If you have the time, I highly recommend watching all 6 of these videos. Of the 6 videos, 5 were recorded in the last day or 2.
1) Ben Davies, CEO Hindi Capital, giving his views on gold being the currency of first resort.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232/?video=1552984313&play=1
2) Frank McGhee, head precious metals trader, Integrated Brokerage Services, explaining about the unwinding of the Euro carry trade, (a short-term impact) which has been primarily what has driven down gold over the last couple of days. I`ve watched this guy for a few years now. He has always done a really good job analyzing the situation.
http://watch.bnn.ca/#clip330030
3) Lloyd Khaner, general partner at Khaner Capital Management, talks about the outlook for gold prices, based on the supply demand equation. This guy is a value investor (a bull investor) and not even a gold bug, yet he is expecting a huge increase in the gold price over the next 12 months (way beyond the gold increase I am expecting).
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/61813884/
4) Martin Hennecke, associate director at Tyche Group, believes sovereign risk in Europe and the U.S. is underestimated. This is another guy I have watched for years. He often makes a lot of good points.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232/?video=1552499995&play=1
5) Bob Tebbutt, vice-president, corporate risk management, Peregrine Financial Group, who talks about the inflation that is guaranteed to arrive eventually. He also talks about how the banks are refusing to lend money even though they have plenty of it building up and will eventually burst.
http://watch.bnn.ca/#clip329919
6) Evy Hambro, managing director at BlackRock and fund manager of the BlackRock Gold and General Fund. Evy talks about decreases in gold production supply as being a key gold price driver. Evy is in charge of the BlackRock Gold Fund. BlackRock overall is one of the largest fund companies in the world. Evy is also one of those experts I`ve watched for years now. He is also normally on the ball. I couldn`t find a recent video of his - this one is from Sept. 2009 but just as relevant as if it was made today.
http://video.ft.com/v/63077861001/Sept-18-Evy-Hambro-on-why-gold-is-still-shiny
6 comments:
Hi Production05,
The analyst (Oliver from Sprott) on today's BNN Market Call said something about operational difficulties with CMM mine. What is your take on it? Does CMM's mine (Lamaque) have anything special about it's geology that makes it hard to mine?
Thanks a lot in advance.
It seems to me that Oliver had not been following CMM for a while and he was apparently not committed to anything other than mentioned that there was mining issues long time ago. However, he did know of the management change and in my opinion, his thought was that he would not be jumping in in any way before he has had a chance to meet the new CEO
Before the mine was shut in '08, there were some grade issues with the flats material - at least some of which were jackleg/slurry method - related. Those issues are things of the past, especially as the new equipment comes online.
I just watched the BNN segment. I`m not sure why the Sprott guy took the call on Century. They always have a chance in advance to screen the calls and only choose the companies they feel comfortable talking about.
As a viewer, it was tough to me to watch the blind leading the blind (the Sprott guy and host) as they fumbled around. It was quite obvious that they had no clue of the Century situation, and specfically no clue at all of the significant progress made at Lamaque over the past couple of years.
Of note, Mr. Oliver said difficulities long before Margaret Kent was there. He was likely thinking to the McWatters days. Everyone knows the story by now. McWatters incurred serious debt to upgrade the facilities and initiate open pit mining (Sigma-Lamaque had been underground mining ever since inception back in the 1930s). McWatters couldn`t get the open pit mining to work in time and went under.
Century bought the mine for $25M. Century started with open pit mining thinking that using smaller equipment will help with the grade control. Century plan was to generate cash flow for 3 or 4 years via open pit before going back underground 100%. However, costs for fuel, tires, parts, etc. got too high, coupled with them still not being able to solve the grade control issues in the open pit. They had to discontinue open pit mining earlier than they would like.
This put more pressure on raising capital on the open market to move forward with underground mining. Most people think the economic crises started in `08 when Lehman Brothers blew up. The reality is that the crisis started in Aug`07. That`s when the asset back securities issue exploded. The general economy didn`t feel it, but small companies trying to get funding for projects (equity or otherwise), like Century, left it hard.
Century kept falling dramatically short on their equity offerings. Then, in Q2`08, the situation got worst due to the global economic situation building up for the giant explosion. The equipment capital lease company pulled out. Then MRI pulled their $5M equity commitment.
The problem with starting the underground in late `07 and into `08 was a funding problem due to the global crisis. The early Lamaque grade was around 4.0 g/t, which wasn`t too bad for early start up. They just didn`t have the cash for development and for the better equipment to advance the underground. As Chillby highlighted, the room and pillar method back then also used (was focused on) inferior equipment (jacklegs, slushers, etc.) relative to what we have now (low-profile). As a side note, they also used `08 as test mining - to test some of the low-profile equipment which gave them vital info.
A lot of work has been done since `08 - it`s really a night and day comparison. Century kept a skeleton staff at Lamaque during the crisis to do work towards the permits and the restart. Century also had the Vulcan team work away in advancing the resource model. The Bedard Dyke was not ready for mining back then. There was no cash to advance towards mining the North Wall back then.
Production05,
Thanks for the info. I think once Century releases some of the current drill results underground and move more resources to P&P, market will reward them. I looked at Osisko's and they upgraded their P&P year over year. Maybe this could be on of the reasons market likes them. Same thing with San Gold, they are all continuing to drill and show good results.
Century needs to do what the market wants. Ultimately it is the share price that matters. Maybe we will begin to do that with the new CEO in place.
Well said Keith n Pro05 your lesson on CMM's mine history deepen my understand once again. Tks
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