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I listened. You really must listen to this, investors. You already know some of it, but having it put together like this is numbing and uplifting at the same time. We have to DO something though.
To PK's credit she has avoided the Canadian brokers and gone to the U.S. and Europe for her financings, ie. Scion, Wega and now hopefully Fortis.
If the bridge financing followed by the Fortis debt financing comes thru on schedule, Century will be able to get a listing on the Amex and need have no further dealings with these Canadian brokers.
According to Jim Sinclair hedge funds are also responsible for inflicting a lot of the havoc seen lately in the juniors.
Jim Sinclair last week was predicting a near term $300 up move in gold. Clearly a $1200 gold price would significantly increase the odds for a favorable resolution of the ongoing debt financing negotiations with Fortis:
Posted On: Tuesday, May 20, 2008, 6:56:00 PM EST
Gold and Dollar Market Summary
Author: Jim Sinclair
Dear Comrades in Golden Arms (CIGAs), In years to come, market students reviewing gold's price action moving from $600 to $1200 will appear as much of a straight line as any market can produce. Don't miss the historical move you are in. Look at the big picture. Don't allow the daily arranged noise to dull your market senses. Nothing gold will fail to perform. The larger the legal and illegal short, the more dynamic the upcoming move of the juniors will be. Cancel all open sell orders in gold anything. The sun is setting on the gold and gold share bearish bullies who wished only to destroy, contributing nothing to anyone but themselves. The world is made up of builders and destroyers, givers and takers. When the book is written, the hedge funds will be seen as destroyers of the financial world and having taken all the wealth of their investors in the process.
Posted On: Wednesday, May 21, 2008, 9:31:00 PM EST
Gold and Dollar Market Summary
Author: Jim Sinclair
Dear Comrades in Golden Arms, Gold: 1. This move in gold is real. 2. The volatility of the gold price up and down is going to be wild. Buckle your seatbelt and put on your helmet. 3. Gold is headed to $1200 here and now. 4. The drought of interest in juniors is behind us, having ended on May 8th 2008. 5. The positivity of the gold price has legs both in time and price. I see months, not weeks in this phase. 6. "Sell in May and go away" will be proven completely WRONG this time around.
If PK's deal is indeed going to, or has a great chance of taking us into a better-regulated market, we will forever be indebted to her regardless of how we feel now about things past or present, IMO. Letting bankers become stock brokers was an ill-conceived idea by the government. So-called "regulators" who turn a blind eye and a deaf ear leave a lot up to speculation about the relevance of their roles. Whose side are they on? Who are they protecting?
As they said in the broadcast, criminal legal action leading to jailterms is possibly the only way to get to these folks who are free to run willy-nilly with no checks or balances.
PK's latest wheeling and dealing may succeed, assuming that Fortis and the bridge debt lender don't stick it to Century during negotiations, and then a whole bunch of other critical issues suddenly begin to go in our favor; that being said, she is responsible for leading us to the brink of total disaster where the slightest miscalculation now will end our interminable suffering. Once the year end financials and Q1are released, this week(?), the bridge financing approvals shouldn't be far behind. I hope (and pray).
That being said, she is responsible for leading us to the brink of total disaster where the slightest miscalculation now will end our interminable suffering.
You're right. We're not out of the woods yet. Far from it.
Yawn ... zzzzzzzzzzzz. I hear paint drying. I called the office today. Someone answered the phone on a National holiday. Shame! Is Jim Sinclair credible or is he crazy?
Having called the top of the gold market 22 years ago, a goldbug now thinks that he has found the bottom. In 1977 James Sinclair boldly predicted that gold would rise from $150 per troy ounce to $900. Gold never reached that mark, but it came close on Jan. 21, 1980, peaking at $887.50. The next day, says Sinclair, he unloaded his entire gold position, personally netting $15 million. Pointing to the U.S. Federal Reserve's efforts to fight inflation, Sinclair then predicted at an annual gold conference that the metal would languish for the next 15 years. It did. On Friday, Jan. 20, 1995, it closed at $383.85.
So this is a guy to listen to. He's bullish again. Why? Because he believes, despite the whiff of deflation in the October producer price index, that the U.S. is headed for mild inflation. He thinks that the dollar is due for a fall. He is also impressed that mining companies, which routinely sell unmined metal forward at fixed prices to protect themselves against further price drops, have recently pulled back from placing these hedges, a move that should prompt gold prices to rise. If they do, Sinclair expects a squeeze on gold speculators, who have $36 billion in short positions. Sinclair figures that the shorts will cover their positions soon after gold hits $305, a move that could force the price to $350, even $430.
Persuaded? On the New York Mercantile Exchange you can buy an option to purchase 100 ounces of gold in six months with a strike price set at a slight premium to today's price. An option exercisable at $300 will cost you $9 an ounce. If gold hits $350 you pocket $4,100 in profits.
