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African Aura Investors - AAAM

Share Name	Share Symbol	Market	Stock Type
African Aura	AAAM	London	Ordinary Share

	Price Change	Price Change %	Share Price	Last Trade
	0.00	0.00%	186.50	01:00:00

Open Price	Low Price	High Price	Close Price	Previous Close
			186.50	186.50

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Posted at 15/4/2011 11:35 by enami Petrofac gave investors a breakdown of the base cost split when they demerged EnQuest a year ago (in monetary terms, not percentages). I think it would be nice of AFF to do the same to clear up any uncertainty. Read Full Thread Reply
Posted at 05/4/2011 17:46 by longsight Investor Chronicle BUY Shareholders approve African Aura split Created: 5 April 2011 Written by: Martin Li Shareholders have overwhelmingly approved proposals for African Aura Miningto split into separate iron ore and gold entities, with the arrangement expected to come into effect on 13 April. For every share held on 7 April, investors will receive one share each in the new entities Afferro (iron ore) and Aureus (gold). Management believes that splitting the company into pure commodity plays will better capture the value of its assets, which they believe is not, despite the strong recent performance, reflected in the current share price. Many analysts agree. The company recently announced a maiden resource of 1.039bn tonnes at its wholly-owned Nkout iron ore project in Cameroon, and aims to lift this to 4bn tonnes with further drilling. It also more than doubled the resource at its Liberian Putu iron ore joint venture with Severstal (African Aura interest 38.5 per cent) to 2.4bn tonnes. Meanwhile, David Reading, former head of European Goldfields, will take the helm of the gold entity Aureus. Its most advanced project, New Liberty in Liberia, has 1.5m ounces at a high grade of 3.78 grammes per tonne, and also holds large exploration acreage in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cameroon. AFRICAN AURA MINING (AAAM) ORD PRICE: 288p MARKET VALUE: £248m TOUCH: 285-290p 12-MONTH HIGH: 348p LOW: 67p DIVIDEND YIELD: nil PE RATIO: na NET ASSET VALUE: 104¢ NET CASH: $36.1m Year to 31 Dec Turnover ($m) Pre-tax profit ($m) Earnings per share (¢) Dividend per share (p) 2007* nil 1.8 7.2 nil 2008 nil -2.2 4.8 nil 2009 1.18 -12.3 -18.2 nil 2010 0.32 -11.5 -16.9 nil % change -73 - - - *11-month period £1=$1.613 TIP UPDATE: Buy The shares have risen 800 per cent since our buy tip (32p post consolidation, 17 Jul 2009). Yet, with current analyst valuations suggesting that they trade at a discount to the iron ore assets alone, with the gold assets effectively thrown in gratis, there should be more upside to come. Buy. Last IC view: Buy, 210p, 2 February 2011 Read Full Thread Reply
Posted at 15/3/2011 20:12 by longsight Just to say a word in defence of the Co. Luis da Silva agreed to meet private investors last September & generously gave us 2 hours of his time. Stephen Poulton also attended. Luis suggested that the Co shd meet with PIs every 6 months. All those who attended the PI meeting were very impressed by the meeting & by Luis's info & answering of questions. A number of us who attended the PI meeting subsequently bought more shares. I do think the Co is very committed to its PI investors. As a further example of this, the Co took very seriously PI's concerns that the proposed split wd not affect the ISA status of the shares & accordingly took advice on this & structured the split so that the new co, Aureus, wd have dual listing & hence have ISA status. I also noted when we visited AAAM that the Offices are modest & staff numbers very small. These guys do not waste shareholders's funds from what we saw. It is unrealistic to imasgine that they can keep on top of everything including emails when so much is happening, imo. The answer is to arrange another PI meeting post the split & all questions be put to Luis & David Reading at that meeting, imo. Read Full Thread Reply
