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Well that was unexpected! Clearly there is something more to WTR's licences than we are aware of. The initial sums are small but the thought Newmont is sniffing around a tiddly company like Ariana provides reason for optimism. This may be a precursor to a takeover of Zenit if that is Newmont's objective. Wishful think perhaps but it's not uncommon for larger companies to 'help' new ventures if only to get their foot in the door. This is speculation so take the above with a pinch of salt.

https://www.miningweekly.com/article/newmont-enters-europe-alliance-with-ariana-and-wtr-2022-03-24

US-based gold major Newmont has entered an exploration alliance with Ariana Resources, which owns gold mining interests in Europe.

The alliance will focus on copper and gold exploration within Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Serbia, using teams established by Ariana’s 75%-owned Western Tethyan Resources (WTR).

Newmont would invest $2.5-million in Ariana, based on a 10% premium to a 30-day volume-weighted average price to enable the funding of the alliance’s activities, in addition to providing access to Newmont’s regional database.

The alliance between Newmont, Ariana and WTR would run for an initial five years.

I agree with the view sector wide weakness is widespread and not just localised around Russia. Some of the major miners mentioned below have rallied in recent weeks including Glencore and Blackrock's Mining fund. Others still seem depressed (Pan African, Johnson Matthey, Resolute Mining, Wheaton, Hochschild, Fresnillo, Centamin) in comparison to where precious metals are trading, perhaps owing to fears of rising costs and how margins will come under pressure this year.

I share Adam's optimism holding these producers with a view that when tensions do ease, all of these stocks stand to make huge gains, similar to the excitement following the 2008 banking crisis. Precious metals and metals required for the green economy (lithium, vanadium, copper etc) will be in high demand. Crypto currencies could face increasing scrutiny from Western governments as they provide Russia an easy avenue to evade sanctions and the USD monopoly.

LeviStubbs - Agreed there's a sizeable sum of cash doing nothing except collecting 5-10% interest but without further details that could be wiped out by foreign exchange movements depending on where it's kept. Some of the cash pile is for our next dividend of course and the one after that but it's not the reason most of us invested here.

I agree with others on here that it's hard to justify the divestment away from Zenit just when production was paying off. Faster growth through a more diversified approach may still come as Zenit took almost a decade to really come good. Ariana stand to benefit from numerous growth opportunities and retain multi-million payouts from their initial investment. Could investment into cash strapped tiddlers offer better growth in the years ahead? That seems to be play. And moving into copper despite the shine of gold.

I'm playing devil's advocate here as I am more interested in discussing where Ariana will be in 6-12 months time rather than where Ariana COULD have been had the Board not reduced our Turkish holding to 23.5%

Ariana's board probably feel they have more than enough on their plate without taking a controlling position in Venus.

- 23.5% in Zenit JV reaping the rewards of the Kiziltepe Mine and Tavsan and Salinbas projects.
- 100% of Asgard Metals Fund soon to invest in early discoveries?
- 75% of Western Tethyan Resources Ltd early stage project in Kosovo

I'd be happier if Ariana applied their approach with Venus, holding no more than 50% and applied it to both existing and future early stage ventures as long as the partners were well funded and established companies, not just shell holdings set up to fund one project by dubious third party investors.

Rooski whack- a-mole in here everyday! Financial hammering coming to a gulag near you

With regards to Libero the share price is up by more than one third from recent 3 month lows and looks set to make new year highs.

Anglo Asian acquired just shy of 20% of stock through a placement back in December. So our $4.9m investment at 50 cents / share is worth around $6.2m today.

Libero's primary asset is Columbian based Mocoa - one of the world's largest undeveloped copper-molybdenum resources. Lot's of excitement surrounding this asset as it shares the same porphyry belt as the Mirador mine (673 million tonnes of 0.66% copper) as well as the growing Waritza deposit (Solaris).

The most recent NI 43-101 compliant resource suggests the pit alone contains 4.6 billion pounds of copper and 511 million pounds of molybdenum! This is based on 636 million tonnes of 0.45% copper equivalent.

The Boards at Libero has decades of experience in the mining industry, Exec Chairman Ian Slater has 25 years and CEO Ian Harris has been a mining engineer for 20 years.

Only see Libero heading in one direction

Zafar JORC Mineral Resource completed - 6.8 million tonnes of mineralisation, average copper grade of 0.5%

The Zafar polymetallic deposit (the "Zafar deposit") is situated in the central region of the Company's Gedabek contract area in western Azerbaijan and is approximately 1.5 kilometres from the existing Gedabek processing facilities.

Key takeaways
- 6.8 million tonnes of mineralisation with average grades of 0.5% copper, 0.6% zinc and 0.4 g/t gold
- In-situ Mineral Resource of 28,000 tonnes of copper, 73,000 ounces of gold and 36,000 tonnes of zinc
- Smaller than expected resource owing to voids discovered in follow-up drilling since August 2021
- Upper part of resource more massive and continuous which will result in more efficient mining
- Over 302 metres of continuous mineralisation in the thickest intersection
- Total drilling to date is 40,538 metres with 90% of resource higher confidence Indicated or Measured

Anglo Asian CEO Reza Vaziri commented:
"While this final resource estimate is not as large as initially evaluated in our maiden JORC mineral resource, it is a considerable asset that adds significant value to our growing portfolio of resources. The upper part of the deposit is now defined as more continuous, which can be mined more efficiently and economically. Preparations at the site continue at pace, and we are on track to begin production in 2023."