Sinclair is not buying just futures and options. Since 1996 he has invested $11 million to develop 5,600 square kilometers of barren land in central Tanzania that he's convinced hold vast gold deposits. Drilling on the property is still in the early stages, but Barrick Gold is already pulling metal from an adjacent site whose proven and probable reserves have nearly tripled to 10 million ounces in the past two and a half years.
It's a gamble not many investors would make, but Sinclair has always stood apart from the crowd. On the walls of his office hang six photographs of Shri Sathya Sai Baba, a guru in India whom Sinclair visits several times a year. Sinclair's love of carrot juice recently turned into a 25-kilo-a-week habit that was brought to a halt only when his doctor grew alarmed at the orange tint to his skin. A loner, Sinclair paid $3 million in 1983 to turn a 19th-century barn into a reception hall for his house but has held only three parties there.
After his 1970s career as a goldbug, Sinclair retreated to his Connecticut estate, where he played with his helicopters, show ponies and collection of Ferraris. He didn't stay idle long. He built cable systems at Cross Country Cable, a company he started with two friends, then made millions selling some of them to John Malone's TCI.
"Jimmy is different," says his onetime cable partner Vincent Tese, the former New York State banking commissioner and now a Bear Stearns director. "But in the trading business people don't care if you're purple, just as long as you're making money."
In 1989 Sinclair got back into metals after buying a small stake in a Vancouver, Canada, mining company called Sutton Resources. During a trip to Tanzania for the company that year to check out a potential nickel site, Sinclair became intrigued by a 140-square-kilometer patch of land called Bulyanhulu. It was studded with greenstones, volcanic rocks marked by long seams that are often rich in minerals. Some greenstone mines, such as those in Canada's Kirkland Lake Camp, have been yielding gold for a century and do so now at the relatively low cost of $200 an ounce.
"The opportunity stared at me as it did with cable and gold," he says. "The only way to make big money is to have the courage to put your eggs in one basket."
Sinclair helped Sutton buy rights to mine Bulyanhulu, then lobbied for it to do the same in adjacent lands. Sutton balked and eventually sold Bulyanhulu to Barrick. Sinclair decided to go it alone.
By the summer of 1999 he had invested $4 million in the lands near Bulyanhulu. He faced a sickening prospect. Gold had just hit a 21-year low of $246. Bears were predicting $150 soon, a price that could wipe out the profits from even the most efficient of Tanzania's mines.
"I felt a pit in my stomach, like hunger," Sinclair recalls. "When I was a young trader, I used to think that I was invincible. Now I feel the risk."
Simple logic mitigated his fears. It costs most companies $250 (including back-office support) to extract an ounce of gold. With gold trading below cost, it made no sense for mining companies to hedge against further price reductions. Recognizing that such hedges meant that an important force pulling gold down would soon disappear, he reasoned that the bottom was near.
Over the next nine months Sinclair spent $1.5 million on tests that measured magnetic pull to help locate seams in his greenstone. Soon after the tests ended, in February 2000, news broke that some big mining companies had indeed stopped placing new hedges. Sinclair reached into his pocket for $5 million to buy more mining rights in surrounding lands. Barrick expects that the $199 an ounce it is paying to mine gold at Bulyanhulu will drop to $130 over the next three years.
Sinclair hopes to sell his operation to a big mining company soon. To do that he'll need to prove that his gold can be as richly mined as it is in Bulyanhulu. And pray that bullion doesn't plummet again.
Sinclair's bullishness is catching on. One well-regarded bear, Andrew Smith of Mitsui, surprised the markets in September by announcing that he expects the metal to go to $340.
Who is making sure we don't close higher than 0.18?? For the second day I've observed a trader come from off the board and buy at 18 cents while the would-be seller is asking something else.
The amounts waiting to be sold and to be bought as next in line do not move, yet an amount goes through at the lower price at the last minute.
I'm so sick of this nasty market. Can't wait to get out.
carambe, fortune favors the bold. We've heard (or imagined) all the negatives and the SH bashers LOVE to remind us of them, yet there must be a few positives. Refer to Carib's comparison of companies to remind yourself that the 'market' (e.g. the crooks that Eric King and Jim Puplaya refer to) are probably hard at work. Ask yourself, why are foreign lenders interested in Century ? PK has made a lot of enemies in Toronto and Vancouver during her career. Something's gotta give soon ... the AGM is in one month. If PK wants to save her bacon any good news has got to come over the next two weeks. Expect the unexpected. All in my humble opinion.
According to someone who posted here earlier, we should be grateful that our lenders are not Canadian banks/brokers. However they are still around as hedge funds and are doing what they do.