Posted at 10/3/2011 07:16 by thelads1 RNS Number : 6626C Stellar Diamonds PLC 10 March 2011 NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISSEMINATION TO US NEWS WIRE SERVICES. 10 March 2011 AIM: STEL Stellar Diamonds plc ("Stellar" or the "Company") PROPOSED PLACING TO RAISE £6.2 MILLION Stellar, the AIM-quoted diamond mining and exploration company focused on West Africa, announces that Northland Capital Partners Limited, Daniel Stewart & Company plc and the Company have conditionally raised £6.2 million before expenses through a placing of 77,500,000 million new Ordinary Shares of 5 pence each in the Company (the "Placing Shares") with institutional and other investors at 8 pence per share (the "Placing"). Highlights · Conditional placing to raise £6.2m before expenses · Exceedingly strong support from new and existing institutional shareholders · Funds to accelerate exploration and development of kimberlite portfolio The objective of the Placing is to accelerate the development of the Company's kimberlite portfolio and to fund its general working capital requirements, in line with the Company's growth strategy as recently announced. Following the Placing, the enlarged issued share capital will comprise 216,766,659 ordinary shares and the Placing Shares will represent approximately 35.8 per cent. of the enlarged issued share capital. Karl Smithson, Chief Executive of Stellar, commented: "We are delighted at the very strong demand for this placing, which has attracted significant new institutional investors to our share register. The level of support from both existing shareholders and new investors provides Stellar with the financial capacity to aggressively accelerate the exploration and development of our kimberlite portfolio, which we believe has the potential to unlock significant value for all shareholders. The diamond market and the outlook for the diamond sector as a whole continues to improve and our strategy remains for Stellar to become a leading diamond producer in Africa." Read Full Thread Reply
Posted at 18/2/2011 15:37 by longsight From the FT for Aureus fans: Gold will keep its shine this year By Jack Farchy Published: February 18 2011 09:08 \| Last updated: February 18 2011 09:08 Unbelievable. Explosive. Insatiable. These are some of the words bankers are using to describe the gold market. That may come as a surprise, as the gold price has had an uncharacteristically quiet start to the year, for the most part trading either side of $1,350 an ounce. The dramatic language is being applied to the strength of Chinese demand. Many have been truly shocked by the level of Chinese buying in the first few weeks of the year. As one senior banker (who is not prone to hyperbole) put it: "The demand in China is vast. It's unbelievable. Whatever you think the demand is it's much bigger... I'm really staggered." With the consensus among analysts growing ever more cautious on the outlook for the gold price this year, gold bears (and bugs) need to pay attention to developments in China. Some of the biggest physical bullion traders, who see the strength of demand from China (and much of the rest of Asia) are finding the bearish views hard to swallow. The most recent data from the World Gold Council, the miner-backed lobby group, show the extent to which the focus of the market is shifting to the east. Last year, China overtook the US and Germany to become the second largest gold investment market after India, the WGC said. Between them, China and India which also witnessed a fairly stunning rebound accounted for 51 per cent of global gold demand (excluding industrial consumption). That's up from 42 per cent in 2009 and 31 per cent five years ago. This year looks likely to extend that trend, if January is anything to go by. But the key question for gold investors is: Can the growth in Asian consumption outweigh any weakness in western investment demand? It is a well-worn dictum that investor appetite for gold moves in an inverse relationship with real interest rates. When real rates are low or negative (ie when inflation is near or higher than interest rates) gold benefits as the opportunity cost of holding it is relatively low, and its properties as a wealth-preserver come to the fore. With investors bringing forward their expectations for when central banks in the US, eurozone and the UK will raise rates, gold demand in those countries could suffer. But the link applies just as well in China, India and other parts of Asia, where rising food inflation is eroding the value of local currencies. For that reason, traders say, it would be wrong to write off the spike in Chinese demand as a seasonal blip related to the lunar new year holiday. As any iron ore, copper or oil seed trader can attest: underestimating China's potential to revolutionise a market is a dangerous bet. Read Full Thread Reply
