Member Info for Sonic80

I'm not claiming they're squeaky clean, but as stated before, neither is any other international company when it comes to international taxes. The fact is that they have not been running a net profit, the same way many other companies across the world do. They have been mining, but also exploring and developing resources. For example, the $38 million they have spent drilling and defining Tonguma. Money from the mining used to pay for exploration. So as a company, no net profit. Therefore, no 35% tax on net profit. What you think of that practice is up to you, but it should not have a bearing on entering into a tribute mining agreement with them over Tonguma. Saying that it does is like saying you would never deal with Google or Starbucks because of their international tax practices. If SL want companies to be more forthcoming in paying them tax on net profit, in addition to royalties, then they would need to bring the 35% down to a level more comparable to other countries. Don't forget that is on top of the approximately 8% royalties already paid on total revenue. As for "stiffing" Standard charter and Tiffany's. As far as I am aware neither company has stated any problem with them. Sure, you will be able to provide links to media articles, but neither company have commented on any problem, nor do they have unexplained unpaid loans stated in their accounts. The fact that Tiffany's are so keen on diamonds from that region is surely a good thing for the prospects of Tongo-Tonguma for STEL. They are still currently being supplied diamonds from Koidu holdings aren't they? It stands to reason that they would be keen on the ones from STEL's Tongo-Tonguma project as well. P.S. How about logging in on the LSE website before you go to the STEL chat page? Then you could follow through on your comments to filter me.

Irrefutably dodgy because it didn't pay property tax in a country that it is not registered in?! By that standard, you must think every international company in the world is irrefutably dodgy. I don't claim to know international tax laws inside out (I don't think anyone does, except perhaps the lawyers at Google and Starbucks!), but it seems I have more of an understanding of them than you. The mayor of Koidu city trying to sue Koidu holdings for property tax seemed like nothing more than a political publicity stunt. The case was quite rightly dismissed from court straight away. Not much of a "law case".

You're such a moron. I still can't get over how incredibly hypocritical it is of you to bash STEL whilst at the same time defending KRS. Has diamond mining been littered with corruption and scandal in the past? Yes. Same as gold, oil, finance, politics, pharmaceuticals, sport. You name it, it's got it. That doesn't mean it's a bad investment going forward. Do I think STEL are corrupt? Absolutely not. In fact, quite the opposite. It is possible that they fell foul of that sort of practice when the Kono license was contentiously taken off them and awarded to another party. The government of Sierra Leone is improving all the time with steps taken to reduce corruption. The whole country will prosper from encouraging foreign investment and supporting diamond mining projects. The journalist of your article mentioned $330 million in diamond exports from Koidu from 2012-2015, but because they weren't allowed access to the private company's accounts, deduced that they must have something to hide and that royalties mustn't have been paid. Well, if they had bothered to check the published payments from the Sierra Leone Government, then they would be able to see that Koidu paid all their royalties in that period, amounting to $22.5 million; money which can be put towards helping the future of the country. They also built a hospital for the local community. This is all immaterial though. Koidu / Octea's past does not dictate whether entering into a tribute mining agreement with them is a good or a bad idea. The future of STEL as an investment hinges on the Tongo-Tomguma deal progressing over the coming weeks. Until there is news on that front, there is really nothing else to discuss.

There you go again proving how clueless you are. It seems you read my posts the same way you read the RNSs - completely missing the point. Tongo $7.2 million by Stellar. The combined project Tongo-Tonguma has had $44.5 million spent on it, including completing a 66,000 m drill programme. Also, the government of Sierra Leone publish the payments received by all mining companies. Koidu paid over $5.5 million in 2016 to the government in royalties alone. Please filter me and stop replying to my posts. You seem obsessed with trying to have the last word. I am sick of having to correct your incompetence and I am sure anyone else reading this board is sick of both of us by now.

