Century Mining Corp (C:CMM) Shares Issued 168,739,266Last Close 7/22/2008 $0.07
Wednesday July 23 2008 - News Release
Mr. Brent Jones reports
CENTURY MINING HIRES ADVISORS TO EVALUATE STRATEGIC OPTIONS
Century Mining Corp. has initiated a strategic review process in response to recent difficulties the Company has encountered in its efforts to secure financing. This review process was initiated as a result of Century's evaluation of severe equity market conditions and the current valuation of the Company.
The Board of Directors has therefore engaged Blair Franklin Capital Partners as financial advisors, to identify alternatives available to Century that will enhance shareholder value.
The strategic review will encompass a thorough analysis and evaluation of the prospects and options available to the Company, including the sale of the Company or its assets, the recapitalization of the Company or other alternatives that may be identified by the Company's advisors or Board of Directors.
Margaret Kent, President & CEO said: "We are asset rich, but lacking in working capital. We fully intend to continue all internal work toward completing the due diligence process related to the Fortis Bank financing for Lamaque. Parallel to this process, the Company will explore strategic alternatives which could enhance shareholder value. The Company believes that there are several alternatives that could ease the strain of our current working capital deficit and allow us to move forward and grow the Company during this difficult time we are experiencing in the resource equity markets."
© 2008 Canjex Publishing Ltd.
13 comments:
Margaret Kent, President & CEO said: "We are asset rich, but lacking in working capital
should be
Margaret Kent, President & CEO said: "We are asset rich, but lacking good management
Good suggestion, Nino.
I note that it was CMM's BoD which engaged Blair Franklin (no the CEO). Is that a sign that the BoD is finally taking its responsibility seriously? I wonder what is the reporting time horizon for Blair Franklin? I looked at their website, they seem to be a very reputable firm.
By the way, did you all note the reference to "shareholder value" in the press release?!! Except the market is voting shareholder "devalue" today. Only 4 more pennies to oblivion for a Company with $4.5 Billion's worth of gold in the ground. Unbelievable!
I don't know about you guys, but
I'm going to load up down here and
try to make back some of my losses.
Heck, even a ridiculous offer of
10cents per share will give me
more than a double. Maybe that
was Wega's plan all along.
It is what it is ... the mine infrastructure alone is worth more than the market cap. I haven't seen anything like it before.
Kalahari Resources next door has the same share price and nearly as many o/s shares. They are exploring for gold. They have no NI 43-101's or operating mines.
May 28, 2008 ~
' The company is also pleased to announce that drilling continues on the Lamaque property located at Val d'Or, Que., the home of the famous Lamaque and Sigma mines, which together have produced over 10 million ounces of gold. The company's property consists of over 3,500 contiguous acres lying adjacent to the town of Val d'Or and to the two historic mines. The company's 22,500-foot drilling program being undertaken this spring, 2008, is endeavouring to expand the existing No. 10 zone and the Parallel zone which lie in very close proximity to each other. The No. 10 zone has been categorized as an inferred mineral resource of 216,000 tons grading 0.224 ounce per ton (cut to one ounce) and 0.0276 ounce per ton (uncut) in a Watts Griffis and McOuat 43-101 report. The Parallel zone was not calculated in the Watts Griffis report. However, historic data from a previous operator, that is non-43-101 compliant, reports 98,000 tons at 0.386 ounce per ton gold (uncut) and 0.234 ounce per ton gold.'
The market is screaming, "Peggy, resign!"
Will she listen? Stay tuned!
Yes, the market is screaming: "Peggy resign"! But will her ego allow her to remove the ear plugs so she can hear?
What I can't figure out is why would a smart mining man, like Tim Gooch, come over here (and possibly risk his own fine reputation) if he was not given some assurances that he would be given the reigns at CMM soon? And if he did not see a bright future for the outfit that he was to lead?
The gold industry, which includes the institutions, also known as the old boys network, have Elephant memories. You play by their rules or you hit the highway. PK isn't deaf or dumb, she hears and reads everything.
Tim Gooch realizes what he is up against. If he's living out a suitcase it won't take long to pack for the long flight home.
My suggestion that CMM issue a news release similar to the one I posted about QGX last night was quite a coincidence. I had no idea we would see such a news release today from CMM.
Is this a case of too little too late from the BoD? Probably but it's a lot better than waiting for PK to wipe us out completely and having to sell everyting in a distressed condition.
Had PK not squandered $12 million on failed acquisitions and call options last year, we'd be doing very well at both San Juan and Lamaque right now - both would be very profitable at $920 gold. BTW you just knew that the POG would fall below the settlement figure of $923/oz as soon as PK finally agreed to settle the call options.
As much as PK is despised by the Canadian Mining industry, I'd imagine those feelings for PK would be secondary when it comes to acquiring almost 5 million ounces in Quebec and the associated plant. As long as there are at least two interested parties in those assets, we should see some relief from the beating we've taken in the past 2 years. Sadly we'll never realize the upside that was there if we'd had caring and competent management though.
There are few producing gold companies that don't have a need to replace reserves and as per the Lamaque technical Report, there could be 10 million ounces still to be mined at Sigma-Lamaque.