Posted at 07/2/2011 15:09 by wiloughby2 My wife and I have been followers/investors here since Mano river was highlighted in investors chronicle at about 60p.I was fortunate to have been at the meeting with Luis that Longsight setup and really am delighted with the progress this company has made thus far. I feel the frustration of some posters over the steady acknowledgement that the market affords this company and feel that the company's brokers need to be putting more effort into attracting pension funds as well as private investors onto our share register.The company split/demerger is not without risk to the company in terms of predatory activity.I personally hope that Luis and the team can hold onto nkout and the bulk of the assets even if it was at the expence of our stake in Putu. Well done to all and many thanks to the band of posters who have kept us informed and amused over the last few months especially Longsight, Ec, herts,chrisis,matjos and more. Regards Wil whilst writing this I see others have had similar thoughts! Read Full Thread Reply
Posted at 05/2/2011 11:20 by woodpeckers Chrisis - many thanks. Lots to look forward to! Really surprised at the apparent lack of interest here, you would have thought that the share price rise this week would have had lots of investors flocking around. Just noticed that Sprott is on the list of investors though, always reassuring to see he has an interest. Read Full Thread Reply
Posted at 21/1/2011 16:20 by longsight Extract from Ocean Securities 2011 Review [note favourable comments on Liberia]: African Aura Mining Inc. Commodity based 'butterfly split' to add value ~ OCEAN EQUITIES This marketing communication is directed to professional investors only and is non-independent research. As such, it has not been prepared in accordance with the legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and is not subject to any prohibition on dealing ahead of the dissemination of research. Gold + Iron Ore: West Africa 19th January 2011 Market Cap Listing:Ticker Share Price Shares o/s 52 week High/Low Net Cash/(Debt) £156m AIM:AAAM £1.82 85.9m £1.84/£0.66 ~£30m Reserves (P&P) na Resources New Liberty: Putu (38.5% attrib): 1.51moz gold 155mt Fe contained 0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0 120.0 140.0 160.0 180.0 200.0 Jan-08 May-08 Sep-08 Jan-09 May-09 Sep-09 Jan-10 May-10 Sep-10 Jan-11 African Aura Mining (AAAM.LN) 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 Volume (m) Volume Stock Price (GBp) 0 200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200 1,400 1,600 Jan-08 May-08 Sep-08 Jan-09 May-09 Sep-09 Jan-10 May-10 Sep-10 Jan-11 Gold Price (US$/oz) Highlighted Related Research: 14th Dec 10: Initial Preliminary Economic Assessment results for New Liberty 22 Nov'11: West African Gold and Iron Ore ~ OEL Initiation of Coverage Analysts Simon Gardner-Bond +44 (0) 20 7786 4382 Sam Spring, CFA, CA +44 (0) 20 7786 4378 Chris Welch +44 (0) 20 7786 4377 Natasha Liddell +44 (0) 20 7786 4386 Investment Opportunity African Aura Mining Inc ('African Aura') has both gold and iron ore assets in Liberia (New Liberty and Putu) and Cameroon (Nkout and Ngoa). Its high grade gold project in northern Liberia, New Liberty, has a resource of 1.5moz with an average grade close to 4g/t. The Putu iron ore project is 38.5% owned by African Aura, the remainder is owned by Severstal (LN:SVST). African Aura believes that the combination of iron and gold does not make an ideal portfolio and has decided that two commodity focused companies would better serve its shareholders. The Company is now waiting for regulatory approval for its 'Butterfly Split' whereby the company would be split equally into Aureus, a gold focused company (which will also hold African Aura's holding in Stellar Diamonds, LN:STEL), and a new African Aura which will hold the iron ore assets. Cash will be split proportionately between the two new companies dependent upon their cash requirements during 2011. The split is expected to be completed in 1Q this year. At the same time that it has been developing its projects in Liberia, the country has emerged one of the most stable in the region. In our opinion, Liberia's greatest comparative advantage is that it has been the first country to enforce the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative thus greatly reducing security of tenure issues that have become prevalent in many of its neighbouring countries, especially for bulk mining projects. This gives companies with sufficient capital to fund the bulk mining project confidence in the security of their investment, such as African Aura's JV partner Severstal. In part the stability of Liberia is due to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's term as President; she has been able to correct many high level problems in the country and attracted major mining firms such as BHP Billiton, Severstal and ArcelorMittal to come back to re-start the mining industry. The President is expected to retain her seat in the coming elections at the end of 2011 and will therefore