BOD Sketch: Ricardo M. Campoy

Well, I still can't find my market cap, so I'll just wear the bio cap this morning...here's a rundown on Mr. Campoy, B. Sc., M.IM: This is courtesy of Bloomberg, and serves as a more concise summary than mine:
Ricardo M. Campoy, B.Sc. has been Corporate and Financial Advisor of Bayswater Uranium Corp. since May 2008. Mr. Campoy serves as an Executive Officer of ING Capital LLC. He served as an Advisor to the Board and Consultant of Century Mining Corp. since January 2010. He is a Co-founder and manages Minerals Capital & Advisory LLC. Mr. Campoy is a seasoned international mineral resources banker and advisor with industry experience as a mining engineer and as a financial and corporate adviser. His 28-year career in natural resource finance has included merchant, commercial and investment banking. He has 34 years of international experience as a mining engineer, merchant and investment banker and as a financial advisor. Mr. Campoy has been involved in project finance, debt and equity private placements, and mergers and acquisitions. He is in private practice in New York as a financial and corporate adviser to the resources industry and other sector groups. He served as Managing Director of Specialized Finance Unit at WestLB AG. He served as Head of the Mining and Metals Group at WestLB AG from 2004 to 2006. Before his banking career, he worked in various engineering and supervisory production capacities for Inspiration Copper and BCL Bamangwato Concessions. He served as Senior Advisor of Project Finance, Minerals, and Metals at McFarland Dewey & Co. LLC from 2000 to 2004. Mr. Campoy served as Investment Banker of McFarland Dewey Securities Co since April 2000, Managing Director of Carver Cross Inc. since October 1999 to March 2000, Investment Banker of ING Barings LLC from July 1998 to September 1999 and Investment Banker of ING Baring (U. S.) Securities Inc., from November 1997 to July 1998. His international banking career has included advisory services at ING Capital Corporation, Swiss Bank Corporation, European Banking Corporation, Elders Resource Finance Inc. and the Continental Illinois National Bank. He served as Associate Mining Engineer with Dravo Corp. from 1974 to 1975, Mining Engineer with Amax, Inc. from 1975 to 1978, Second Vice President of Continental Illinois National Bank from 1980 to 1984, Senior Manager of European Banking Company, London from 1984 to 1986, President of Elders Resource Finance, Inc., from 1986 to 1991, Managing Director of ING Capital Corporation, New York from 1995 to 1998, Managing Director of Carver Cross, Inc., from 1998 to 2000. His 27-year career in natural resource finance has included merchant, commercial and investment banking. He has been a Director of Century Mining Corp. since June 2010 and serves as its Lead Director. He has been Director of Endeavour Silver Corp. since July 2010. He has been Director of Standard Steam Canada Corp. since September 8, 2009; Forsys Metals Corp. since May 2010 and General Moly Inc. since August 10, 2006. He serves as Independent Lead Director of General Moly, Inc. He serves as Director of Idaho General Mines, Inc. Mr. Campoy served as Director of Kilgore Minerals Ltd. since May 12, 2003. He served as Director of Century Mining Corp. since March 22, 2007 until January 2010. He served as Director of SBCI Swiss Bank Corporation, New York from 1992 to 1995. He served as Member of McFarland Dewey & Co., LLC. Mr. Campoy is a Member of the Society of Mining Engineers, AIME. Mr. Campoy earned a Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines and a Master of International Management in Finance from American Graduate School of International Management.

My summary: mining engineer with proven track record in resource finance: A major asset to CMM in sorting out gold from rock at Sigma/Lamaque. I like the recent tie-up with EXK...raises some interesting possibilities.

off-topic comment

We seem to continually operate under the assumption that people are incapable of improvement, especially when they have any history of mistakes. Its true enough that some folks are ne'er- do- wells who continually make the wrong choices. Its an assumption that is incorrect, so often that it will never get into cliche school. Granted, some folks are born to make golden choices at every turn, or find some way to avoid responsibility for their actions. We engage an entire industry, on the great fear that something is inherently bad about making mistakes (lawyers). How in the world can you improve your performance if you aren't failing at some of your efforts? Our too-frequent credo is, "Once wrong, always wrong." Imagine an entire stream of expletives here, followed by a pronounced cow chip. I'll see your cow-chip and raise you an ingot.
I don't know any serious people who don't learn from their mistakes. Certainly not folks who go thousands of feet into the earth in search of largely invisible metal. It is absurd to compare the CMM of today with the CMM of three years ago. If Max Finskiy, Fran Scola, Ricardo Campoy, William Lamarque, Keith Hulley, Peter Ball and all the rest of our team are that stupid, then I hate to think what it says about us.
We have watched a remarkable event happen in front of our eyes at Lamaque, especially since last December. There are still some decisions to be made as we come through the next period, some new people to hire. Whatever the past is, it is. The recent past has much more to do, probability (and profitability)-wise, with what happens next than anything that happened before 2008. We certainly will learn a lot from the next 60 days.
I ask you, where else can you buy four million - plus ounces of producing gold for less than a buck a share? Look, for a minute, at the laws of moving averages. Show me how much the 200 day MA influences the 30 day. Or how much the 2006-2008 numbers mean relative to the charts we currently have?
Any thoughts?

