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Pretty sure Cornerstone owned a bit of Sunstone Metals. This means Solgold will benefit from this news.

https://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/1010514/sunstone-metals-says-new-limon-drill-results-could-be-game-changer-for-bramaderos-1010514.html

These debates are purely abstract for the time being, though, and the presence of Wyloo means that it’s more likely now that they will remain so as the mine goes into production. After all, Greatland’s current share price remains a shadow of its former 37p high, since even after the recent bump, it’s still trading at below 10p.

And even broker Canaccord Genuity (TSX:CF, LSE:CF), a supporter, doesn’t reckon it’s going quite back to its former levels. Instead, the broker set a target following the news of the funding and board appointments of 25p, more than two and a half times where it is now, and a valuation, which, if borne out, would take Greatland’s market capitalisation back towards the £1bn mark.

Such a valuation may now be justified given that Havieron looks to be headed towards production with Greatland likely to retain its 30% ownership all the way. But there remains execution risk, and the significant factor that when all’s said and done the ball remains largely in Newcrest’s court.

There may well be significant moves towards a re-rating in the coming months, but nothing like the spectacular rise that shareholders saw at the end of 2020 is likely to be repeated.

And there remains, too, the question of the longer term.

What will Greatland look like in the future?

Will it continue to be an exploration play, working up its other claims in the Paterson Range? Or will it instead simply become a cash cow, focussed primarily on deriving its value from the sizeable dividends that will shortly start to come rolling in from the Havieron operation?

Time will tell if the big company mentality makes itself felt. For now, Greatland remains the beacon for all smaller companies to set their navigation lights by – representing as it does the transformation of dusty ground into hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold and opportunity.

https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/992431/greatland-gold-shows-how-holding-firm-in-the-face-of-pressure-from-the-big-boys-can-create-significant-long-term-value-992431.html

A few years ago, Greatland Gold PLC (AIM:GGP, OTC:GRLGF) was just another penny stock with licences over some dusty ground in Australia. Companies like that come and go on the world’s stock exchanges all the time, diluting shareholders down to crumbs and then consolidating their shares and starting all over again.

But Greatland Gold proved to be the exception that proved the rule.

In the London market, only one other company, Solgold, has come close to what Greatland has achieved - making a major discovery and then keeping hold of a significant portion of it as the big money comes in to move it forward into production.

Solgold had Cascabel in Ecuador and Greatland has Havieron.

Both companies made early backers overnight millionaires when the extent of their discoveries became apparent, and both companies have subsequently been on a rollercoaster ride in terms of share price as the market struggles to come to terms with what such huge discoveries are really worth when held by smaller companies that are trying to punch above their weight.

Cascabel became the subject of a tug of war between two major mining companies, and some of the intricacies of that fight went on to damage sentiment.

But in the case of Havieron, it’s been more straightforward.

Those who came later to the party are now underwater as the share price has dropped away from the heights it reached last year.

But the recent news of a financing package that will allow Greatland to fully fund its 30% share of the development costs at Haviernon did boost the share price by more than 10%. Concurrently, new board members were announced, including as non-executive chairman Mark Barnaba, who is the current deputy chairman of Fortescue Minerals, a A$50bn company.

Greatland has hit the big time, and the big hitters are accordingly coming in to meet it.

Serial small-cap non-executive Alex Borelli, who was chairman, will remain on the board as “London representative.”

And so Greatland survives the threat of extinction by a major, and lives to fight another day. The arrival of a serious mining investment vehicle on the register in the shape of Wyloo Metals adds strength in depth to any potential defence in the face of a hostile advance from Havieron’s now-majority owner Newcrest.

Newcrest and Greatland have always seemed to get along reasonably well in public, even if Newcrest has at times appeared to downplay the dollar value of Havieron to suit its own ends. The thinking has been that a reduced Greatland price would suit Newcrest very well, and allow it to come in and make a bid at what initially would appear to be a nice premium, but which in fact would be a significant discount on the real value of Havieron.

Newcrest is the second-biggest shareholder in London listed SolGold, which is developing a prospective copper and gold project in Ecuador.

SolGold aborted an attempt to raise funds over the past month leading to the exit of chief financial officer Ayten Saridas after just 45 days in the job.

Newcrest and SolGold’s biggest shareholder, BHP, have traditionally wanted the pre-revenue company to raise cash through share issuance, but the previous management of SolGold defied their requests and instead opted for high-cost debt.

Mr Biswas reiterated on Friday that he was disappointed by that decision and expected it would not happen again.

“At that time there was also a public announcement by the company that that was a one-off and that future raisings would be more along the lines of allowing existing shareholders to be part of the fundraising activity in relation to an equity raise,” he said.

But Mr Biswas said SolGold had again sought to raise funds through methods other than share issuance over the past month.

’They chose not to do that, they went back to what happened last year and we...did not support that proposal,” he said.

Mr Biswas said he was also keen for the Papua New Guinea government to help Newcrest and Harmony Gold push ahead with the long-stalled Wafi-Golpu project.

