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If we can't get MRI, how in the heck will we get Fortis?
9 comments:
Anonymous
said...
It's definitely a nightmare! I listened for awhile and then hung up. You have to admire PK's gall to talk to the shareholders for the first time in eons, but not admit that she is in any way a part of the problem. And on top of that, that they're not drawing salaries which prevents them from buying their own company shares. I'll bet that neither PK or RB are hurting. They have their Tamerlane venture to fall back on. Listen to the May 2006 CMM teleconference and compare it to what transpired today. I didn't hear her say that the MRI deal is off the table; so what is giving them cold feet?
Roxy14, to answer your question: we (the shareholders) will go home with nothing. Our shares are pretty close to nothing (zero value) right now. This happens when a CEO loses all credibility with lenders and shareholders alike. It's obvious that MRI is not going to lend her a penny. They've done their due diligence, by watching CMM's share price during the last couple of months.
One use we might consider for our shares: first, request our brokers to issue those pretty share certificates. And then, use them as wallpaper in the bathroom.
As for PK, perhaps she can have an early start on writing her books. I can suggest a couple of titles: (1) "The lessons I failed to learn from the Royal Oak debacle." (2) "How I ran Century Mining into the ground in less than two years."
I don't think they will file for bankruptcy, but they will surely have to sacrifice some assets at fire sale prices to remain a going concern.
I think the writing has been on the wall for many weeks now wrt the MRI financing. It's not officially dead, but as PK said, in her 30 years in the business, when you get this kind of delay they are either waffling or don't have the funds to commit. Another of PK's "binding" agreements that went south. I suspect the disclosure of Lamaque's actual production numbers and "revisions" to future forecast production numbers was justification enough for MRI to renege.
The question now is can the company raise enough funds to keep the Lamaque due diligence process going until Fortis makes their assessment. The stated options are to sell redundant equipment (crushers) and/or other secondary properties or do a massively dilutive equity financing. I'm guessing we might see a combination of all three, with management taking a big part of the very cheap PP (to save the company, they'll say).
SJ needs just $1 million to become a nicely profitable operation at current gold prices, but this management is so distrusted that they can't raise this piddly amount. That's because in the past year PK squandered over $7 million on failed acquisitions and over $5 million on selling call options.
What a difference that $12 million would make today! And yet 60 million shares voted to keep this woman as a Director!
Unless they receive more assurances from Fortis than they received from MRI, it might be time to cease all activity at Lamaque and concentrate efforts at getting SJ to a more profitable operation, even if it means putting Lamaque on the block. Otherwise sell San Juan to fund Lamaque, but a lot more money is needed for that route to get to breakeven status. SJ is already a profitable operation.
Incidentally Wolverton did buy 100k shares today at 7 cents. If it was PK, that $7,000 was a small part of her $60,000 bonus. We'll see when the insider reports are filed.
It's obvious that the BoD is not going to help us out here. Maybe it's time we petition the BCSC based on false and misleading information disseminated in news releases, conference calls and Sedar filings. We couldn't do any worse with someone else running the ship.
The biggest challenge over the next couple of weeks is how quickly can they get some cash, as they seem to be extremely low right now. I think there are some decent assets that could be sold, but that still requires time. I would like to see them find a way of getting an immediate injection of $1M or even $500. Maybe quick sales success with a few of the Sigma o/p equipment can provide that cash. Otherwise, hopefully PK is able to find another quick source.
On a slightly longer term basis, I'm hoping that Century will be able to at least replace the lost $5M from MRI with cash from the following initiatives:
1) Sale of more Sigma o/p equipment (including redundant crusher)
2) North Belt property (NWT) - "The property contains the Crestaurum gold deposit, a large number of gold showings and a zinc showing." PK on the c.c. today: North Belt contains "250,000 ounces" of non-43-101 compliant resource.
3) Erika (Peru) - hopefully Teck-Cominco is interested. "The property abuts Teck-Cominco claims to the south and east, which cover a copper porphyry discovery in similar rocks south-east of the Erika."
4) Poderosa settlement
I agree, Century should sell off Lamaque if they are sensing uncertainty with Fortis also. No point going through the next 5 months and then ending up the same place we are today. I like the idea of selling off Lamaque (coupled with significantly scaled down of Corporate staff) to create a much cleaner balance sheet and significantly lower monthly burn rate, and potentially a debt free company, and potentialy a company that is self sustainable during this credit crisis period (with San Juan generating small scale type profits). The company can then begin to rebuilt itself from there, with little pressure with regards to timeframe. The key is for the company to get out from under all this weight. The problem is that we don't know if the market will pay enough right now (for Lamaque) to enable us to fully clean up the balance sheet (while provide a few million left over for us to use as working dollars going forward).