perpetuate the stability that Liberia has enjoyed over the last five years. African Aura will greatly benefit from the positive spillover effects of the major mining firms' presence in the country, in particular through the refurbishment of the country's infrastructure, especially the power generation/transmission infrastructure. There has been a lot of positive press recently about the prospectivity of Liberia, most recently following Hummingbird Resources' (LN:HUM) listing based on a large landholding in Southern Liberia and a resource of 0.8moz gold. African Aura's good standing within the country and long-term development of the New Liberty project gives the company a solid first-mover advantage over companies that are only now pegging ground across the country. Review of 2010 In the last few days of 2010 African Aura released the preliminary economic assessment of its New Liberty project. Whilst the study showed a relatively high strip ratio (~20:1), this is expected to decrease as more of the waste material is drilled and upgraded into the resource. As it stands, New Liberty is a standout project in the West African region. Already the project is unusual in that it is Pan African (Archaen) rather than Birimian in age, the latter hosting most of the gold in the West African region. Gold at New Liberty is hosted in a schist (an easily crushed rock) which gives the project a low operating costs. Capex for a 6.5 year operation is expected to be ~$100m with a payback of ~2 years and an IRR of >70%. This is in great part thanks to the high grade ore at New Liberty which has an approximate average grade of 4g/t gold. New Liberty has a resource of 1.51moz and the potential to produce over 100koz pa gold. Outlook for 2011 By the end of the year African Aura will be two entities offering investors more concentrated exposure to their chosen commodities. We believe this will be more appealing to the market and thus the sum of the separate parts will be greater than the whole on its own. Both African Aura and Aureus should benefit from strong years in 2011 in which each is expected to make great progress, but which company will perform best after the split? At present the two companies represent roughly 50% of the company's worth but we believe that African Aura will likely start to pull away from Aureus in 2011 through the advances to be made at the company's Cameroon assets which benefit from better infrastructure and greater control of the asset (than Putu in which African Aura has the minority share). Not to say that Aureus will have a bad year. Further drilling across the Bea Mining licence, which covers a 40km mineralised trend that contains New Liberty, will upgrade the total resource which will most likely become a main mine with satellite pipes. We also expect to see a resource upgrade as the company continues drilling at New Liberty which will have the added benefit of reducing the stripping ratio. Disclosures & Disclaimer Ocean Equities is seeking investment business from African Aura Mining. This report must be read with the disclaimer and disclosures on the final page that forms part of this report. Ocean Equities Limited. Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Member of the London Stock Exchange. 3 Read Full Thread Reply
Posted at 19/1/2011 17:20 by longsight Liberia: A Rising Star In Africa Thu May 13, 2010 16:17 UTC pdf \| Print \| Share \| Send to a Friend \| Comment My colleagues at BMI inform me that Liberia is 'one to watch' in Sub-Saharan Africa. It has bright economic prospects, thanks to sound macroeconomic policy, burgeoning investment in the mining sector and forthcoming debt relief. The Liberian economy demonstrated resilience amid the global recession, boding well for its future prospects. BMI estimates that real GDP growth came in at a respectable 4.7% in 2009, making Liberia a regional outperformer; average growth in Sub-Saharan Africa stood at an estimated 2.2%. While many nations saw foreign investors withdraw from operations amid plummeting commodity prices and hence reduced returns, the major players in Liberia stayed put, albeit scaling back their investment plans. This bears testament to the attractiveness of the market: not only does it benefit from plentiful natural resources, but the political environment is broadly stable. (Chart below shows real GDP growth, %. Source: IMF, BMI forecasts) Certainly, the prospects for the mining sector look strong, with foreign investors continuing to flock in. At present, Brazil's Vale (the world's top iron ore producer) is in talks with the Liberian investment commission over a possible concession. If