You clearly don't understand how diamond exploration / mining works. Yes, it costs a lot of money to explore and define resources. No, you do not get large enough volumes of diamonds from all the exploration and drilling to have lots of auctions. Tongo-Tonguma has had $45 million spent on it, but that doesn't mean they've got lots of diamonds to sell yet, because they HAVEN'T STARTED MINING YET!!! They have very well defined the resource (as one of the highest grade in the world) and are setting it up so they can start full scale mining very soon. This is the focus of the company, yet you are obsessed with things that happened over 5 years ago. If a company has bad fortunes in the past, it does not mean it is doomed going forward. I believe what happened with Kono was completely out of STEL's control, so I would not taint the BOD with that misfortune going forward. You obviously have a different view, but to me you have proven multiple times that you are clueless when it comes to mining companies, and investing in general. From your posts on the only 2 companies there is evidence of you investing in, you have put nearly £100k into STEL and KRS and you have lost about 90% of it. Unless of course your previous posts about amounts of shares in those 2 companies are BS, which is a strong possibility. Filtered me?! Lol. I wish you would. But you said you had already done that a few weeks ago and guess what... it turned out to be yet more BS.

There you go getting your knickers in a twist again about things that are not important. As stated in the 28.05.15 RNS; $220,000 of diamond sales NOT from Baoulé. They have only done sampling at the other sites, which doesn't generate high volumes of diamonds to sell. And why shouldn't they keep some of the remaining diamonds to show investors?! It's a diamond company after all! The fact is that you're obsessed with dragging up things from years ago that you still see as issues, but really aren't issues going forward. Because you are sooooooo far under in your investments, you fail to see what might be a good opportunity going forward. The only fact worth discussing is that STEL are in the process of sorting out a deal and funding for full scale mining at Tongo-Tonguma. They might not pull it off, in which case it's bust, but if they do then it will be a HUGE boost for the local community, the country as a whole, the company and for shareholders.

No sales from Tongo in a decade?! You claim that the experience of being in STEL a long time gives you more insight, but you repeatedly show that is not the case through your naive, biased and poorly researched posts. The information you are looking for is in the RNSs from late 2014 / early 2015. They sold their 1000 carat Tongo sampling for $220,000 in early 2015. Around that time they were sampling both Tongo and Baoulé, so selling packets of diamonds from both sites in the same auction. Just so everyone else can see: 28th May 2015 RNS. Over US$922,000 revenue to that date in 2015, $700,644 of which was from Baoulé, the rest was from the recently completed 1000 carat Tongo sampling. I've asked the question before, please can you stop talking BS? It's very frustrating having to correct you all the time.

If you think the game is sitting on huge losses for years, then you're not playing it right. The game is looking forward at the prospects of which shares will see a rise in the future and which shares will fall. That is not just an assessment of individual companies' performance, but also their future prospects relative to their current market cap. And it has to be objectively reassessed all the time. People who believe that losses are not real until they sell are mad. When investments are in the red, they are not just paper losses, they are real losses. If people just stare at them, refusing to reassess and act if necessary, then they will only lose more. To that end, if I was in your position then following recent updates I would have already sold all of my KRS shares and put it into STEL, which would have got you about 275,000 shares. That would still be possible at current prices, if you so wished. Of course, based on your previous posts, you won't do that. But I will keep a tally of how much better or worse off you would have been if you had played the game the way I would have played it from this point forwards, if I was in your position.

I'm not the tit sitting on massive losses on his investments. BOOOOOOOOM TIME COMING FOR STEL!!!!!!!!! See my posts as to why, this is gonna FLYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!! Glad you like the boom comments. P.S. Sorry to anyone else who reads this board that you have to put up with the 2 of us bickering.

You don't want people to compare your posts on STEL and KRS because it exposes you as a massive hypocrite and someone who clearly just posts biased views to suit your own agenda. You have decided to repeatedly top-up KRS and so are nothing but positive on that share. But you decided not to top-up STEL and you post nothing but bitter negativity as a result. The companies have very similar scenarios, but your views on the companies are totally opposite. It's apparently ok for KRS to sell off its only asset, despite holding no other licenses, and continually promise jam tomorrow whilst at the same time diluting shareholders with outrageous frequency because of their high running costs. But when STEL does anything you immediately post with incredible negativity; ironically moaning about lack of license, joint venturing off projects and raising funds!!! Both companies have seen massive drops in share price since you invested in them, so you must be sitting on enormous losses. STEL is at the point where it is about to turn it around (I am already sitting on a profit) and KRS is in all sorts of trouble. I think you do need my expertise. It was only a few weeks ago that I got hounded for saying STEL at 5p was a better investment opportunity than SOU at 90p. One day people will learn and start listening to me!!! I am fairly new to investing, but I have done a HUGE amount of research before deciding on STEL.