House Position

Increasing volume and share price along with some new buyers makes me hopeful that we have turned a corner. If we deliver good operational results next week for July, we should see a nice performance in our share price. Here is the house positions for today: Make note of Hampton as our biggest buyer followed by Anonymous. House position in the comment section, would not copy here.

Why we own Century

It is worth remembering why we own this company. Fundamentals: A world-class deposit of gold in a global shrinking production scenario that is producing now; competent teams at the helm and in both mines; sound financial backing, perfectly regardless of whatever we may think about whom; excellent potential for upgrading of resources; a vastly undervalued company that is visibly improving its profile; and finally, a strong probability of a continued bull market for bullion, for a miner with decent production costs.
Let us also not forget the rarely-heard of directors of our company - Mssr's Campoy and Lamaque, who are, IMO, very strong assets for the company. Not to mention our very excellent IR department.

Victor's comments posted today on Mineweb

http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page103855?oid=108843&sn=Detail&pid=102055

Sorry I can't figure out how to make a hyperlink- but there's the address.

Videos with experts talking about the gold price and global economic conditions

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

The End of An Era

The company won't be the same without Peggy around, but in spite of the turnaround in the company's fortunes in the past 7 months, that is a good thing.  There is no question in my mind that she was shown the door and that has to be a very bitter pill for Peggy.  This was her last good chance to realize her dream of presiding over a mid-tier gold company, but her history of failure that created a bad relationship with Bay Street was too much to overcome. I think the final straw was the apparent disinterest shown by the analysts and institutions after the Lamaque tours and the need for change was likely communicated to Keith Hulley by those same analysts before they would invest.  Certainly the CTO for missing the filing deadline was unforgivable, especially when it also happened last year.  The BOD probably finally realized that as long as PK was at the helm, the share price was going to be discounted, and when you are looking to grow by acquisition by using your shares as currency, that is unacceptable. 

Usually when a company issues a news release announcing the resignation of the President and CEO effective immediately, the share price takes a hit, but the market reacted positively to the news.  And if you're a shareholder, the share price is all that matters.  That's why we invest.

Personally PK has done very well.  She extracted a payment in the order of $1 million for herself and $800k for McNutt to be retained when Finsky and Scola made their investment.  She and Ross really benefited from the share price decline to 1.5 cents when they scooped up 11 million shares from a NY PP investor at 1.5 cents.  It was her mismanagement that caused a former financial backer, Wega Mining, to vindictively sell their shares and drive the price down to the single digits.  Ironically that allow PK and Ross to acquire the 11 million shares at a bargain basement price.

I had been advocating her removal for a couple of years and I and others wrote to the BOD a long time ago asking for a change.  That was in the days when PK controlled the BOD and they did nothing.  We had a blog poll over 2 years ago and 70% voted for her removal.  Yet now that she is gone, I have mixed feelings about it.  Production wrote a very good post the other day that highlighted recent accomplishments in spite of long odds.  She definitely has some very valuable talents and could have been a very good asset when evaluating and negotiating potential acquisitions.

I suspect that PK was the recipient of a good chunk of those 1.4 million options that were granted today as well in return for her leaving on good terms and being available for 12 months.
Here is today's trading summary:

Victor Gonçalves: Putting Money on the Juniors

TGR: What are a few of your favorite gold juniors going into the fall? Why?

VG: I have a few companies that I like right now. One of them is Century Mining Corporation (TSX.V:CMM). A month ago, Century Mining brought some low-profile scooptrams and jumbo drills from South Africa to its Lamaque Gold Mine in Val d'Or, Quebec. No other North American mining company has used this type of equipment before. These vehicles are only five feet high. Even I tower over them. The small size of these machines allows them to operate in smaller spaces, thus moving less dirt and waste, which means getting a higher grade out of the mine.

