1) Anonymous (1) said...
``prod-5, why not post a detailed explanation of what you think Century is doing wrong? I'd be interested in knowing what's got you so negative. Is it just the share price, alone?``
``And, btw, what's your average price? I can see you being annoyed if you're in the red right now. But me, I'm buying at this low price. (I'd never touch it at .60, though.)``
The average cost of my Century shares is low - that`s not an issue. Mid to longer term, I still see big (very positive) things for Century.
I`m fine. CMM will be fine. Finskiy will likely provide funding if they are any short-term cash shortfalls. With Finskiy and Scola now in the picture (with large investments from their own personal cash), we are far better off than we have ever been in the past.
There are likely a lot of good parts that will be added to the Lamaque mix over time (long-hole stoping of the Bedard dyke, mining of the North Wall, etc.). Lamaque will continue to build up to reasonable levels of performance.
My frustrations are mainly related to seeing Century`s old bad habits resurfacing again, such as really poor communications to the general market and long periods of leaving the market in the dark (even aside from CTO issues, operating delays, etc.). I find that Century does a very poor job at educating the market (in my view). Either Century`s management are too stubborn to change or do not fully understand that their past negative track record (whether simply perception or real) and lack of confidence by the market means that they have to (or they should) go out of their way to educate the market (more than most other management for other companies). Reputable management can give guidance (without much details) and the market will trust them. If there are minor setbacks, the market will still believe (and the share price will not be hammered - i.e. from $.87 to $.46). It`s the total opposite with Century`s management (in my humble opinion - again, this is only my opinion). That`s why it is important for Century to go above and beyond in communicating with the market (explaining plans and progress in extreme details - provide really good education, BE COMPLETELY PROACTIVE WITH EVERYTHING).
In my books, not providing a progress update via NR to the general market since early May (1.5 months ago) doesn`t cut it (not when trying to build investor confidence).
These bad habits are killing all of the great progress they are making at both Lamaque and San Juan and also killing (or delaying) good growth opportunities.
Century will be fine. It would just be nice if management begin learning from failures in the past.
I really want to see the company shed the images of the past. Ultimately, it`s about share price performance. However, a progressive (fair market value) and sustainable share price is only a result of establishing a professional (performance) driven company which the market embraces due to a high level of confidence. I find it frustrating when I see signs of the company reverting back to its old habits.
2) Anonymous (2) said...
``What annoys me most is that the Adrian guy is still around Lamaque. Thought he was shipped off to Peru. To me he represents the worst of all that went wrong at Sigma when they moved all that rock to find what? Bills (debt that sent our s/p crashing) There were other mismanagement issues of course.``
I agree completely. They need to purge all that was wrong with Sigma, and Mr. McNutt was in the centre of Sigma. I guess they needed to move him there to temporarily help out due to that Kelly guy (with his $30,000 signing bonus) leaving us a the bind (after 2 months of service).
Mr. McNutt appears to have done a good job with San Juan (a much smaller operation). Hopefully he has learned a little bit from his past and is able to do a better job at Lamaque this time around. Also, the underground geology is much better (we have a successful 70 year u/g track record at Lamaque) than the unpredictable open pit ore body (where open pit mining was essentially new to Lamaque - Lamaque had always been strictly an underground mine). In addition, we have fresh Bedard Dyke drill holes that can be mined near-term - it tells us (even if things are a bit slow in the Lamaque flats) good grade gold is there at the Bedard dyke and ready to be mined. I didn`t see any near-term critical dates to ramp up production in the DB performance agreement document on SEDAR. San Juan is pledged at the start up commitment guarantee, but I didn`t see any near-term critical dates - just as long as we deliver the ounces to DB (currently 667 ounces per month. We are well positioned with San Juan in production - if Lamaque needs short-term assistance with the ounces. In terms of cash, we have the US$15M worth of warrants from Finskiy, for emergency purposes.
Back to Mr. McNutt, as mentioned, I fully agree that having him back at Lamaque brings back bad memories. However, they are currently in search for a perminent Lamaque Ops person. Mr. McNutt`s stay at Lamaque is only temporary.
5 comments:
Granted, like every other company with more than 10 people, we have our issues. But take a look at the mining index-especially juniors, explorers and mid-caps. Nearly 100% of the index shows the same graphs since around 19 April. That is, about 40% average decline from the highs. Also to the point, this happens nearly every year at about the same time. The companies at pre-production or just ramping up have suffered slightly larger declines (%) than the rest.
This suggests some things to me:
A) The big dogs are playing the indexes again, as usual. Go back and look at the hearings of gold price manipulation on LME in April. See anything there that was likely to curtail JPM and their ilk from continuing? I didn't, either.