Anglo Asian Vice-President, Stephen Westhead commented:
"This Mineral Resource estimate is now very robust under the criteria of the JORC reporting Code. The deposit can be broadly divided into an upper and lower section. The upper portion contains the main mineralisation zone where continuity of mineralisation provides for a high confidence of estimation. The lower portion exhibits less continuity with mineralisation being less massive and more irregularly distributed.

"We are now proceeding with Ore Reserves estimation and mine planning. The location of the underground portal has been defined. Following further geotechnical drilling, access tunnelling and development work will commence this year.

The Interim results would have been very well received but for company's decision to increase it's stake from 76% to 90% thereabouts. A strategic long term decision no doubt but the short term impact has meant it's taken the shine off what what was undoubtedly our best H1 that I can recall! As others have said, with the gold price trading and no imminent capital expenditure of the ordinance blown in the first half we should begin to move up into double figures. A dividend announcement may come in six months time also.

Interesting to note the group's comment on the Russian war in Ukraine: "Whilst the Group's trading expectation for the remainder of the year is currently unchanged, it is worth noting that the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is posing a significant challenge to the global supply chain industry. Whilst Goldplat has no activities directly connected with Russia or Ukraine, the long-term effect of the conflict on the Group is uncertain."

Can anybody foresee the conflict affecting operations either directly or otherwise?

Absolutely. I've heard of roubles splitting in two when tossed but never into eight pieces? That would be crazy!

'You will own nothing and you will be happy' - Polymetal

All aboard the conspiracy train!

Choo Choo!

Similar to you Dave, invested in GEMD and gradually increasingly my holding in Shanta. Pan African, Wheaton and Tharisa are still my largest but once risk in the market has subsided will look to buy more SLP, BMN, AAU and the other decent metal producing cash cows

No predictions here but I am optimistic being able to buy today at just under 90p

· Revenue of US$733 million with an average realised gold price of US$1,797/oz and adjusted EBITDA of US$329 million is in line with expectations. Forward guidance suggest an approx 10% increase in production this year (407k to roughly 445k) at higher prices. Cost savings continuing (albeit with the dividend now targeted) means cash and other assets are still $250m+

I haven't checked but perhaps capex is higher than previously suggested? Exploration costs look low. Time will tell if they can achieve the top end guidance but I agree a couple of sizeable director buys would help with sentiment in the short term.

Four Russia-linked companies have been ejected from FTSE indices.

Evraz, Petropavlovsk, Polymetal International and property group Raven will be barred from holding positions on the FTSE 100, FTSE 250, FTSE 350 and FTSE All-Share Index from the end of this week.

FTSE Russell, the company behind the indices, said the decision was taken after brokers refused to trade the shares of Russian-linked companies.

But the announcement was met with calls for the authorities to go even further and expel firms linked to Russia or close to the Kremlin from the LSE altogether.

The move is a blow for the four businesses as many investment funds track these indices and membership affords an air of respectability.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak urged on Sunday for British businesses to 'think very carefully' about any investments that would support Putin's barbaric regime.

Cue the little Kremlins scrambling to post one liners and bury this before it dawns on any genuinely naive investors still left holding.

Today's announcement contains a summary of the exploration activities during H221 (July-December 2021)

· New sub-vertical gold vein, "Hasan", discovered at Gosha including Bonanza gold intersections (up to 229.5 g/t gold).

· Aside from the maiden Mineral Resource published in August 2021 drilling at Zafar continued for preparation of the final Mineral Resource and Ore Reserves (40 core drill holes totalling 20,113 metres).

· Core drilling programme at Gilar discovered a new mineralisation body, south-west of the Gilar deposit (17 surface core drill holes totalling 9,882 metres returning gold grades of up to 10.33 g/t gold).

· Near mine exploration at the Gedabek open pit (24 RC infill drill holes totalling 1,969 metres yielding copper grades of up to 3%) and at the Gedabek and Gadir underground mines (22 core drill holes totalling 2,360 metres in the Gedabek/Gadir underground mines, grades up to 13.06 g/t gold).

· Company reiterates again no impact on exploration activities in Azerbaijan resulting from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

I think Blyvoor is low cost, generally tailings retreatment costs come with quicker payback periods compared to open pit mine projects and as this one is fairly small annual production( 25-30k I think?) it will be a fairly small operation. With PAF moving to net cash at some point in the next couple of months it shouldn't be a problem raising money for this in 12-18 months time.

Mintails will potentially end up costing considerably more and might require an equity in the future. Pan African are in a much stronger position than they were 5 years ago though and should have sizeable cash reserves on the balance sheet by the time the mine needs financing.

Agreement to extend the repayment dates by a further 12 months will ease fears later this year. The market appears to have taken the news as a sign net debt is falling slower than previously anticipated, then again it may just be general negative sentiment in the wider markets today..

The CEO's stated aim is to reduce gearing levels "over the near term" and with gold trading at $2k/oz this shouldn't be in any doubt.

"Traitors get the rope. It has always been this way."

Dribbling Ruski - did mama not teach you how to tie your own knot?

Leem1 - The Russian Central Bank is purchasing Polymetal's gold as they cannot sell to smaller banks now, confirmed last week in the FT. If this continues across the Russian economy as a whole the rouble falls further to the point where banks around the world suspend accepting rouble payments because who the f*ck wants to buy it? This isn't about how much gold Russia have. They are being sanctioned the world over.

Dribbling - why are you so triggered, it's not like you've lost it all .. yet!

120p come on comrades! Buy before it's too late XD