the deal goes ahead, it will be the sixth major iron ore mining deal awarded to a foreign firm in the past five years, adding to US$10bn worth of agreements already made. The leading foreign investors at present include ArcelorMittal, BHP Billiton and China Union. China's interests in Liberia are not limited to the mining sector. In April 2010, China's Deputy Minister of Commerce led a delegation of Chinese officials in a four-day official visit to Liberia, with the objective of promoting bilateral trade and economic cooperation between the two nations. This is in line with a broad trend across Sub-Saharan Africa wherein fast-growing emerging market giants - not just China but also India and Brazil, for example - are building links with African countries in a bid to secure supplies of natural resources. In this regard, Liberia offers diamonds, coffee, cocoa, rubber and timber, in addition to the aforementioned metals. The natural resources provide the initial draw for investors, but the authorities are also working hard to improve the business environment in order to attract interest from abroad. Indeed, Liberia was among the top ten reformers globally in the World Bank's 2010 Doing Business survey. At present, Liberia is ranked 149th globally of 183 nations - and 23rd out of 46 Sub-Saharan African nations - by the World Bank in terms of its business environment. It is relatively easy to start a business and trade across borders; registering property and enforcing contracts are more difficult to achieve. While the ongoing foreign investment is clearly conducive to real GDP growth, Liberia's economy is also benefiting from sound macroeconomic policy. As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) noted in a press release on April 19, 2010, 'performance under the Fund supported economic program has been strong... fiscal and monetary objectives through end-December 2009 have been achieved'. Importantly, the nation is approaching completion point under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative - if this is reached, it will entail a lightening of the debt load which has been weighing on the fiscal coffers. Outstanding public sector external debt equated to a massive 473% of GDP in 2008, according to IMF estimates. Recent developments bode well for Liberia reaching HIPC completion point. In addition to the aforementioned achievement of macroeconomic objectives, the Liberian authorities have cut foreign debt to US$1.7bn in August 2009 through a US$1.2bn buyback of outstanding government arrears. Read Full Thread Reply
Posted at 06/10/2010 13:38 by longsight Just received the report as corrected by Luis: The Meeting 8 private investors attended the meeting at AAAM's Covent Garden offices. Luis da Silva, President & CEO of the Company kindly gave us 2 ½ hours of his time. Luis is also a director of Stellar Diamonds in which AAAM have a 30% holding. We were also joined for much of the time by Steven Poulton, the former boss of the old [pre merger] African Aura Resources & an independent director of AAAM. Steven started Altus Resources Capital Limited, which invests in mining companies, in February and this has done very well since launch and currently has £50m under management. The London offices are fairly small as are the staff numbers employed in London. The PIs who attended were all very favourably impressed by Luis and Steven. Luis comes over as very open, charming, young and energetic. He is very non-egotistical for example I ludicrously mispronounced his name as "Lewis" throughout the meeting but he did not correct me. Luis was enthusiastic about meeting with PIs on a regular basis. We suggested annually but he was happy to have six monthly meetings and at a time when more could attend e.g. after working hours. The Company Split As things stood, AAAM intended to split the Co into 2 Cos. The 2 Companies wd be formed around the resources rather than by geographical area. The existing Co, AAAM, would retain all the IO resources & its listing on both the TSX & London markets. The gold interests wd be placed in a new Company which would be listed on the Toronto Exchange as well as on a second Exchange. Luis said that AAAM were very aware of PI's anxieties that the current ISA qualifying status of the Co should be preserved in the new Co. Luis had had a lot of emails on this subject. AAAM had taken legal advice & had a 2 page advice from their lawyers assuring them that the new Company wd also qualify as ISAable. The PIs stressed the importance of this to Luis at the meeting & reiterated the various arguments as to why this mattered so much to PIs [& which have been