The longest rope has an end, and I do believe, as you say, Natik, something's gotta give soon for CMM. Our time is at hand, hopefully with some positives for us longtime sufferers.
I'm not letting the types discussed by Eric King and Jim P steal my hard work and patience. I hope others don't either.
Every day I set up some for sale in case good news comes suddenly. If I don't sell, I let it slide. Those pussy cats are not getting my shares this time around. The same thing is happening with my RMK. Big volume after the last results, but at the last minute, they close it at 14 cents also.
Within the next couple of weeks, things have to be a lot different for CMM. Let's hope they are in our favor for a change.
Agreed Natik. Next couple of weeks should tell us a lot. Should be getting an update on Lamaque this week with the financials. According to Brent, which you can take for what its worth, most of the major details on the bridge financing have been worked out. He also mentioned that we should be hearing about whats going on with regards to the payments on Rosario and Algamarca any day. Lets hope its positive.
Terrane Metals Corp. head Rob Pease knows exactly what would happen if his junior mining company asked to borrow $40-million (U.S.) from a major Canadian bank.
"It would be a very short conversation," Mr. Pease, Terrane's president and chief executive officer, said in an interview this week, highlighting the financial squeeze most junior miners face these days.
With share prices already depressed, risk-averse investors are showing little appetite for junior mining equity issues. The credit crunch has made debt financing just as difficult for these companies in desperate need of cash to advance their development projects.
Enter the major gold producers. The seniors are becoming the sector's sugar daddies, offering financing help to the juniors for significant equity positions or options on development projects.
Vancouver-based Terrane, for example, secured a $40-million loan from Bank of Montreal on favourable terms only after senior producer Goldcorp Inc. had guaranteed the loan.
In exchange for the backstop, Goldcorp was awarded a "one-time option" to exchange its 240 million convertible shares in Terrane for a potential joint venture interest.
This venture interest would involve up to 60 per cent in Terrane's Mount Milligan copper and gold project in British Columbia.
The deal will benefit both Terrane and Goldcorp, Mr. Pease said, because if the major exercises its option on the $917-million project, Goldcorp's shares, which account for roughly 65 per cent of Terrane's equity, will be cancelled.
The former Placer Dome executive said the challenging financing conditions have forced juniors to come up with creative way to raise money.
"It pushes you more to do things like this. Even though we are living in an era of very strong commodity prices for copper and gold, the equity markets are not as supportive," he said.
If it exercises the option to take the stake in Mount Milligan, Goldcorp could add more than half of the potential mine's 4.6 million ounces of gold and 1.6 billion pounds of copper to its reserves.
Charles Jeannes, Goldcorp's head of corporate development, said more junior miners have knocked on the Vancouver gold producer's door in search of financing assistance.
"Certainly what we've seen happen in the credit markets has made traditional debt financing for projects like [Mount Milligan] more difficult. Us stepping in and backstopping the loan has certainly provided them with an opportunity they might not have had," he said.
Kinross Gold Corp. is another major that has taken advantage of the juniors' woes. The Toronto gold producer has recently snapped up stakes in junior miners through private placements.
In April, Kinross bought three million shares of BCGold Corp. or 12.8 per cent of the junior for $1.05-million (Canadian).
In May, it bought five million shares of Rye Patch Gold Corp., representing a 15-per-cent stake, for $1.25-million.
Finally, yesterday Kinross invested $1.5-million in Riverside Resources Inc. for a 7-per-cent stake.
"We recognize that short-term financing is difficult these days for the junior miners. We think that has created a very good opportunity to take equity positions on a very select basis in promising junior companies," said Kinross spokesman Steve Mitchell.
Fund manager Charles Oliver of Sprott Asset Management, whose gold and precious minerals fund invests in junior miners, said it has been "annoying" to watch the seniors buy significant stakes at discounted prices. "It's pocket change and it gives [the seniors] a good option on the potential future upside," he said.
While he believes the junior mining market is starting to turn the corner, Mr. Oliver said he has been reluctant to increase positions in some companies recently because of the volatile markets.
>>>If the bridge financing followed by the Fortis debt financing comes thru on schedule, Century will be able to get a listing on the Amex and need have no further dealings with these Canadian brokers.<<<<
How would CMM meet the $3 minimum share price required for listing on the Amex?
>>>If the bridge financing followed by the Fortis debt financing comes thru on schedule, Century will be able to get a listing on the Amex and need have no further dealings with these Canadian brokers.<<<<
How would CMM meet the $3 minimum share price required for listing on the Amex?
>How would CMM meet the $3 minimum share price required for listing on the Amex?<
gee whiz 12/3 I dunno. May be you can explain the loophole that allows some Canadian companies to trade on the Amex even though they are way under $3 ?
