Charles Jillings, CEO of Utilico, energized by strong economic momentum across Latin America. Watch the video here.
In Marks latest proactive interview, he seems to announce that Condor have secured /bought 100% of the land surface rights for the project? So land is no longer an issue / stumbling block for project finance? I hadnt heard that before - I thought there were still one or two land owners who were holding out for more money.. ??
regards
T123
Condor notes that the results of the current BV results are consistent with the results from the PFS study in 2014, which indicated a fixed gold recovery of 91%. It is notable that the current design parameters at a 75 micron grind support a total retention time of 48 hours versus the 30-hour retention time nominated in the PFS.
Not something I have seen before - is this likely to affect throughput of the mine in any way? Any thoughts on this?
regards
T123
Perhaps the rumours are that the reason for the BFS delay is that they need to keep refactoring it every month for all the gold thats disappearing at the hands of the artisanals ? .. helpfully they can just follow all the swiss cheese drill holes across Mestiza and La India to connect the dots and extract high grade gold, saves them having to look for it themselves... Of course, its hot work and that stopped them working so much in the past, but its all ok now as they have as much drinking water as they need supplied free by Condor... and their shareholders.. yippee. Raking it in.
Three words MC - SELL. SOME. GOLD.
regards
T123
My guess being that JM and MC would expect to have the results of the BFS to talk about by this event date:
https://events.masterinvestor.co.uk/events/master-investor-sector-focus-going-for-gold/
MASTER INVESTOR SECTOR FOCUS: Going for Gold: 21 September 2022 | London | 1:30pm – 3:30pm
regards
T123
So - out of a possible 3,073,754 warrants at an exercise price 25p that expired on 15th July, the actual amount taken up was 91,666. So I guess then that the other holders of c.3M warrants dont have any confidence in a share price greater than 25p anytime soon?! Very worrying. Meanwhile, a 50k sell goes through today @ 21.5p... :-(
Whats happening here.. it seems as though the market has absolutely no confidence that CNR can monetise the La India asset in any way either by a toll deal or by financing their own mill, or by an earn in / JV agreement.. the project needs cashflow asap.. its being ground into the dust here due to a lack of confidence that anything cashflow inducing is ever going to happen, and when the BFS is delayed 6 months on a whim, who can blame them.. the market has got it dead right so far - CNR led by MC is unable to deliver value/growth for shareholders. And it pains me to say that.
MC - you need to stop the rot here, its becoming utterly ridiculous now.. $60M spent on drilling, studies and permitting in the past ten years and the market cap is now $43M ?
I can see this going bankrupt and Calibre buying the entire resource and a brand new spare SAG mill for peanuts..
regards,
T123
In other news - have these been subscribed for or not? Guess we might find out Mon/Tue next week.. I really hope they have!
"3,073,754 warrants at exercise price 25p. Expiry date 15 July 2022"
regards
T123
And who would you replace him with? while paying them twice the salary to do half as much as Mark has, coming in cold, with no skin in the game? MC has 2.7% of the company and ten years of his life invested here. There is no one as motivated as him to get this right and bring the mine to production.. Of course, he doesnt have the skillset to build and operate a mine, thats why CNR will contract for an EPCM tender and recruit a mining COO all in due time, when financing is agreed..
At the moment, the most pressing issue is financing the mine with minimum equity issues and keeping s/h dilution to a minimum. As a financier for Jim Mellon in Asia in a previous life, this is Marks forte. He has raised $60M for the company to explore, permit and expand the project area (whether thats been well spent is another question, but the gold bear market from 2011 - 2016 really hurt the company). So he can make the deals, but only if they are offered to him (vis a vis the b2gold --> calibre toll milling saga)..
I know the lack of progress is unbelievably frustrating, and I still dont get why the BFS was delayed from March till Q3 when it was "2-3 weeks away from being issued".. my biggest fear is that events in Nic and global geopolitical agenda against rogue dicatorships who side with Russia will overtake MC and CNR and there could be a repeat of the El Salvador fiasco in some shape or form.. or will prevent financing on decent terms for shareholders..
regards
T123
Perhaps took part in latest placing to add a few more at 28p? They have been pretty loyal holders over the years here Oracle.. surprised they havent given up yet like most of the rest of us!