stated at length on this discussion board]. We told Luis that it appeared that PIs were relaxed, by & large, about any split so long as they did not finish up with shares which were no longer ISAable. Luis said that the current timetable was for a press release to be issued soon & then for the split to take place in February next year. If the Exchange required full disclosure on the Putu JV Co as well then this might slightly delay the listing. The additional costs involved in having the 2 Companies listed wd be low. AAAM had looked into this very carefully & listened to the views of investors in Canada & the UK. The strong conclusion they had come to was that the 2 individual companies wd attract far greater interest & achieve a far higher rating than AAAM was currently doing. Severstal had split out their gold division and the share price had gone up. MDL had spun off their gold interests and the share price had shot up. Luis ran through a series of comparisons with listed companies that had comparable but separate gold & IO resources. These Companies are shown in the September presentation on the AAAM website. These did appear to be rated far higher even where the specifics of the resources were inferior to that of AAAM's. There wd also be no cross holdings between the 2 Companies & so, in Luis's view, they should not trade at a discount on that basis. Despite the very low volume of AAAM shares currently traded in Toronto, Luis said that the interest in the Co was gathering momentum in Canada. There was considerable institutional investor interest in Canada but lack of liquidity had made it difficult for IIs to buy stakes. Luis knew of an II who had complained to the Co that his broker was unable to buy a decent amount of shares. It was very likely that equity funding wd be raised at the same time as the new listing. There were no plans or need to raise any equity funding before then. Luis was asked about the possibility of raising equity by a rights issue rather than a placing, since this obviously favoured those who were included in it over other shareholders. Luis had sympathy for this point but said there were major difficulties with a rights issue. This would involve an information circular to shareholders which was both time consuming & expensive. A further difficulty was the dual listing in Canada and on AIM since both had their separate requirements and this further complicated the process, cost and time involved in a rights issue. Whilst AAAM was sympathetic to giving private investors the opportunity to participate in any placing, there were practical difficulties in involving too many private investors since this wd mean there wd be lots of insiders to the transaction. Luis thought that in fact a placing did not necessarily have to involve equity being issued at a discount to the share price. The placing in April could have been issued at the full market price but was done at a discount since it gave AAAM an opportunity to bring some attractive institutional investors on board, like Blackrock. In response to concerns about the issue of deeply discounted warrants with placings of equity, Luis explained that any placing in Canada typically had to involve warrants and therefore they also had to offer this sweetener in London. Luis informed us that the convertible loan notes for £2.3m were going to convert into shares and that the loan note holder had said that they would be keeping the shares. The IO Co  Putu The current initial inferred resource estimate of 1.08btn, at a grade of 37.6% total BIF mineralization, was based on just 4200m of drilling on 2.6km of the full 12km of the ridge. The 2.6km that was initially drilled was simply the most accessible rather than the most promising. If the rest of the ridge proved similar than the Co was looking at a 5btn resource. The geophysical survey had revealed a magnetic signature along the length of the 12km of the ridge. They had done a total of 15,000 16,000m drilling by now. They would have done 25,000 30,000m by the year end. The objective was to drill a total of 62,000m, which wd be along the whole of the ridge, & once this was done they wd be able to give an indicated resource. Putu used the S Africans & Australians for sampling & this caused a 2 month delay for results. There wd be a bigger inferred & indicated resource by mid 2011 & possibly some of it wd be measured. Following this they wd start the pre feasibility. There wd be an update soon & again at the end of the year. Luis emphasised that the award of the MDA was a major development. Putu had several strong advantages over other IO resources in Liberia & West