Did MRI cancel their arrangement with TAM? TAM and CMM appeared to be going hand-in-hand to MRI. Everthing pointed to a solid relationship with MRI. They were in Vancouver a few days before the AGM dispensing advice to PK and her board about how to clean-up CMM - advice that PK claims to be accepting. MRI has Fortis connections. I'll bet that MRI were on the conference call today. I wonder what they thought about PK's comments?
If any other CEO had the assets that CMM has, the share price would be $1 minimum. The shareholders who voted 60 million shares to keep PK around should have their brains checked. The independent directors received more votes but they're in over their collective heads in this quagmire.
The Fortis independent technical analyst was scheduled to arrive at Lamaque this later this month according to Brent Jones. Timothy Gooch is preparing Lamaque for his arrival. He has a month to prepare and submit his independent report to Fortis. MRI told CMM that it is continuing their DD and would require 'at least 30 more days to complete further due diligence.'
Is there a connection between the concurrent Fortis and MRI DD's? Why would MRI loan CMM $5 million if they had any doubts about the Fortis loan?
I had understood that some of the expected MRI financing was required to assist CMM to prepare Lamaque for the Fortis DD?
Oh heck, this is CMM ... they speak with forked tongues!
Perhaps it is time for a news release like this one issued by QGX on February 12 this year:
QGX Ltd. (TSX:QGX) announced today that it has initiated a review of strategic alternatives to identify the most effective means for optimizing value from existing assets for shareholders.
This review will be all encompassing in its evaluation of available options. There can be no assurance that the process will result in any specific strategic or financial transactions, and no timetable has been set for its completion. The Company does not plan to make future comments about the status of the review unless there are material developments.
In other words, we are for sale.
That day their stock price was $3.45 and it steadily climbed after that culminating in a takeover offer today of $5/share.
CMM has assets that other companies could only dream about. 1.3 million oz in proven and probable reserves and almost 5 million total gold ozs with the infrastructure in place at two mines to process the gold with a minimal capital outlay.
These will die on the vine as long as PK is allowed to remain in charge as no one who knows anything about her will lend her any more money to squander.
9 comments:
It's definitely a nightmare! I listened for awhile and then hung up. You have to admire PK's gall to talk to the shareholders for the first time in eons, but not admit that she is in any way a part of the problem. And on top of that, that they're not drawing salaries which prevents them from buying their own company shares. I'll bet that neither PK or RB are hurting. They have their Tamerlane venture to fall back on. Listen to the May 2006 CMM teleconference and compare it to what transpired today. I didn't hear her say that the MRI deal is off the table; so what is giving them cold feet?
Never experienced this before, but
if they file for bankruptcy what
happens to the shareholders?
Roxy14, to answer your question: we (the shareholders) will go home with nothing. Our shares are pretty close to nothing (zero value) right now. This happens when a CEO loses all credibility with lenders and shareholders alike. It's obvious that MRI is not going to lend her a penny. They've done their due diligence, by watching CMM's share price during the last couple of months.
One use we might consider for our shares: first, request our brokers to issue those pretty share certificates. And then, use them as wallpaper in the bathroom.
As for PK, perhaps she can have an early start on writing her books. I can suggest a couple of titles:
(1) "The lessons I failed to learn from the Royal Oak debacle."
(2) "How I ran Century Mining into the ground in less than two years."
I don't think they will file for bankruptcy, but they will surely have to sacrifice some assets at fire sale prices to remain a going concern.
I think the writing has been on the wall for many weeks now wrt the MRI financing. It's not officially dead, but as PK said, in her 30 years in the business, when you get this kind of delay they are either waffling or don't have the funds to commit. Another of PK's "binding" agreements that went south. I suspect the disclosure of Lamaque's actual production numbers and "revisions" to future forecast production numbers was justification enough for MRI to renege.
The question now is can the company raise enough funds to keep the Lamaque due diligence process going until Fortis makes their assessment. The stated options are to sell redundant equipment (crushers) and/or other secondary properties or do a massively dilutive equity financing. I'm guessing we might see a combination of all three, with management taking a big part of the very cheap PP (to save the company, they'll say).
SJ needs just $1 million to become a nicely profitable operation at current gold prices, but this management is so distrusted that they can't raise this piddly amount. That's because in the past year PK squandered over $7 million on failed acquisitions and over $5 million on selling call options.
What a difference that $12 million would make today! And yet 60 million shares voted to keep this woman as a Director!