LOL with you baystock. Sally's sun isn't shining perhaps because it's night. He even felt obliged to repeat the question some two hours plus later! Could it be that it was because he was so sure he had us all in the grips of being unable to answer his brilliant question?
Should you now repeat your answer to this all-knowing CMM investor, since it's pretty clear he CANNOT come back with a relevant response to your response after his deliberate double posting?
At least he created some humor in a dull week where we're waiting for news from the company. Plus it's too lonely at the other end. Tee-hee.
>>>>May be you can explain the loophole that allows some Canadian companies to trade on the Amex even though they are way under $3 ?<<<<<
Is there a difference between the requirements to get an initial listing on the AMEX and the requirements to stay listed? What if a company has or had the required share price to get listed and then the stock price drops below the $3 threshold? Is that an immediate cause for delisting?
Or is the fact that some AMEX stocks trade below $3 proof enough that any stock that trades below $3 can get a new listing on the AMEX, in spite what some law firm publishes and what is published in the AMEX company guide?
Is it realistic to think that CMM will get an AMEX listing with an 18 cent share price and bridge financing? or with full Lamaque financing?
No need to go off opinion, the facts are here: http://wallstreet.cch.com/AMEXtools/PlatformViewer.asp?SelectedNode=chp_1_1_1&manual=/AMEX/CompanyGuide/amex-company-guide/
PART 1. ORIGINAL LISTING REQUIREMENTS (Sec 101-146)
Criteria for Original Listing
Sec. 101 General
The approval of an application for the listing of securities is a matter solely within the discretion of the Exchange. The Exchange has established certain minimum numerical standards, set forth below. The fact that an applicant may meet the Exchange's numerical standards does not necessarily mean that its application will be approved. Other factors which will also be considered include, but are not limited to, the nature of an issuer's business, the market for its products, its regulatory history, its past corporate governance activities, the reputation of its management, its historical record and pattern of growth, its financial integrity (including, but not limited to, any filing for protection under any provision of the federal bankruptcy laws or comparable foreign laws, the issuance by an issuer's independent accountants of a disclaimer opinion on financial statements required to be audited, or failure to provide a required certification along with financial statements), its demonstrated earning power and its future outlook.
Sec. 102 EQUITY ISSUES
(b) Stock Price/Market Value of Shares Publicly Held— The Exchange requires a minimum market price of $3 per share for applicants seeking to qualify for listing pursuant to Section 101 (a), (b) or (d), a minimum market price of $2 per share for applicants seeking to qualify for listing pursuant to Section 101(c), and $3,000,000 aggregate market value of publicly held shares for applicants seeking to qualify for listing pursuant to Section 101(a).
So I repeat the original questions:
How would CMM meet the $3 minimum [nee $2 Minimum] share price required for listing on the Amex?
Is there a provision that allows foreign companies or mining companies different treatment?
December, if you are going to use smallstocks are your name on this blog, then sign in under this name when posting comments. As I've posted before and as per the blog heading, anonymous posts will be subject to deletion and your future anonymous posts will be deleted.
You said: "Is it realistic to think that CMM will get an AMEX listing with an 18 cent share price and bridge financing? or with full Lamaque financing?
Is it realistic that CMM will continue to have an 18-cent share price with bridge financing or full Lamaque funding?
Full Lamaque funding of $70 million means that those putting up those funds values CMM at a lot more than its current market value.
The minimum share price looks like a stretch when at 18 cents, but full funding and meeting a forecast of 100,000 oz of production in 2009 will put the share price closer to $2 than 18 cents.
The minimum $2 share price for an Amex listing is a bit silly really. The important requirement is the minimum market cap of $50 million. A company can have 10 million shares and a $5 share price and qualify, but one with 400 million shares and a $1 share price cannot. It just means the latter company has to do a reverse split to qualify.
CMM's next listing won't be on the Amex, but on the TSX. They have the 43-101's in place and when/if they get the Fortis financing, they will have the minimum $10 million in working capital.
However they sure aren't making a graduation to the TSX any easier by continuing to be a delinquent filer on the TSX-V exchange. The BCSC just issued its second notice. Today is the deadline for Q1 financials. Maybe we'll get a 2-for-1 after the close today.
24 comments:
I listened. You really must listen to this, investors. You already know some of it, but having it put together like this is numbing and uplifting at the same time. We have to DO something though.
I listened to the interview with Allan Ambrose. He's on the BOD of Century Mining. He ought to be a candidate for Chairman when PK is gone.
To PK's credit she has avoided the Canadian brokers and gone to the U.S. and Europe for her financings, ie. Scion, Wega and now hopefully Fortis.
If the bridge financing followed by the Fortis debt financing comes thru on schedule, Century will be able to get a listing on the Amex and need have no further dealings with these Canadian brokers.
According to Jim Sinclair hedge funds are also responsible for inflicting a lot of the havoc seen lately in the juniors.