When underground, I watched this new equipment in action. Talk about productivity. The company is training their team on how to use this new equipment to increase productivity. They are now focused on adjusting blasting patterns and loading of the holes, to ensure minimal over-breakage on the blasted round. They have started to see positive results over the last month, and higher grades are coming out of the mine and into the mill. This type of operation requires time, as more stopes are opened, and room and pillar flats production increases.

I understand they have a couple more low-profile pieces of equipment on order. This seems like a logical purchase decision from what I have seen. This addition of modern technology, combined with rethinking the operation, should increase efficiencies by a very nice factor. Of the three zones to be mined and operated in 2010, the room and pillar flats are just the beginning and will provide the lowest production of the three zones. Next in line is the Bedard Dyke Gold Zone, which was opened up the same day I arrived at the mine site, and finally, they are moving on to the North Wall zone.

The Bedard Dyke will be a very welcome addition to the mill, as it will be a long-hole, open-stope complex, and is expected to grade higher than the flats. The face of the Bedard Dyke portal, prior to its first blast, graded 37 grams per ton gold (g/t Au), and recent drilling showed intersections close to 100 g/t Au. The daily tonnage expected from the Bedard Dyke will be significantly higher than the flats, as it is the meat and gravy of the operation's future. The Goldex Mine (Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. (NYSE:AEM; TSX:AEM), down the road a few kilometers, is mining below 5,500 feet with a head grade of only 2.8 g/t Au, but is moving a lot of ore via their long-hole stopes, and at a low mining cost. I can see the Bedard Dyke lowering their operating costs at Lamaque going forward.

An interesting point is that the development work required to access the Bedard Dyke will be right through this high-grade vein before they access the underground to extract their 20,000 ton bulk sample. Obviously, this material will be crushed and sent to the mill, as it has plenty of visible gold, as well as massive chalcopyrite widely disseminated all through the veins. Once the sample is removed and tested, the company will look to receiving its next permit to mine the zone.

In terms of the current mill operation, it is operational and processing about 700 tons per day (tpd), with tonnage from underground reaching peaks of 700 to 750 tpd. The mill can be cranked up to adjust for higher tonnage on any given day, as they have put through 1,100 tpd on certain days during the ramp-up of the facility. As in any normal startup and commissioning of an operation, this number is progressively increasing and will do so until they hit their daily tonnage requirements. A good thing is their 2010 requirement is only needed to average 1,200 tpd, and in 2011 just over 2,000 tpd. With a facility that can process 3,000–3,400 tpd, they have lots of extra capacity to ensure they don't operate too close and max out.

2 points

1) Everything from the NR would suggests that Finskiy and Scola liked what Peggy accomplished with the early stage Lamaque start up, at least operationally. Her being with the company for another 12 months (as a consultant) would further suggest this. My guess is that the move is being made strictly due to feedback from the professional players. Century had 14 analysts go through Lamaque recently and it sounds like it was very positive. Century likely met with a lot of institutional types recently also. It`s not clear what type of feedback Century received about what it would take for more analysts to initiate coverage on Century and for institutions to take up shareholder positions in Century. I have absolutely no inside information. However, if one was to add 2 plus 2 together, I`m sure one can conclude what type of feedback the analysts and the institutions were likely giving Century as to what it would take for them to finally be involved with Century Mining.

2) "The Company has a dedicated management team in place and noting this key period of operational expansion, Adrian McNutt has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer from VP Operations. Mr. McNutt has played a key role in the successful early startup of the Lamaque operation in Quebec and in the excellent operational statistics seen at the San Juan operation in Peru over the past four years."

This can only mean one thing: The Lamaque start up is going extremely well.

With no longer having Peggy to protect him, I don`t see how they keep him with the company without the Lamaque start up being hugely successful thus far. Not only are they keeping him, but they have promoted him to VP Operations for the entire company (Lamaque, San Juan, future organic mines and future acquired mines.....).

This is probably a huge statement of the positive state of Lamaque.

It`s scary having Mr. McNutt in charge of all operations at Century, but maybe he has turned the corner (we have no say in the matter so we can only hope). He seems to have done a good job with San Juan. If Lamaque is in great shape, and worthy of such a promotion, then maybe he deserves a second chance. Let`s hope that Mr. Hulley has his full pulse on the situation as there is no room for such errors with Lamaque.

11:00 ET Trade Resumption

Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada - Trade Resumption - Century Mining Corp. - CMM

cnw






VANCOUVER, July 28 /CNW/ - Trading resumes in:




<<
Issuer Name: Century Mining Corp.
TSX-V Ticker Symbol: CMM
Resumption Time: 11:00 ET