Unless they receive more assurances from Fortis than they received from MRI, it might be time to cease all activity at Lamaque and concentrate efforts at getting SJ to a more profitable operation, even if it means putting Lamaque on the block. Otherwise sell San Juan to fund Lamaque, but a lot more money is needed for that route to get to breakeven status. SJ is already a profitable operation.
Incidentally Wolverton did buy 100k shares today at 7 cents. If it was PK, that $7,000 was a small part of her $60,000 bonus. We'll see when the insider reports are filed.
It's obvious that the BoD is not going to help us out here. Maybe it's time we petition the BCSC based on false and misleading information disseminated in news releases, conference calls and Sedar filings. We couldn't do any worse with someone else running the ship.
The biggest challenge over the next couple of weeks is how quickly can they get some cash, as they seem to be extremely low right now. I think there are some decent assets that could be sold, but that still requires time. I would like to see them find a way of getting an immediate injection of $1M or even $500. Maybe quick sales success with a few of the Sigma o/p equipment can provide that cash. Otherwise, hopefully PK is able to find another quick source.
On a slightly longer term basis, I'm hoping that Century will be able to at least replace the lost $5M from MRI with cash from the following initiatives:
1) Sale of more Sigma o/p equipment (including redundant crusher)
2) North Belt property (NWT) - "The property contains the Crestaurum gold deposit, a large number of gold showings and a zinc showing." PK on the c.c. today: North Belt contains "250,000 ounces" of non-43-101 compliant resource.
3) Erika (Peru) - hopefully Teck-Cominco is interested. "The property abuts Teck-Cominco claims to the south and east, which cover a copper porphyry discovery in similar rocks south-east of the Erika."
4) Poderosa settlement
I agree, Century should sell off Lamaque if they are sensing uncertainty with Fortis also. No point going through the next 5 months and then ending up the same place we are today. I like the idea of selling off Lamaque (coupled with significantly scaled down of Corporate staff) to create a much cleaner balance sheet and significantly lower monthly burn rate, and potentially a debt free company, and potentialy a company that is self sustainable during this credit crisis period (with San Juan generating small scale type profits). The company can then begin to rebuilt itself from there, with little pressure with regards to timeframe. The key is for the company to get out from under all this weight. The problem is that we don't know if the market will pay enough right now (for Lamaque) to enable us to fully clean up the balance sheet (while provide a few million left over for us to use as working dollars going forward).
Did MRI cancel their arrangement with TAM? TAM and CMM appeared to be going hand-in-hand to MRI. Everthing pointed to a solid relationship with MRI. They were in Vancouver a few days before the AGM dispensing advice to PK and her board about how to clean-up CMM - advice that PK claims to be accepting. MRI has Fortis connections. I'll bet that MRI were on the conference call today. I wonder what they thought about PK's comments?
If any other CEO had the assets that CMM has, the share price would be $1 minimum. The shareholders who voted 60 million shares to keep PK around should have their brains checked. The independent directors received more votes but they're in over their collective heads in this quagmire.
PK, do everyone a HUGE favor!!!
Resign immediately!
The Fortis independent technical analyst was scheduled to arrive at Lamaque this later this month according to Brent Jones. Timothy Gooch is preparing Lamaque for his arrival. He has a month to prepare and submit his independent report to Fortis. MRI told CMM that it is continuing their DD and would require 'at least 30 more days to complete further due diligence.'
Is there a connection between the concurrent Fortis and MRI DD's? Why would MRI loan CMM $5 million if they had any doubts about the Fortis loan?
I had understood that some of the expected MRI financing was required to assist CMM to prepare Lamaque for the Fortis DD?
Oh heck, this is CMM ... they speak with forked tongues!
Perhaps it is time for a news release like this one issued by QGX on February 12 this year:
QGX Ltd. (TSX:QGX) announced today that it has initiated a review of strategic alternatives to identify the most effective means for optimizing value from existing assets for shareholders.
This review will be all encompassing in its evaluation of available options. There can be no assurance that the process will result in any specific strategic or financial transactions, and no timetable has been set for its completion. The Company does not plan to make future comments about the status of the review unless there are material developments.
In other words, we are for sale.
That day their stock price was $3.45 and it steadily climbed after that culminating in a takeover offer today of $5/share.
CMM has assets that other companies could only dream about. 1.3 million oz in proven and probable reserves and almost 5 million total gold ozs with the infrastructure in place at two mines to process the gold with a minimal capital outlay.
These will die on the vine as long as PK is allowed to remain in charge as no one who knows anything about her will lend her any more money to squander.
Carib, lets not forget its Century we are talking about, anything you have taught yourself over the many years of investing does not apply (PK factor)
Looks like the market just wants her out, anything else will NOT do.
As a side note, I plan (already started,) to get her from doing this to anyone else ever again, BCSC.
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