Jim Sinclair last week was predicting a near term $300 up move in gold. Clearly a $1200 gold price would significantly increase the odds for a favorable resolution of the ongoing debt financing negotiations with Fortis:
Posted On: Tuesday, May 20, 2008, 6:56:00 PM EST
Gold and Dollar Market Summary
Author: Jim Sinclair
Dear Comrades in Golden Arms (CIGAs),
In years to come, market students reviewing gold's price action moving from $600 to $1200 will appear as much of a straight line as any market can produce. Don't miss the historical move you are in. Look at the big picture. Don't allow the daily arranged noise to dull your market senses. Nothing gold will fail to perform. The larger the legal and illegal short, the more dynamic the upcoming move of the juniors will be. Cancel all open sell orders in gold anything. The sun is setting on the gold and gold share bearish bullies who wished only to destroy, contributing nothing to anyone but themselves. The world is made up of builders and destroyers, givers and takers. When the book is written, the hedge funds will be seen as destroyers of the financial world and having taken all the wealth of their investors in the process.
Posted On: Wednesday, May 21, 2008, 9:31:00 PM EST
Gold and Dollar Market Summary
Author: Jim Sinclair
Dear Comrades in Golden Arms,
Gold:
1. This move in gold is real.
2. The volatility of the gold price up and down is going to be wild. Buckle your seatbelt and put on your helmet.
3. Gold is headed to $1200 here and now.
4. The drought of interest in juniors is behind us, having ended on May 8th 2008.
5. The positivity of the gold price has legs both in time and price. I see months, not weeks in this phase.
6. "Sell in May and go away" will be proven completely WRONG this time around.
If PK's deal is indeed going to, or has a great chance of taking us into a better-regulated market, we will forever be indebted to her regardless of how we feel now about things past or present, IMO. Letting bankers become stock brokers was an ill-conceived idea by the government. So-called "regulators" who turn a blind eye and a deaf ear leave a lot up to speculation about the relevance of their roles. Whose side are they on? Who are they protecting?
As they said in the broadcast, criminal legal action leading to jailterms is possibly the only way to get to these folks who are free to run willy-nilly with no checks or balances.
PK's latest wheeling and dealing may succeed, assuming that Fortis and the bridge debt lender don't stick it to Century during negotiations, and then a whole bunch of other critical issues suddenly begin to go in our favor; that being said, she is responsible for leading us to the brink of total disaster where the slightest miscalculation now will end our interminable suffering. Once the year end financials and Q1are released, this week(?), the bridge financing approvals shouldn't be far behind. I hope (and pray).
Natik, you said:
That being said, she is responsible for leading us to the brink of total disaster where the slightest miscalculation now will end our interminable suffering.
You're right. We're not out of the woods yet. Far from it.
Yawn ... zzzzzzzzzzzz. I hear paint drying. I called the office today. Someone answered the phone on a National holiday. Shame! Is Jim Sinclair credible or is he crazy?
Is Jim Sinclair credible or is he crazy?
Cal Powers, you should decide that for yourself. Jim Sinclair has his own blog with quite the following. Here is a Golden oldie:
http://members.forbes.com/global/2001/1210/064.html
Golden oldie
Bernard Condon, 12.10.01
Having called the top of the gold market 22 years ago, a goldbug now thinks that he has found the bottom.
In 1977 James Sinclair boldly predicted that gold would rise from $150 per troy ounce to $900. Gold never reached that mark, but it came close on Jan. 21, 1980, peaking at $887.50. The next day, says Sinclair, he unloaded his entire gold position, personally netting $15 million. Pointing to the U.S. Federal Reserve's efforts to fight inflation, Sinclair then predicted at an annual gold conference that the metal would languish for the next 15 years. It did. On Friday, Jan. 20, 1995, it closed at $383.85.
So this is a guy to listen to. He's bullish again. Why? Because he believes, despite the whiff of deflation in the October producer price index, that the U.S. is headed for mild inflation. He thinks that the dollar is due for a fall. He is also impressed that mining companies, which routinely sell unmined metal forward at fixed prices to protect themselves against further price drops, have recently pulled back from placing these hedges, a move that should prompt gold prices to rise. If they do, Sinclair expects a squeeze on gold speculators, who have $36 billion in short positions. Sinclair figures that the shorts will cover their positions soon after gold hits $305, a move that could force the price to $350, even $430.
Persuaded? On the New York Mercantile Exchange you can buy an option to purchase 100 ounces of gold in six months with a strike price set at a slight premium to today's price. An option exercisable at $300 will cost you $9 an ounce. If gold hits $350 you pocket $4,100 in profits.