Africa. It was the nearest to the coast & the topography of the landscape sloped gently to the coast. This wd greatly reduce the capex on a railway to just US$300m. AAAM were working on the assumption that the total outlay for the capex on the project wd be US$2 - 2.5bn including contingency. This compared very favourably with other projects e.g. Sundance, which was 460km from the coast, & who were estimating capex at US$3.366bn. The production cost of the IO looked like it should be low and the margins should be very high. The mineralization compared favourably with other IO resources in Liberia. The IO was high quality and required less grinding than was typically needed. This wd reduce the energy requirement considerably in processing the IO in comparison with other IO projects in W Africa. They wd need to put in diesel generators but hydropower was a possibility in the future. Capex was the major cost and determined the economics of the project. Putu needed to be a 2bnt resource to justify the capex. Luis was very confident that it was at least this much. Putu employed 12 local geologists - more than any other Co. in Liberia. They had good relations with the local people. Luis said AAAM had a great relationship with Severstal. They were well connected and pragmatic. He thought they were reliable partners. They were the fourth largest steelmaker in Russia. They operated in Italy. They had a GDR listing in London. Luis said that Severstal had a first right of refusal on AAAM's 38.5% share in Putu if AAAM decided to sell. He thought it might be possible that Severstal wd want to buy AAAM out at some point. Severstal were quite acquisitive. They had bought Sacre-Coeur Minerals, nickel interests in the Philippines & had paid US$15m for 16.5% of Core Mining (Avima project). They clearly had a desire to grow in both IO & gold.  Nkout, Ngoa & Akom The old African Aura Resources had moved into Cameroon 2 ½ years ago just when the political situation improved. Nkout & Akom were 100% owned. Ngoa was 70% owned & was part of the adjacent Essong licence. Nkout, in fact, was originally a gold prospect & covered a large greenstone belt. Besides the IO there did seem to be gold as well & possibly other minerals there. The exploration licence covered any minerals found. My impression at the meeting, and also previously from speaking to Luis, was that AAAM are very excited by Nkout, Ngoa & Akom. Nkout, Ngoa & Akom together had a 20km strike length & was therefore more extensive than Putu. AAAM wd have drilled 4200m by early November. This wd cover 2.4km of the 8km strike length of Nkout. wd enable them to infer 3.2km of the 8km i.e. 35 40% of the potential strike length. AAAM should be able to produce an initial inferred resource by January. Nkout used Ireland for sampling & this was far quicker for results than at Putu. They were using Howard Baker as their competent person & he was a very experienced & highly skilled geologist from SRK Consulting. Howard had made a drill site visit & had given a good idea of the quality of the samples just by visual examination. The impression we gained was that IO samples were looking favourable. Luis' preference is to advance Nkout in 2011 on a wholly owned basis & wanted to retain 100% of Nkout for as long as possible. There was lots of energy in Cameroon & they could use hydropower in the mining operation. Before the plane crash which had tragically killed the Sundance Directors, it was clear that Sundance wanted to do an infrastructure deal with, amongst others, AAAM to share the cost & use of the infrastructure i.e. the railway & port. Since Sundance were 460km from the coast, the cost of their project was very large & they were keen to share this. There were several IO projects in the area that wd become cost effective if the railway was built. Severstal had, e.g., taken a 15% stake in Avima in the Congo which is likely to link up with the railway. The Cameroon Government were parties to the 2 MOUs between Sundance & the 2 Chinese Companies providing the railway system & the port & the Gov wd definitely want the infrastructure shared by the mining cos. Assuming the Sundance infrastructure goes ahead, this wd save AAAM US$1bn upfront on its capex & massively improve the prospective value of its resource. Luis quoted the Minister as saying that "AAAM were the luckiest exploration Co in Cameroon to be where it is". The Gold Co AAAM were in the process now of recruiting a high calibre guy to be the boss of the new Gold Company & another to run the feasibility study.  