What's really hilarious is someone who backs KRS commenting on waiting for licenses and caution regarding forward looking statements! You're such a hypocrite. So many of the things you have been critical of the STEL board doing have been repeated by the KRS board, but it's apparently ok for KRS to do it, because you've been topping up constantly over there while the SP has been plummeting. If you're going to worry about a companies' performance, then you should be worried about your 4 million KRS shares. If you're not sure what you should be worried about over there, then I'd be happy to point it out for you.

You're doing it again!!! Which Tongo sales have been underwhelming? The only sales that were below expected for the company came from the Eastern lobe of the Baoule mine in Guinea, nothing to do with Tongo. Where are the high grades you ask?! Tongo-Tonguma resource has been very well defined by extensive drill programme which has proven the high grade diamonds. Results: 4.5 million carats. Grades 100-260 carats per hundred tonne. Value $209-310 per carat. Very high on both counts. I've reviewed the results, but it seems you're completely oblivious to them. Stop getting your knickers in a twist about where the processing plant will be located on site. It doesn't matter. What matters is that it's there and they don't need to wait for ages to source one and transport it to Sierra Leone. Things are all in place to get going very quickly once funding and license are announced. You will see. At some point in the not too distant future, everyone will look back at the current share price and ask themselves, "were people really able to buy shares at that incredibly low price?!"

For Lion... www.agenceecofin.com/pierres-precieuses/0405-47091-sierra-leone-stellar-diamonds-veut-lancer-une-etude-d-ingenierie-de-base-pour-le-projet-tongo-tonguma

Please stop posting things as fact when they are in fact BS. You do it on the KRS board as well. You do not confirm the presence of large, special stones in a drilling programme. You define the grade and quality. $60+ million has been spent between Tongo and Tonguma doing just that. And if you have done your research and compared the grade and quality to other mines, then you will see that they are exceptional and some of the highest in the world. The fact that large, special stones are found nearby by artisanal miners just scratching the surface (as you pointed out) means that there is a very high chance of finding them when mining commences. That is one of the many beauties of diamond mining.

4.5 million carats, worth $1.5 billion, extensively drilled, well defined and ready to be mined. Processing plant already on site. Opportunity for early revenue generation. Some of the highest grades and quality diamonds in the world. High chance of large, special stones. Then a further estimated 8 million carats ($2.5 billion) waiting to be drilled and defined in neighbouring dykes in the license area. All facts that make this hugely undervalued at a market cap of £2.4 million. In comparison to this potential, $32 million is a small capital requirement. You can just compare to other diamond mines to see that. STEL have even negotiated early recouping of the capital requirement from initial revenues. So the market cap could easily be in the hundreds of millions by the end of the year. As I said before, it'll be deal signed, strategic investor announced, then mining to start. Phase 1 of that is already complete. When phase 2 & 3 follow suit, don't expect to be able to buy in at anything like these levels.

You're already starting to look a bit foolish. You used to say no deal as well, until a few days ago. Now you've dropped that from your repertoire. The next few weeks could be fun.

Yes, at £2.4 million mcap it looks incredibly undervalued. I think your small punt will reward you handsomely. License rubber stamp and funding should follow soon, then the market cap could easily soar up to over £100 million. The capital funding is for a 2-year period, so chances are it won't all have to be raised at the start. Either way, the BOD hold large numbers of shares, so you can rest assured that any deal will be in the best possible interests of current shareholders. The resident moan and groaners on here could be made to look extremely foolish over the next few weeks.

Expect to see more of those buys rolling in George...

Looks like it. Plus there have been way more buys than sells over recent weeks and months, so it's only a matter of time before the SP ticks up significantly, especially with such a high proportion of shares being held by directors and institutional investors. When funding news drops this is all set to fly.

Anyone who knows about diamond mining will know what a phenomenal investment opportunity STEL is at these levels.