between both companies, and another way of getting Karelian's shareholders to foot the bill for yet another Conroy Gold expense?
The entire history of SouthernEra can be referenced on SEDAR btw, and sad reading it makes!
https://www.sedar.com/DisplayCompanyDocuments.do?lang=EN&issuerNo=00004535
CLONTIBRET GOLD DEPOSIT STRUCTURAL REVIEW - FACTORS CONTROLLING HIGHER GOLD GRADES IDENTIFIED. SHARE PRICE DROPS 7.5%
So we can add a business class return from Toronto and a couple of nights in the Dublin Conrad to the cost of every board meeting and GM from now on. Good news is I suppose Richard and Maureen will now have a sofa to kip on every time they head over to PDAC, so a saving to be made there...
At the risk of p!$$!ng Maureen off with negative blogging, aka expressing a valid opinion, let us assume that with new management, with the present ~40M shares out at ~3p, they raise £1M at 4p (25M shares) and a further £1M at 6p (15M shares) and take the project through to feasibility, and that takes the company to a valuation of £4.5M (the present market cap plus the money raised plus a 50% premium for positive results) on 80M shares.
Anyone in at 3p right now sees dilution of 50% but a doubling in SP so is no worse off.
Let's then assume they go ahead with the project, raising 50% on debt and £10M as equity, at say 8p a share, for another 120M shares or 200M then out. Based on 0.7Mt a year at £30/t value and £15/t costs that is £10M a year earnings, at say 10:1P/E that would give a valuation of 60p.
The current 3p shareholders now have 500% dilution with 40M going to 200M shares, but 20x SP appreciation from 3p to 60p. That is still a 4x appreciation, or 12p in today's money. Plus if new management can do this project, presumably they can achieve other results in Finland, and even elsewhere?
The present lot certainly don't seem to be able to, or if they are, to have the years left to actually do it. Assuming another 6 months fighting with his shareholders, 2 years for feasibility, 18 months to build the mine and 8 years of mining, Conroy will be getting his telegram from King William before then.
While I imagine "management" will hold its shareholders responsible for a distracting EGM which has interferred with it getting on with things, lets look objectively at the last year.
It is over 14 months since the company raised funds, apart from a derisory £100,000, intended mostly to keep management's a$$€$ planted firmly in their comfy chairs. It has also been 12 months since any on-the-ground activity in Finland, and 10 months since any meaningfully results (orangite anyone?) although the old coals have been re-raked a few times since then. Given the EGM was called in May and even though the company dragged it out for over 2 months, it is clear the company was essentially non-functioning for a long time before this.
I did recently review the March 2019 presentation on the website, which followed closely on the annual migration to PDAC in Toronto. Kevin McNulty must have taken several weeks out of his busy schedule over at CGNR crafting this tome but essentially it contains only:
A four page review of the Zolotitsa Orangeites [sic] - nothing like introducing a few new names eh? (and while we are at it, ORANGITE is spelled with one "e": Wagner 1914). AKA the Arkangel kimberlites, the Prof has been banging on about finding these in Finland for 20 years, despite their being 1,000km away, in a completely different geological setting, and of a completely different age to anything found to date in Finland, so a big whup there!
A review of Company "assets" including:
Seitapera, Finlands biggest kimberlite (they told us that back in 2008, and haven't touched it since 2012).
Orangite discovered, but of course nothing new since October last.
Riihivaara drilled, but again, no actual testing done in the four plus years since discovery.
Lahtojoki, three years since the PEA and counting, so not holding our breath on this one.
Oh, and of course they found a green diamond, years ago, and here are some more pictures in case we had forgotten!
They conclude with four pages of waffle about Rio Tinto and how great Finland is, including a ten year old statement from some past minister.
It would seem that the company, if not already very dead, is soon to be very, very dead - unless somebody, anybody, takes charge and gets at least one of these balls rolling (and putting presentations up on a website, or commissioning broker's notes doesn't count as meaningful work!)
From over 40p to under 5p in 18 months. Well done!
Pink Diamond Prices Could Surge With Closure Of World's Largest Diamond Mine
https://www.kitco.com/news/2019-07-14/Pink-Diamond-Prices-Could-Surge-With-Closure-Of-World-s-Largest-Diamond-Mine.html
So go Lahtojoki! The clock is ticking.
Well at least there is another £100k to pay his fees and travel expenses LoL
What now confuses me is why hire Howard Bird, who only seems to have worked on diamonds for Southern Era in South Africa and Angola in the 90's and is based in Canada, and gainfully employed at:
http://antlergold.com/about-us/our-team
https://www.linkedin.com/in/howard-michael-bird-1b196217
When you already have Mike Brennan as a consultant, who managed the Lahtojoki project for Mantle Diamonds, and so knows the project and country and is supposedly based in Ireland.