Sinclair is not buying just futures and options. Since 1996 he has invested $11 million to develop 5,600 square kilometers of barren land in central Tanzania that he's convinced hold vast gold deposits. Drilling on the property is still in the early stages, but Barrick Gold is already pulling metal from an adjacent site whose proven and probable reserves have nearly tripled to 10 million ounces in the past two and a half years.
It's a gamble not many investors would make, but Sinclair has always stood apart from the crowd. On the walls of his office hang six photographs of Shri Sathya Sai Baba, a guru in India whom Sinclair visits several times a year. Sinclair's love of carrot juice recently turned into a 25-kilo-a-week habit that was brought to a halt only when his doctor grew alarmed at the orange tint to his skin. A loner, Sinclair paid $3 million in 1983 to turn a 19th-century barn into a reception hall for his house but has held only three parties there.
After his 1970s career as a goldbug, Sinclair retreated to his Connecticut estate, where he played with his helicopters, show ponies and collection of Ferraris. He didn't stay idle long. He built cable systems at Cross Country Cable, a company he started with two friends, then made millions selling some of them to John Malone's TCI.
"Jimmy is different," says his onetime cable partner Vincent Tese, the former New York State banking commissioner and now a Bear Stearns director. "But in the trading business people don't care if you're purple, just as long as you're making money."
In 1989 Sinclair got back into metals after buying a small stake in a Vancouver, Canada, mining company called Sutton Resources. During a trip to Tanzania for the company that year to check out a potential nickel site, Sinclair became intrigued by a 140-square-kilometer patch of land called Bulyanhulu. It was studded with greenstones, volcanic rocks marked by long seams that are often rich in minerals. Some greenstone mines, such as those in Canada's Kirkland Lake Camp, have been yielding gold for a century and do so now at the relatively low cost of $200 an ounce.
"The opportunity stared at me as it did with cable and gold," he says. "The only way to make big money is to have the courage to put your eggs in one basket."
Sinclair helped Sutton buy rights to mine Bulyanhulu, then lobbied for it to do the same in adjacent lands. Sutton balked and eventually sold Bulyanhulu to Barrick. Sinclair decided to go it alone.
By the summer of 1999 he had invested $4 million in the lands near Bulyanhulu. He faced a sickening prospect. Gold had just hit a 21-year low of $246. Bears were predicting $150 soon, a price that could wipe out the profits from even the most efficient of Tanzania's mines.
"I felt a pit in my stomach, like hunger," Sinclair recalls. "When I was a young trader, I used to think that I was invincible. Now I feel the risk."
Simple logic mitigated his fears. It costs most companies $250 (including back-office support) to extract an ounce of gold. With gold trading below cost, it made no sense for mining companies to hedge against further price reductions. Recognizing that such hedges meant that an important force pulling gold down would soon disappear, he reasoned that the bottom was near.
Over the next nine months Sinclair spent $1.5 million on tests that measured magnetic pull to help locate seams in his greenstone. Soon after the tests ended, in February 2000, news broke that some big mining companies had indeed stopped placing new hedges. Sinclair reached into his pocket for $5 million to buy more mining rights in surrounding lands. Barrick expects that the $199 an ounce it is paying to mine gold at Bulyanhulu will drop to $130 over the next three years.
Sinclair hopes to sell his operation to a big mining company soon. To do that he'll need to prove that his gold can be as richly mined as it is in Bulyanhulu. And pray that bullion doesn't plummet again.
Sinclair's bullishness is catching on. One well-regarded bear, Andrew Smith of Mitsui, surprised the markets in September by announcing that he expects the metal to go to $340.
Who is making sure we don't close higher than 0.18?? For the second day I've observed a trader come from off the board and buy at 18 cents while the would-be seller is asking something else.
The amounts waiting to be sold and to be bought as next in line do not move, yet an amount goes through at the lower price at the last minute.
I'm so sick of this nasty market. Can't wait to get out.
carambe, fortune favors the bold. We've heard (or imagined) all the negatives and the SH bashers LOVE to remind us of them, yet there must be a few positives. Refer to Carib's comparison of companies to remind yourself that the 'market' (e.g. the crooks that Eric King and Jim Puplaya refer to) are probably hard at work. Ask yourself, why are foreign lenders interested in Century ? PK has made a lot of enemies in Toronto and Vancouver during her career. Something's gotta give soon ... the AGM is in one month. If PK wants to save her bacon any good news has got to come over the next two weeks. Expect the unexpected. All in my humble opinion.
According to someone who posted here earlier, we should be grateful that our lenders are not Canadian banks/brokers. However they are still around as hedge funds and are doing what they do.
The longest rope has an end, and I do believe, as you say, Natik, something's gotta give soon for CMM. Our time is at hand, hopefully with some positives for us longtime sufferers.
I'm not letting the types discussed by Eric King and Jim P steal my hard work and patience. I hope others don't either.