We really need to see some warrant purchases for 25p next week - otherwise im worried as to why not!
regards
T123
You would have to think that it would be in MC and CNRs best interest to have the BFS released prior to these two events in early-mid September.. Generate the most interest and talk to the numbers with potential funders of the project etc.
https://www.precioussummit.com/event/2022-precious-metals-summit-beaver-creek/
https://www.goldforumamericas.com/program-agenda-gold-forum-americas/
I think the order of play for next year or so will be:
BFS released Sep 2022
Financing completed Dec 2022
EPCM tender agreed - Feb 2023
Appoint a COO - Feb/March 2023
Start construction.. April 2023
But along the way, there may be a few curve balls thrown in, such as
Toll milling agreement with Calibre (long overdue but still possible)
A JV/Earn In agreement with a gold/copper focused major (Rio Tinto etc)
Nicaragua regime change or political upheaval to deal with..
regards,
T123
4 minutes into the video - "Feasibility study is due out in the next 3-4 months" - this was on 6th June.. So are we looking at September - October for this now?! After saying it was due by end of March? Now they are saying end of Q3 - and maybe into Q4? what the heck! The financing had better be happening in parallel.. the longer this takes the more chance of russian tensions escalating and further sanctions on anyone who supports them inc Ortega/Nicaragua.. not good..
regards,
T123
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC6NAZ8GXuI
regards,
T123
Well next week we are into Q3. So please MC, get that BFS out there with all the figures asap.
Also - Warrants are due to expire in mid July at 25p, 3.5M of them. I think its a good barometer of how investors see CNR prospects as to whether they are taken up or not.. if they are, thats around £750k extra cash coming in. And a good vote of confidence to other shareholders that the warrant holders see value in the company at that SP..
After that - its just a wait to see what kind of finance deal they can come up with.. or if a toll deal or earn in / jv arrangement with someone like RT actually transpires..
All just too slow though - should have happened years ago..
regards
T123
If you were Rio Tinto, and you had done 18 months due diligence before going into Nicaragua, why wouldnt you just buy Calibres Nicaragauan interests and Condor together as one. You would get around 400-500k oz production - high grade, low cost production, plus replace reserve ounces, just prior to what many expect to be a major bull run for gold.
No need to even build the new plant at La India and spend $125M CAPEX - just use the 1MTpa spare capacity at La Libertad instead. Calibre could use the money to buy more interests in Nevada.
You have a tier one asset with the prospect of more ounces (upgrading CNRs 2.4Moz to potentially 5-10Moz).
Just seems like a no brainer for a cash rich producer like RIO TINTO
regards
T123
https://www.calibremining.com/news/calibre-mining-provides-multi-year-grade-driven-in-4391/
>1Mtpa of excess milling capacity representing low capital intensity production upside.
So Calibre have over 1MTPa of spare milling capacity, yet they either dont want or are deliberately stalling on a toll mill deal with Condor which would increase their gold production figures almost immediately by 25koz a year - i.e within 3 months?
I think they want La India as a satellite deposit for their mills for the hub and spoke strategy. They could truck out the high grade from Mestiza easily without needing to spend $125M on a new plant.. Hoping CNR wont get the finance or will hit some other snag to block the plant build - then swoop in and buy the resource on the cheap..
regards
T123
Interesting comments here:
https://latin-american.news/usa-sanctions-eniminas-and-its-president-ruy-lopez-delgado/
Two mining industry executives explained to CONFIDENTIALlast February, that the sanction to the president of Eniminas “shouldn’t affect” the normal performance of the mining activity in the country, since the affected party is only an individual person, and that the entity is just another company, “not the governing body”.
According to both sources, for private companies that have concessions to explore or extract precious metals, the risk exposure “is practically non-existent” because its governing entity is the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), not the public company.
“Eniminas is a state company, and as such, it could compete with us, although I do not know that there are private companies that have activities with them,” said one of the sources in the sector.
“All the companies in the sector are private and with whom they have to interact in a forced way according to the law, to manage permits and everything, is with the MEM. Nobody is obliged to do business with Eniminas, and if someone does it it is because they want to, but they can stop doing it if they want to”, he added.
I guess the only issue might be if Britain was to introduce sanctions against British individuals/companies operating in Nicaragua i.e JM and MC..
Still. I think potential investors in La India might be a bit wary of this latest development.. We need some good news pronto here - BFS , toll milling, - its essential now..
regards,
T123
Thanks cambells - will the recent news from the US treasury of sanctions against the state mining co affect the choice of financing though - i.e does it rule out american based investment as they might be concerned that sanctions could extend to other gold mining firms in nic?
