Member Info for TigerByTheTail

Power cuts (aka load shedding) are why the diesel generators are there! They're not cheap to run, and not very clean, but they do a job.
It should also be said that SLP's surface operations do not use anything like the power that deep shaft miners or ferrochrome smelters require. For the deep shaft miners power cuts lead to serious safety issues as well. So other players are more vulnerable than SLP (or THS, for that matter).
Finally, any interruptions in PGM production in South Africa will send the rhodium price into orbit. Rhodium is in deficit already, and 80% of the world's supply comes from South Africa. So it may be a case of what you lose on the swings you win on the roundabouts.

Hi JammyC!
There is the option of investing in both SLP and THS, you know. I challenge you to find a better mining play than either of these two. Both are making money like crazy, which I believe is the general point of business.
(Rhodium has turned back up, by the way. It's at $21,800 /oz (JMAT price) today, just $100 lower than its all-time high. One of the by-products, iridium, has rocketed up to $4,200/oz as well, which is that metal's all-time high. And platinum is going strong too.)

Solgold is pure AIM in spirit, if not in listing.

Iridium is at $4,200/oz today, a new record high!
It turns out I should have just swallowed the 50% premium and bought some iridium metal rounds when it was back at $1,500. Oh well, hindsight...
If it helps, Gota, a quick rule of thumb is about a third of THS's income comes from chrome (at roughly current prices) and about two thirds from PGMs. THS's basket price will be at a record high, but I can't give you a precise number.
As for the debate between THS and SLP - well, thank the money gods for both! I can't name any better prospects than either one of them.

Rhodium has risen back up to $21,800 / oz (JMAT prices), a mere $100 off its all-time high. I admit I'm a bit surprised (but very pleased) by this turnaround.
Next week is "Golden Week" in China, so there may be a dip then as fewer buyers will be in the market.
It's great news about the improved chrome price as well!

Hi Zoros!
I clocked Nick Mather as a deluded, dangerous, and incompetent from watching a few minutes of his dreadful presentations, and studying the man rather than listening to what he was saying.
I admit my day job has a lot to do with handling very rich people with exaggerated personality defects, but I'm surprised so many investors here were taken in. Wasn't it obvious that Nick Mather and reality had quarrelled many years ago?
I did write this on this bulletin board many moons ago, but Quady and his crew had the post removed. But I was right.
I'm amazed that NM contributed a quote to today's RNS. He seems to have no sense of shame.
My sale price is 45p to 60p, so much the same as yours.

Hi Darren!
I didn't go that hard. But I did get 21.3p. Which even by the end of today may seem like a bargain.

Hi Mr Cautious!
But investing isn't about the past; it's about guessing the future. And about picking your moments to enter and to exit.
Yes, initial investors will have been through a lot. And I'm sorry for them.
But buying in now that the mine build fundraising is complete (and the share price is at a low) should (hopefully) be a lucrative strategy in the medium term.

Hi Montecristo!
We'd don't even need to ask Warren Irwin. Just watch what he and Cornerstone do over the next 24 hours.
If they are quiet, or simply acknowledge the PFS delay, then draw your own conclusions about a sale being in progress.
If they raise hell, then probably no.

My positive spin is that Nick Mather's utter arrogance, greed, and incompetence is now clear for all to see. He drove Solgold straight into a brick wall.
It's hard to be an optimist today, but now the company may be steered in a sensible direction, towards either the sale of Cascabel, or a JV / farm-out arrangement with a major. Really, there's no choice now except to do that.
The copper and the gold are still there, and it seems there may be more if it yet undiscovered.

Fibonacci sequence would be 1,1,2,3,5,8,13 etc.
(Sorry, I'm a pedant...)

Hi Billyboy!
That would be the "high grade zone" at the bottom of KE that Dan Betts was promising back in early December in an interview, would it?
Remember, how mining that was meant to get us to guidance last year, but access to it came just too late? And how January was expected to be a bumper month because of it? There's even a helpful illustrative map in the early December production update / profit warning RNS.
Is it too much to ask the company to be even vaguely consistent in the spiel they feed us?
And the "fixed costs" of Yanfolila are clearly not fixed. They have increased and are increasing - at some pace!
Anyway, enough of this. I've made up my mind about this company. So good luck all who continue to hold.

Hi Shareminator!
You're missing my point. The increase in AISC is NOT explained away solely by mining lower grade (and therefore less ounces produced). It is also caused by the basic costs of operating Yanfolila (a figure which should not vary a great deal from year to year) rocketing upward. No explanation has been offered for this by Hummingbird.
FWIW, I also took the hint from the RNS that grade and therefore production in the first half of this year will be low.

Hi Shareminator!
AISC is calculated by: Qualifying Costs divided by Number of Gold Ounces Produced.
The point is that Qualifying Costs (i.e. the cost base of operating Yanfolila) have rocketed upwards by roughly 40% in little over a year without any real explanation. Yes, I can imagine a temporary increase in Qualifying Costs due to Covid and the coup for 2020, but in the guidance for 2021 this number is not returning to "normal", but actually increasing yet further.
WHY?

Hi Visitor!
Thanks for quantifying my earlier post.
Even IF the $17m Capex in question is counted inside AISC (which I'm not sure about, especially the $10m drilling) there is still a massive increase in underlying costs at Yanfolila.
Where is it coming from?
Lacking any explanation from the company, I'm seriously wondering if (to use a Russian phrase) "tribute" isn't being exacted from the mine by the army after the coup. All other ideas welcome - this one is the best I've got.

I'm still puzzled by the unexplained and massive increase in AISC. Falling grade does contribute to this, but it does not explain it away. And diesel is no more expensive than it was this time last year, and Mali wages should not have increased by much. And Covid is not really a factor in Mali.
(Separately, I'd also like to know if they are counting the TSF works and the roads as sustaining Capex (included in AISC) or as growth Capex (outside AISC), and how much central G&A is included in the figure as well. I'm assuming the $10m exploration budget falls outside the AISC figure, as it usually does).
One possibility I'd like to raise is if they are being forced to pay "tribute" in order to continue operations by local army chiefs, as a consequence of the military coup.

Investors here should remember that Vast are reopening a mine which previously went bankrupt. Yes, that was during a price slump. But, on average, the reopening of old mines has a very low success rate as a business strategy; there are usually good reasons why they were abandoned previously.

Hi Sands!
Rather than investor relations or the PR company, I think people should be writing directly to HUM's Chairman, Russell King, and to see how he replies.
It's his job / duty to step in and stop this sihtshow and remove Dan Betts. The truth is, he should have acted long before now. But here we are.

Look, folks, the ONE thing you do not need is the FCA taking a close look at EUA!
Pray they stay away for as long as possible.

Hi Fantasy!
Yes, all well. I sold out of Vast (at a loss) a while back.
I still drop in here sometimes in the hope of improvement, but I'm usually disappointed. (Even though I'm a copper bull). Andrew Prelea is really not serious CEO material at all, of course.
I still have Botswana Diamond (BOD) shares, and there is a good chance that their Thorny River project will hit the exploration jackpot in the next month or so. But I don't believe Vast (& BOD) will ever be granted a diamond concession in Zimbabwe.
Oh, and if I can tip another mining share on here, IMO PGM and chrome miner Tharisa (THS) offers exceptional value right now. (As does SLP, but THS is even better).