Every day I set up some for sale in case good news comes suddenly. If I don't sell, I let it slide. Those pussy cats are not getting my shares this time around. The same thing is happening with my RMK. Big volume after the last results, but at the last minute, they close it at 14 cents also.
Within the next couple of weeks, things have to be a lot different for CMM. Let's hope they are in our favor for a change.
Agreed Natik.
Next couple of weeks should tell
us a lot.
Should be getting an update on
Lamaque this week with the financials. According to Brent,
which you can take for what its worth, most of the major details
on the bridge financing have been worked out. He also mentioned that
we should be hearing about whats
going on with regards to the payments on Rosario and Algamarca
any day.
Lets hope its positive.
From the Canadian paper, Globe & Mail today:
As lenders balk, big miners step up
ANDY HOFFMAN
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
May 28, 2008 at 4:11 AM EDT
Terrane Metals Corp. head Rob Pease knows exactly what would happen if his junior mining company asked to borrow $40-million (U.S.) from a major Canadian bank.
"It would be a very short conversation," Mr. Pease, Terrane's president and chief executive officer, said in an interview this week, highlighting the financial squeeze most junior miners face these days.
With share prices already depressed, risk-averse investors are showing little appetite for junior mining equity issues. The credit crunch has made debt financing just as difficult for these companies in desperate need of cash to advance their development projects.
Enter the major gold producers. The seniors are becoming the sector's sugar daddies, offering financing help to the juniors for significant equity positions or options on development projects.
Vancouver-based Terrane, for example, secured a $40-million loan from Bank of Montreal on favourable terms only after senior producer Goldcorp Inc. had guaranteed the loan.
In exchange for the backstop, Goldcorp was awarded a "one-time option" to exchange its 240 million convertible shares in Terrane for a potential joint venture interest.
This venture interest would involve up to 60 per cent in Terrane's Mount Milligan copper and gold project in British Columbia.
The deal will benefit both Terrane and Goldcorp, Mr. Pease said, because if the major exercises its option on the $917-million project, Goldcorp's shares, which account for roughly 65 per cent of Terrane's equity, will be cancelled.
The former Placer Dome executive said the challenging financing conditions have forced juniors to come up with creative way to raise money.
"It pushes you more to do things like this. Even though we are living in an era of very strong commodity prices for copper and gold, the equity markets are not as supportive," he said.
If it exercises the option to take the stake in Mount Milligan, Goldcorp could add more than half of the potential mine's 4.6 million ounces of gold and 1.6 billion pounds of copper to its reserves.
Charles Jeannes, Goldcorp's head of corporate development, said more junior miners have knocked on the Vancouver gold producer's door in search of financing assistance.
"Certainly what we've seen happen in the credit markets has made traditional debt financing for projects like [Mount Milligan] more difficult. Us stepping in and backstopping the loan has certainly provided them with an opportunity they might not have had," he said.
Kinross Gold Corp. is another major that has taken advantage of the juniors' woes. The Toronto gold producer has recently snapped up stakes in junior miners through private placements.
In April, Kinross bought three million shares of BCGold Corp. or 12.8 per cent of the junior for $1.05-million (Canadian).
In May, it bought five million shares of Rye Patch Gold Corp., representing a 15-per-cent stake, for $1.25-million.
Finally, yesterday Kinross invested $1.5-million in Riverside Resources Inc. for a 7-per-cent stake.
"We recognize that short-term financing is difficult these days for the junior miners. We think that has created a very good opportunity to take equity positions on a very select basis in promising junior companies," said Kinross spokesman Steve Mitchell.
Fund manager Charles Oliver of Sprott Asset Management, whose gold and precious minerals fund invests in junior miners, said it has been "annoying" to watch the seniors buy significant stakes at discounted prices. "It's pocket change and it gives [the seniors] a good option on the potential future upside," he said.
While he believes the junior mining market is starting to turn the corner, Mr. Oliver said he has been reluctant to increase positions in some companies recently because of the volatile markets.
>>>If the bridge financing followed by the Fortis debt financing comes thru on schedule, Century will be able to get a listing on the Amex and need have no further dealings with these Canadian brokers.<<<<
How would CMM meet the $3 minimum share price required for listing on the Amex?
http://www.venturelawcorp.com/listing_requirements_amex.html
Is there a provision that allows foreign companies different treatment?
>>>If the bridge financing followed by the Fortis debt financing comes thru on schedule, Century will be able to get a listing on the Amex and need have no further dealings with these Canadian brokers.<<<<
How would CMM meet the $3 minimum share price required for listing on the Amex?
http://www.venturelawcorp.com/listing_requirements_amex.html
Is there a provision that allows foreign companies different treatment?
>How would CMM meet the $3 minimum share price required for listing on the Amex?<
gee whiz 12/3 I dunno. May be you can explain the loophole that allows some Canadian companies to trade on the Amex even though they are way under $3 ?