Newcrest shareholders will receive a US20¢ final dividend, taking total dividends for the year to US27.5¢.

Barrenjoey analyst Dan Morgan predicted that Newcrest shares could rise during Friday’s trading session based on the better-than-expected profit, the solid production guidance for the year ahead and clarification from Newcrest that the Cadia mine had resumed after a recent disruption.

“Newcrest share price has underperformed peers on Cadia outage risk and a lack of FY23 [financial year 2023] guidance. We think this result could spark a relief rally,” he said in a note published shortly before Friday’s trading session.

Newcrest said on Friday that Mr Biswas’ total remuneration for the past year was $US6.22 million including bonuses, with $US1.74 million of that being fixed remuneration.

Newcrest said Mr Biswas’ fixed remuneration would rise by 2.9 per cent after October 1 as a result of a “benchmarking” process.

Paywall: Cagey Newcrest Baulks at Havieron Gold Price Tag
https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/cagey-newcrest-baulks-at-havieron-gold-price-tag-20220819-p5bb5b

Extract Australia’s biggest gold miner will snap a three-year streak of declining gold production and has surprised expectations by declining an option to buy more of Western Australia’s Havieron gold project.

Newcrest Mining vowed to raise gold production by at least 8 per cent to between 2.1 million and 2.4 million ounces of gold in the year ahead after announcing a $US872 million full-year profit.

The profit was better than the $US845 million analyst consensus published by Bloomberg but 25 per cent lower than last year on the back of lower gold production.

Newcrest has been spending heavily on growth options over the past four years to offset the fact its flagship Cadia mine in NSW has passed its peak in terms of gold production volumes.

The increased guidance for the year ahead is largely because of the recent $US2.8 billion acquisition of Canada’s Brucejack mine.

Although Brucejack has given Newcrest an immediate injection of extra gold production, the Havieron gold project in WA looms as a crucial medium-term growth project because without it Newcrest’s nearby Telfer mine would likely need to shut.

Havieron was discovered by London-listed Greatland Gold and Newcrest has acquired a 70 per cent stake in Havieron over recent years by spending $US65 million and completing a detailed feasibility study on the project.

The agreement between Greatland and Newcrest gave the latter the right to buy an extra 5 per cent of the Havieron project last month at a price to be determined by an independent valuer.

The valuer put a $US60 million price tag on that extra 5 per cent stake, giving Havieron a notional value of $US1.2 billion.

Newcrest is rapidly developing growth options to avoid a decline in its gold output by the middle of this decade.

Despite Newcrest’s strong balance sheet – it has a gearing ratio below 11 per cent and an investment grade credit rating – the company said on Friday it would not buy the 5 per cent stake at the price determined by the independent valuer.

“We’re happy with our 70 per cent stake,” said Newcrest chief executive Sandeep Biswas on Friday.

Mr Biswas said the price published by the valuer did not meet Newcrest’s investment hurdles.

“We didn’t think it would deliver the sort of returns and the sort of thinking our shareholders would expect from an owners’ mindset,” he said.

“We have got a lot of projects to allocate capital to and we have got our shareholders to think about too.”

AngHol -

Mining can be incestuous. There are many precedents of JV among majors. In addition to Oyu Tolgoi, other examples include:
- Samarco (BHP/Vale)
- Cerrejon (BHP/Glencore/Anglo American)
- Wafi Golpu (Newcrest/Harmony)
- Fort de Norte (Newcrest/Lundin)

A major may want to buy the lot, but Solgold needs to agree. So far Solgold has pushed back pretty hard Eg. standstill agreement, tempting both both BHP/Newcrest onboard, Citi Bank to build up defenses against low ball bids, Franco funding deal, potential deals with offtake companies etc.

The reason why Major will still do a JV with a "competitor" includes but not limited to:
- All gold majors have declining gold reserves. This is a major concerns for Majors. They only way they can grow is to acquire, merger or to discover more resources. The thing is, the majors don't explore as they use to. Exploration by nature is a hit and miss and is too risky and expensive from the eyes of their shareholders. Majors prefers low cost farm in agreements instead. But Solgold is playing hard to get as it as resources(s) that may include one or more tier 1 assets.
- There is limited discoveries over the past few years. Tier 1 assets are the unicorns of the mining industry. Very few discoveries are like Solgold with one or more tier 1 assets (high reserves / high life / low cost).
- Commodity prices are going up. Forecast for copper demand is quite high. Eg China booming commodity, electrification of cars and Internet of Things etc

To summarise, there is enough for everyone.

See quote from Newcrest CEO:
"If Cascabel develops to the extent we would all like it to, it is going to be a big mine which [requires] a lot of investment capex and what have you, so in relation to developing a mine in the future, there is no question that there can be more than one company accommodated in terms of that development," Paywall Source:
https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/newcrest-ceo-sandeep-biswas-hopes-solgold-big-enough-for-both-of-us-20181026-h175a0

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