B) For most Canadians, this is drill, baby, drill season. Besides that, with gold being so high, the assay labs are backlogged like crazy. Nobody gave a ploot when they had 3g/ton in the ground a few years back. Now a lot of that ground is profitable. People lined up at the same number of facilities that serviced this market when gold was at 400.00/oz.
C) Getting past our recent black eye is going to take two things: File the next Q's on time (Blakely)
and lets see the new M&I's. It shouldn't surprise anyone that Canaccord et al want to see hard evidence of progress, but it also shouldn't surprise us that they are playing in a different field right now, since it happens almost every year during this period. As a concrete example of just how little a junior can expect right now, take a look at RBY.
May 30, this year: 1.25oz/ton intersected over 20-some feet, this right on the heels of the April 12 announcement. Then look at the impact on the s/p when they made their Oct. 23 '09 announcement, which was of much less significance. The recent news, made last October, would have propelled the stock dramatically higher if made in that period (this is one example of many). That news, made in May, barely budged the s/p. In fact, RBY declined after this announcement - right along with virtually every other miner out there.
This year was an anomaly in a way - we hit our highs for the year mid-January instead of April/May (so far). Looking ahead, all I can say is that we'll likely see money come into this market next month through August, and then heat up (as usual) in November/December.
The last item, for CMM in particular, is that we are in the inevitable shakeout that hits every mining company right before they make the quantum leap into production. Every company, every time. History and math. Market makers might use some manager's personality as a driver for short term gain, but overall, when that gold starts coming out of the ground from normal production, they'll be buying the treasury. They really don't care if the boss has the personality of a porcupine-its all about the numbers. And fellow astringents, the numbers are coming...
the trouble is they only focus on gold and they dont wont to get out the waste they dont focus on the expension of the mine, they raise the the labor but they slash the bonus they try alway to fool us whit the bonus all the time so wen they cheat on the bonus slower the production is, understand .raise the bonus faster the production going to be, i thing they dont catch it . and the miners really dont like the captaine cuz they treat us like shit they dont care about us .why century keep that man. century wanna be near whit there employ but we dont feel like a part of the familly
A few comments
The Lamaque "flats" predominatly dip 15 degrees east-west and plunge shallow to the north.At any time shears or faults may cut the veins offsetting either up or down inches to feet dramaticly. The"old Lamaque" employed jacklegs and 2 or 3 drum slushers to follow the veins mining as low as 5 ft in height in a room and pillar type of mining method.It tended to be labour intensive and required a large number of stopes to maintain tons to the mill.Jackleg stoping and slusher mining is a thing of the past(sadly I am dating myself). Century has moved to Low-profile scoops and jumbos to obviosly decrease labour and increase tons.The tons/manshift appears to have increased but at what cost to oz/ton?A scoop 31 ft long and jumbos 50 ft long both requiring 6.5 ft in height cannot quickly adjust to veins dramaticly faulted up or down especially if the jumbo has a 14 ft drill steel.Certainly a well defined dia.drill/testhole program must be put into place immeadiatly.
Rick suggested; if the bonus was fairer the production would increase and the mine is,at present, focusing on ore and not moving waste development out.
Not developing waste to eventually open further stoping areas is extremely short-sighted and reflects on Management.This may be an operational decision or corporate.In either case, some one should be investigation if this is indeed happening.As for the bonus,how is it being administered? Surly if the operational group is "playing with numbers",the Operation Committee should investigate.
When is the BD beginning.As a shareholder I would like to know when we can expect ore development tons going to the mill!
If Lamaque is forsaking development advance and focusing on getting "ore tons" then I agree that they are reverting to "the old ways" and the GM, Mr.McNutt, has not learned the lessons of the past and his Sister in law, the CEO should re-evaluate her commitment to the shareholders,the employees of the mine and the community. Tell us what is happening!Come-on Operating Committee give us a real heads-up!!
Hi under ground,
Excellent insight! I hope you can provide further thoughts and insight as we go further down the road.
With regards to this part:
``Certainly a well defined dia.drill/testhole program must be put into place immeadiatly.``
Per the last conference call (and also the June presentation), they made 3 diamond drill holes at the end of May (the drill program has started and is continuing). I believe they mentioned that the early holes are in the Lamaque flats. I believe they are drilling the flats to gather info ahead of mining. If such is truly the case, it might fulfill the task you identified.
Great posts folks! Obviously 2 out of the 4 posters are/were employees of the company. I hope that once the production at Lamaque gets up to full speed, that your bonuses will reflect the hardwork you and everyone have put into this project. P5 as always great job. Chillby,,, I like what you said regarding the institutions playing with the Jrs during the summer doldrums. Some good news from management might just alleviate the bear and shark attacks that usually come at this time. Trading is usually thinner and thus more dramatic moves in the SP. Lets hope that CMM can get their s#$% together and follow thru on the tours and Q2 ON TIME. Market is watching and assessing. GL.
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