Just imagine what Kalahari Resources market cap would be with the Lamaque assets, based on how much they are valued right now as per optimusprime's post.
It looks like Wega took advantage of our weakened state today to punish us with massive sales at the bid. However, although 6 million shares traded hands, the total value wasn't much over $300k.
Hi Carib,
Which direction would be your preference for the company?
Of course, we would all like PK to resign real soon, but unfortunately the chances of that happening are probably slim to none. Sadly, she appears to want to eliminate our entire investment before she leaves. I've used this word to describe her before, but I will use it again (as nothing has changed). IMO, this lady is heartless. She knew all along that we could have avoided being in this situation had she simply resigned and allowed someone else (quite frankly, anyone) to be the face of the company. No, she didn't even have that little bit of compassion for her shareholders. Her selfishness and her giant ego was/is too big. In my view, it doesn't matter how many investors she destroys, just as long as she is in good shape herself.
Anyway, here are my choices for direction of the company:
1) Acquired by or merged with a more stable company, with management of the new company taking over. If it's an acquisition I would like it to be shares instead of cash, especially if the new company has upside potential.
2) Merger with a tiny junior company with a low share price (that does not have any significant projects), but has at least $6M in cash on hand and no debt. The management of the tiny junior company should then take over. Of course, this will only work if the new management team has the abilities/connections to raise funds (as a contingency to Fortis). This direction would allow Century shareholders to maintain almost the full upside potential.
3) Sell off Lamaque to clean up balance sheet, and continue onward with San Juan and being debt free.
First thing is first however, Century needs to hurry up and sell off some secondary assets (North Belt, Erika, etc.) to raise some badly needed cash. Given our condition, I don't know why they just don't hurry up and take whatever they can get from the Poderosa settlement, instead of playing games.
Production05
Production, in a distressed state what could CMM realistically sell their secondary assets for? Do any of them have value.
Did PK mention the Poderosa litigation on the conference call and anything about a settlement offer?
You're too kind in your description of PK.
Hi Optimusprime,
PK mentioned on the c.c. that there was an offer in the Poderosa situation. She didn't mention an amount, but she did say that it wasn't enough to recover the costs incured by Century.
By the way, I had forgotten to mention that a 4th option for Century is to sell San Juan and continue with Lamaque.
I think they can probably do some things mid to longer term (especially with regards to selling off some assets to raise cash, even if it means selling off San Juan), however my biggest concerns relate to the immediate future (the next 2 to 4 weeks). Asset sales normally take a bit of time to close, unless they are able to work some things out quickly. This is why I was thinking that Century should just settle up on Poderosa right now, even if they can only get one or two million in compensation. It's money that can buy them a bit of time until they can sell a couple of assets or if they are able to eventually make progress with this: "While the Company is exploring other financing alternatives, any discussions are preliminary in nature."
I thought I heard something on the c.c. about selling inventory. I only listened to the call once so I don't know if they meant inventory as in equipment fleet or inventory as in the balance sheet classification (consumables, etc.). Selling inventory wouldn't give them a lot of cash, but they can probably sell it fast to producing companies in the area (i.e. Alexis Minerals, Agnico-Eagle, Wesdome...). I believe the In-process gold at Lamaque (normally a good portion of the inventory make up) might be secured by the Working capital gold facility. If such is the case then they can probably sell off the In-process gold inventory to take down some of the Working capital gold facility amount (perhaps).
Production05
Here's a draft letter I plan on finalizing and emailing to the Board. Perhaps we should all be emailing them over the coming days. My big fear is that with a partial sale of assets, if Peggy hangs on, the stock will stay stuck in the mud.
Dear Century Mining Board of Directors,
I have been a shareholder of Century Mining for over two years. Unfortunately, the company is currently facing insolvency as a result of mismanagement and poor decision making. It is unequivocal that the state of the company today cannot be blamed on external factors such as the market credit crunch.
As directors of Century, it is extremely unfortunate that you have allowed Margaret Kent to remain CEO of the company up until now. Your inaction to remove her at any point in the past seven months has been, in my opinion, the result of extreme negligence on your parts.
What to do now?
Should the company succeed in selling off some or most of its assets and remain a going concern, it is imperative that Margaret Kent step aside as CEO. This is not a personal vendetta against Ms. Kent, but rather the logical conclusion given her performance over the past 12-18 months as well as her reputation in the marketplace. My strong wish for the company is that it be successful in selling all of its assets at a substantial premium to Century’s current enterprise value of roughly $41 million (i.e., $31M in debt plus working capital deficit, plus $10M in market capitalization).
It is not too late to salvage some value for Century shareholders. Hopefully now you will be willing to make the hard decisions - which you have been unwilling to make thus far - to benefit the company shareholders.
Sincerely,
Welcome to the CMM Blog, Peggy Sue;
Your letter is excellent. You might mention in a post-script that all members/posters on this the CMM Blog, who are also shareholders, feel the same way as you do.
PeggySue, whilst the Board failed to excercise sound oversight, there is the not-so-small matter of the shareholders who cast 60,000,000 shares to allow her to remain in place at the AGM. Had she only received 30,000,000 out of the 85,000,000 cast the Board might have had more confidence to ask her to resign.
Regardless, going forward, PK's status as Chairman/CEO will be a factor.
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