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IMO, Friday's late RNS (whilst everybody was out enjoying the blazing sunshine) should have added about 30% to Vast's current SP. (That's a pretty conservative estimate. You don't often get to buy a 23.75% share of a 70,000 ounce per year gold mine (with an @15 year life of mine) for little more than the equivalent of your share of six months free cash flow from the same mine!) So, will we get that SP rise today? Or will AIM just shrug its collective shoulders? And what other deals does Vast have in the works? I think the purchase of another share in a distressed / bankrupt Zimbabwe miner.

Just bought more at 61.5p. A fantastic deal roughly doubles the enterprise value of a company and the SP is down?!? I thought I'd seen everything on AIM but (speaking as somebody who knows something about gold mining) this SP action is quite, quite, quite extraordinary.

Just to finish that calculation: Vast market cap = 33m GBP = approx. $46m USD. Possible free cash flow from Eureka = $11m a year. Typical P/E for a single mine African gold miner = between 5 and 10. OR, simply, once made operational, Eureka alone justifies the entire market cap of Vast! (I.e. Pickstone Peerless + all Romanian operations you get for free).

Hi Tramic! Thanks for posting. It looks to me that today's deal is a resolution of that dispute. It would help explain why Vast have got the asset so absurdly cheaply. But perhaps it's worth checking this over the next few days. It will also be interesting to learn who are the other shareholders of Eureka. I'm thinking one is probably the Zim. government. They are currently interested in selling off their shares in all Zim. gold mines. So there may be news about that to come as well.

Here's a quick calculation: Vast have bought a 23.75% share in Eureka gold mine for $6.6m (including assumed debt). That values the entire Eureka mine at approx $28m. Eureka resource = 1,367,000 Au/oz indicated + 1,081,700 Au/oz measured. Let's assume that converts to a mineable reserve of 1,000,000 ounces (assumption possibly pessimistic). That equals a price per ounce of gold in the ground of only $28. I've seen development prospects sold for less than this. BUT Eureka is not a patch of dirt and some drill holes, but a fully operational heap leach mine (asset value alone $30m). Operational costs will almost certainly be very low - decent grade + open pit + heap leach + Zimbabwe. I'm thinking AISC of less than $700 per ounce of gold for sure. If Eureka can be restored to 70,000 ounce production per year, at current gold price ($1,350), the mine will generate free cash flow of $650 x 70,000 = $45.5m a year. Vast has a 23.75% share of this = c. $11m per year free cash flow, with a LOM of ??? 15 years. ALL THIS FOR $6.6m upfront + the costs of putting a mine that has been on care and maintenance back into production?!? If Vast can do another couple of deals like this in Zimbabwe, who cares about Baltai Plai?!?

Even if you allow for the fact that this is Zimbabwe and the mine has been on care and maintenance, this purchase is scary cheap.

23.75% is the first step. It will be interesting to learn who owns the rest of the mine. It will probably be a mix of the government, black empowered shareholders, and perhaps the workers and local people. This is significant, as the government is looking to sell its stakes in most mines, and the black empowered shareholders may be open to offers as well. I.e. There can easily be more to come here. (N.b. If you want an example of a Zimbabwean gold miner who is in the process of doing exactly this, take a look at Caledonian (CMCL)).

Not BP - but a very significant purchase of a c. 25% share in a big open pit gold mine in Zimbabwe (i.e. 70,000 ounces p.a.). This is a very big deal indeed.

250K buy just popped up but the SP hasn't moved - in addition to a fair number of other decent sized buys today and yesterday. Can only assume that the market-makers are working through a big sell order.

Hi AmitD - yes, Tekeledougou is only 8km from HUM's Yanfolila gold plant; so there is a very quick route to actual production if any gold is discovered there. (HUM owns about 33% of Cora). Currently waiting on further drill results from Sanankoro and initial drill results from Tekeledougou.

I think yes, they could fairly be considered a concert party. So CB + JLP will need to stay below 30% if they don't want to make a full takeover bid.

Remember that JLP hold 29% of BMR's shares. That's plenty enough to call an EGM at any time they want. And, given that the rest of the shareholder register is mostly PIs and so fragmented, and that AB holds only a few shares himself, that means that any motions JLP propose at such an EGM will almost certainly pass. So, in short, nothing happens at BMR without the consent of JLP. If JLP want to be a part of the new placing, they will be.

Klueloss - thanks for posting your very interesting figures. Looking at them from the JLP perspective, you can take your calculations a step further: (All fligures in pounds sterling) 1. JLP current market cap = 40m. (I believe that this reflects only the value of the current chrome / platinum operations + Tjate licence, and that there is no value for Kabwe included in it.) 2. For the purposes of this rough calculation, I am assuming that the BMR market cap currently reflects only the value of the Kabwe tailings, and the market is currently assigning no value to Star Zinc or to Ester. 3. JLP benefit from operations of Kabwe in two ways - by receiving 40% of the income from the (yet unsigned) JV, and from JLP's 29% shareholding in BMR. 4. So, implied value to JLP of BMR SP at a. 1p = 1.16m + 0.66 (value of 40/60 JV split) x 4.02.m = 3.84m = @ 10% uplift on current JLP SP b. 3p = 3.49m + 0.66 x 12.06m = 11.53m = @ 30% uplift on current JLP SP c. 5p = 5.83m + 0.66 x 20.1m = 19.5m = @ 50% uplift on current JLP SP d. 10p = 11.66m + 0.66 x 40.2m = 38.33m = @ 100% uplift on current JLP SP I do think that there is a danger that we are counting chickens before they are hatched here. But still, interesting figures...

There are strikes over bonuses at two of Randgold's mines in Mali - source kitco.com

Hi Hazrat! Obviously, we all have to make up our minds about the timing of our investments and we have to live with the consequences. I'm thinking that it would make sense for Rainbow to release the drill results first - if that is at all feasible time-wise. (IMO, no way will they release the drill results WITH the quarterly production report. There will be two RNSs). I also believe the drill results will be somewhere between good and exceptional. But, of course, I don't know anything for sure.

It's pie in the sky, or rather pie in the sea, in commercial terms. The ore is scattered over an area 50km x 50km and at depths of up to 1,000m and hundreds of kilometres from a useable port. Just imagine the extraction costs. Also, all the elements mentioned are "heavy" rare earths, and Rainbow's (cheap and almost offensively easy to mine) deposit is "light" rare earths. So, slightly different markets. Still, it makes for great newspaper copy. A few years back there were also stories about some incredible rare earth deposit in North Korea; same thing, really - lousy business proposition, but great newspaper fodder.

First up, this isn't big selling. Look at the board! It's just the market-makers trying to engineer a little bit of volume, and not even succeeding in doing that very well. We'd all do well to remember that a few days back somebody, presumably an institution, bought 2 x 500,000 shares at about 18.5p (i.e. about 0.6% of the entire company in one whack). Quite possibly, they are the same institution who were buying heavily between 14p and 19p a couple of months back. All in all, I believe there's a floor under the current share price at this level.

Hi Tom! Frankly, I wouldn't put money in Cradle Arc, either. But it would be safe enough to buy out one of their exploration licences after suitable due diligence was completed. That's what we're talking about here, I think; no more. (And, most likely, Dan Betts will surprise us with a completely different deal instead!)

I've always thought the appearance of such an obvious deramper before results to be a good omen. FWIW, I think the production results won't be all that great; Rainbow will likely be discovering (and solving) lots of problems as they ramp up. But, as MinorMiner points out, the exploration results could be a whole new ballgame.

How do you know it is not true that BMR are selling JLP shares?!? Are you AB? Or are you just bullshitting?