"They are deepening their relationship with Russia as it wages war against Ukraine, while using gold revenue to continue to oppress the people of Nicaragua and engage in activities that pose a threat to the security of the hemisphere. The U.S. will continue to use all tools available to promote accountability and compliance with international norms from the Ortega-Murillo regime.
“As the Ortega-Murillo regime increasingly engages Russia and continues lining its coffers with significant revenue exploited from the Nicaraguan gold sector, the regime has turned its back on the Nicaraguan people, neglecting their livelihoods for regime gains,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson."
"In 2017, the Government of Nicaragua created state-owned ENIMINAS to solidify its control over Nicaragua’s mining sector. One of the functions of the company is to regulate gold mining through the issuance of land concessions to domestic and foreign companies, which feature several joint ventures with private firms. High-ranking members of the Ortega-Murillo regime have benefitted greatly from Nicaragua’s increase in gold exports in recent years, due in large part to the outsized role ENIMINAS has played in funneling profits to private sector partners and kickbacks to regime insiders. Nicaragua’s gold exports have increased dramatically in recent years. In 2021, gold exports from Nicaragua to the United States increased by thirty percent, totaling over $744 million. These exports accounted for seventy nine percent of all Nicaraguan gold exports during the year."
So will they stop anyone in the US from buying gold from Nicaragua? i.e they will need to find new buyers? (China, Russia etc?) - If so, does make you wonder if lenders will be keen to finance new mine at La India, unless they know that the gold can still be sold.. Will it affect US royalty companies from doing any streaming deals with miners in Nic as well? Getting quite concerned about this.. Will Britain, Canada etc follow suit?
regards
T123
Simms - couple of things - I agree about the lack of progress here during the recent "good years" of low interest rates, low inflation. Those were the ideal time to fund and build a mine, to get first production ready in time for what is now looking like an extended bull run for gold.. the way gold has been behaving recently i.e holding its price levels amid a strong dollar, increasing interest rates etc, tells you that all is not well in the world.. CNR might well be late to the party after all this preparation.. thats whats so galling!
regards,
T123
Awax - the thing is, if the mining major that MC was alluding to in the data room back in April was actually Rio Tinto as we all hope, then surely John Seaberg would have been the best guy to do the deal with them as he was CFO of Calibre when they did the earn in agreement with Calibre in Feb 2020.. thats what concerns me.. why is he leaving now unless there is no deal and they have simply walked away - hence the recent placing for cash as well as no chance of earn in.. ?
"As part of Mr. Seaberg's remuneration package, he will be granted 750,000 options to subscribe for new ordinary shares in Condor Gold at a 10% premium to the 10 day VWAP or 45 pence, whichever is the higher, on the commencement date of 1 st September 2021. The Options will have a 5 year life and are subject to certain restrictions."
I guess he didnt see much chance of 45p anytime soon - and hopefully those restrictions would include leaving the company so he cant buy any options!
I just dont think its a good sign when a senior position in the company walks away from a "shovel ready" project.. the last update on the BFS also said that the financial model report was also outstanding.. so I hope he finished that before chucking it over the fence to MC or some other CNR rep or we could be facing a further delay than Q3 this year..
What CNR will also need to find soon is a COO.. if and when the mine build actually goes ahead.. I did hear MC mention a possible finance deal with the CABIE in a recent video, and that they were potentially looking to finance the project..
It needs to be sorted out pronto... more dithering = more cash burn = more placings = more chance that capex inflation and civil protests or US intervention to prevent Russian interests getting a foothold in Central America again, could kibosh the whole thing.. Anyone for a Nicaraguan Missile Crisis? er, No thanks!
regards
T123
Bit disconcerting when your CFO leaves the company during a crucial financing process for your flagship project.. It looks like he has left to be the CEO of another mining company so clearly he wanted the "top job" somewhere else - but you would have thought he might have finished the job at CNR first after only being there for 10 months - as it leaves the company without a CFO at a time when thats exactly what Mark needs to guide him through the funding options for the project.. And if the project is so good, why did John walk away at this point, presumably abandoning his options etc? Bit of a worry.
regards,
T123
Worth remembering.. 3,073,754 warrants at exercise price 25p. Expiry date 15 July 2022
Perhaps there are some shareholders who would prefer to pay 25p for the warrants in one months time rather than 28p tomorrow..
Worth another £770k to the company for working capital if they are all exercised.. Might explain why Jims share of the funding was lighter this time..
regards,
T123