Nevsun (NSU) => $1.71
Orezone (OZN) => $1.27
Rubicon (RBY) => $1.17
Apollo Gold (AGT) => 60 cents ??
LOL with you baystock. Sally's sun isn't shining perhaps because it's night. He even felt obliged to repeat the question some two hours plus later! Could it be that it was because he was so sure he had us all in the grips of being unable to answer his brilliant question?
Should you now repeat your answer to this all-knowing CMM investor, since it's pretty clear he CANNOT come back with a relevant response to your response after his deliberate double posting?
At least he created some humor in a dull week where we're waiting for news from the company. Plus it's too lonely at the other end. Tee-hee.
Maybe we get some negative news after close today? I have been hoping for an NR all week, but nothing..
>>>>May be you can explain the loophole that allows some Canadian companies to trade on the Amex even though they are way under $3 ?<<<<<
Is there a difference between the requirements to get an initial listing on the AMEX and the requirements to stay listed? What if a company has or had the required share price to get listed and then the stock price drops below the $3 threshold? Is that an immediate cause for delisting?
Or is the fact that some AMEX stocks trade below $3 proof enough that any stock that trades below $3 can get a new listing on the AMEX, in spite what some law firm publishes and what is published in the AMEX company guide?
Is it realistic to think that CMM will get an AMEX listing with an 18 cent share price and bridge financing? or with full Lamaque financing?
No need to go off opinion, the facts are here:
http://wallstreet.cch.com/AMEXtools/PlatformViewer.asp?SelectedNode=chp_1_1_1&manual=/AMEX/CompanyGuide/amex-company-guide/
PART 1. ORIGINAL LISTING REQUIREMENTS (Sec 101-146)
Criteria for Original Listing
Sec. 101 General
The approval of an application for the listing of securities is a matter solely within the discretion of the Exchange. The Exchange has established certain minimum numerical standards, set forth below. The fact that an applicant may meet the Exchange's numerical standards does not necessarily mean that its application will be approved. Other factors which will also be considered include, but are not limited to, the nature of an issuer's business, the market for its products, its regulatory history, its past corporate governance activities, the reputation of its management, its historical record and pattern of growth, its financial integrity (including, but not limited to, any filing for protection under any provision of the federal bankruptcy laws or comparable foreign laws, the issuance by an issuer's independent accountants of a disclaimer opinion on financial statements required to be audited, or failure to provide a required certification along with financial statements), its demonstrated earning power and its future outlook.
Sec. 102 EQUITY ISSUES
(b) Stock Price/Market Value of Shares Publicly Held— The Exchange requires a minimum market price of $3 per share for applicants seeking to qualify for listing pursuant to Section 101 (a), (b) or (d), a minimum market price of $2 per share for applicants seeking to qualify for listing pursuant to Section 101(c), and $3,000,000 aggregate market value of publicly held shares for applicants seeking to qualify for listing pursuant to Section 101(a).
So I repeat the original questions:
How would CMM meet the $3 minimum [nee $2 Minimum] share price required for listing on the Amex?
Is there a provision that allows foreign companies or mining companies different treatment?
-smallstocks
December, if you are going to use smallstocks are your name on this blog, then sign in under this name when posting comments. As I've posted before and as per the blog heading, anonymous posts will be subject to deletion and your future anonymous posts will be deleted.
You said: "Is it realistic to think that CMM will get an AMEX listing with an 18 cent share price and bridge financing? or with full Lamaque financing?
Is it realistic that CMM will continue to have an 18-cent share price with bridge financing or full Lamaque funding?
Full Lamaque funding of $70 million means that those putting up those funds values CMM at a lot more than its current market value.
The minimum share price looks like a stretch when at 18 cents, but full funding and meeting a forecast of 100,000 oz of production in 2009 will put the share price closer to $2 than 18 cents.
The minimum $2 share price for an Amex listing is a bit silly really. The important requirement is the minimum market cap of $50 million. A company can have 10 million shares and a $5 share price and qualify, but one with 400 million shares and a $1 share price cannot. It just means the latter company has to do a reverse split to qualify.
CMM's next listing won't be on the Amex, but on the TSX. They have the 43-101's in place and when/if they get the Fortis financing, they will have the minimum $10 million in working capital.
However they sure aren't making a graduation to the TSX any easier by continuing to be a delinquent filer on the TSX-V exchange. The BCSC just issued its second notice. Today is the deadline for Q1 financials. Maybe we'll get a 2-for-1 after the close today.
hey! I put "carambe" in "NAME/URL' and it came out as "anonymous." This is not the first time that has happened. I'll see what happens now. Thanks.
Will the stock get halted again if we don't get any NR do you think?
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