@moleman... another way to look at it, is that perfectly good assets have been hijacked for nefarious purposes. This doesn't mean that gold or diamond assets are no good, just that present management finds it easier to milk the story than to mine the minerals. The solution is simple. Use the money raised to develop the assets, and not take a salary, then profit like everyone else if and when they yield their dividend. Unfortunately at the moment it is all too much wanting cake, eating it, and not even prepared to invest in an oven.
The sad thing is that ALL shareholders, including the current BoD, would arguably be better off if they let competent professionals run the company, at a significantly reduced overhead, so whats to not like?
So from the Chairman's response:
Either he genuinely believes they are doing an excellent job, and are infinitely more competent and experienced than their proposed replacements, or
They are tremendously attached to the salaries, expenses and other perks which come with not actually having to do very much work.
Lets assume for the moment that they are NOT narcissistic control freaks who would rather puncture the communal ball than let the other owners take a turn playing with it.
Well the only other staff member listed is Mr Murrels, four and a half years gold experience in West Africa and then the last nine years with Conroy. Another "senior" geologist, so the company has two chiefs but how many Indians?
More importantly, for the money they pay, what gold of diamond expertise do the companies actually have? Apart for a short period (1996-2000) in gold in West Africa, Mr McNulty seems to have spent most of his career (the last 15 years) with the company in Dublin, but hasn't been promoted beyond the position of "senior geologist" (senior to who?) in all that time.
Of the three actual experienced gold/diamond hands, does Mr Brennan still consult for them, given that he was going to develop their Irish gold mine back in 2014, why does Mr Attwood seem to have been working solidly for Sunridge Gold in Eritrea since 2013, and Dr. Gerryts, who was awarded his PhD in 1951, must be in his 90's, so is he even actively involved?
It seems both companies managenent teams are populated with straw men.
And more importantly, every £ that is spent on exploration is a £ that is no longer available to pay salaries and expenses.
@Stevehoops: You are presumably refering to the analysis of 'Management Accounts'?
An interesting take on the KDR accounts. It inspired me to check the 2018 Annual Report (p32, table 2 of the Notes). I notice Maureen Jones' brother James, a former director, also was paid €57,000, including a nice pension top-up!
@skier "There are no diamonds and no diamond plan. The prof just rolls over the same "cash machine" strategy every year or two. Make up some fancy words about "orangeite on the horizon" to pump it up."
Of course there are diamonds. At Lahtojoki there are a reasonably estimated 5 to 6 Mt of kimberlite are a reasonable 40cpht (microdiamonds are a reliable predictor of grade in the absence of accurate bulk sampling). There is also a plan, that is exactly what a PEA is! A road map to development! The company has never shared the detail of this. In Canada it is a legal requirement for companies to disclose such technical documents.
Yes, the colours game (orangite) is just Conroy's waffle to keep going without having to take the bull by the horns and actually tackle anything.
There is no need to say it. It is all out there in the public domain.
An objective look. Draw your own conclusions.
Company Website
"The discovery at Galmoy led to the revival of the Irish base metal industry and to Ireland becoming an international zinc province."
"Professor Conroy and his colleagues, as well as having been involved in the major zinc discovery at Galmoy in Ireland, were also founder members with Sumitomo of the Stoneboy consortium, an exploration group which led to the discovery of the Pogo gold deposit in Alaska, now in production as a world class gold mine."
Galmoy.
Tara: in production 1977-present at 2.6Mty for 275,000 Zn/Pb concentrates.
Lisheen: in production 1998-2015 at 2.3Mty for 350,000tpy Zn/Pb concentrates.
Galmoy: in production 1997-2009 at 0.45Mty for 55,000tpy Zn/Pb concentrates.
Pogo Gold.
Irish Independent March 14th 2013
"...he came close to a gold jackpot before. He's still philosophical about missing a payday in the early 1990s after the O'Reilly contingent within Conroy Petroleum and Resources overruled him to pull CPR out of the Stoneboy Consortium. The 1993 zinc results at its Alaskan Pogo Mine had been poor but Prof Conroy had wanted to stay and test the gold potential [heresay?]. Less than two years later Pogo brought in a five million ounce gold strike."
@ Mouse:
Alan Osborne 4.32% equity https://www.kareliandiamondresources.com/stock-information
Kevin Taylor 3.06% equity https://www.kareliandiamondresources.com/stock-information
Stephen Grimmer 32 years diamond experience https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-grimmer-72712348
Martin Doyle 42 years diamond experience https://ie.linkedin.com/in/martin-doyle-7176226
@ Glenalmomd - yes professional management counts for a lot. Mr. Sangster is also an alumni of the Royal School of Mines and was on the management team of Caledonia Mining with the Tyndrum Project years back, Stefan Hayden's precursor company which went on to build an operating gold mine in Zimbabwe. He was also with DeBeers for some years. Hands-on is what gets mines built!