Stellar Diamonds AAAM had a 30% holding in Stellar. This wd be held in the new Gold Co in a "Precious Metal Co". Luis was apologetic about the equity placement at 5p. He understood shareholders's anger but pointed out that the management had large holdings & had also suffered. Luis himself had shares that had cost £.87 each. . There was a massive undersupply of diamonds looming something like a 5:1 disparity between demand & supply as many diamond mines come to the end of their productive life & new demand emerged in Asia. Everything depended on the price of carats Stellar had bought the Kono kimberlite project from Petra. This just needed capex. The value in Stellar was in the kimberlite projects rather than in the alluvial diamond resources. Stellar had been very unlucky with its big fancy yellow diamond which had shattered in the final stage of polishing. The polisher said it had never happened to him in 35 years! Fortunately, they had had it insured for US$150,000. Stellar were hopeful about discovering more fancy diamonds. Stellar had had a lot of bad luck but Luis believed in the Co & its prospects. Karl, the boss, had a good team & they were hardworking. Stellar wd take a while to come good. 2011 will see some investment in the business.  New Liberty The current resource estimate of 1.4m oz was measured & indicated on the basis of 100m drilled and 300m inferred. The veins carry on into the ground deeply dipping. It was hopefully open along the strike. They had drilled as deep as 500m & still encountered gold. The Latiff zone was looking very good with high grade, near surface ore. The scoping study and updated resource statement was due later this year. It could be measured or indicated. They were using a very conservative expert. There should be a NI 43-101 resource statement by the end of this year. The BFS should be completed by mid 2011. AAAM were planning on a open pit mine with 100,000pa oz production for 8 to 10 years. NL should be in production by YE 2012. The capex on setting up the open pit mine can be in the region of US$100m. In 2 months's time, AAAM should have a good idea of the production cost. When they had looked at this 3 years ago they had estimated it at just US$320 an oz. Allowing for inflation, this might turn out to be double this figure below US$500 an oz is possible. NL had great metallurgy with 93% recoveries. About 45% 50% of the gold could be recovered centrifugally. Luis was reminded that AAAM had referred to NL as a multi million oz resource. Luis however wd not be drawn on just how big NL might turn out to be but there appears to be a lot of potential for increases in the resource size. 2 investors had suggested that AAAM might want to consider going for a deep mine operation. Luis has said that starting off with an open pit mine wd not preclude subsequently developing a deep mine operation.  Weaju & Ndablama Weaju had a 230,000oz in-house resource of near surface gold. Conservatively it had a 500,000oz resource of truckable ore being just 30km from NL. Ndablama looking very interesting as well. There had been 4000 artisanal miners panning for gold there during the rainy season. Usually when artisanal miners are attracted in such numbers the gold resource turns out to be significant. In fact, Luis knew of instances where the presence of large numbers of artisanal miners had been reported and the share price of the companies involved had subsequently seen a big jump. AAAM wd begin drilling at either Weaju or Ndablama soon. The way it was looking, they wd probably drill Ndablama. Luis explained that the presence of so many artisanal miners didn't present a problem since typically they were happy to take jobs mining with the Co.  Batouri This was a Cameroon gold resource. This had good grades of gold but had narrow veins which therefore involved the need to drill deeper. It was therefore very expensive to drill, typically US$40,000 60,000 per hole. They were not currently developing this. AAAM had to focus on the best prospects to utilise cash & human resources most effectively. Other Prospects  Ridgeway AAAM had a 70% interest in the licence. The other 30% was owned by a very dynamic local businessman. There were a couple of Companies looking at the uranium. AAAM did not have the resources to develop this themselves at the moment.  Sonfon Golden Star were in charge of this gold project and had put in US$1.4m into drilling 3200m. AAAM had a free carry until 31 January 2011. Luis did not have huge hopes for this.  Nimini & Pampana & East Kpo These had been dropped several years ago. Valuation Charles Kernot, the highly respected mining analyst, who has made a site visit to Putu, has previously produced a valuation on AAAM. This was based on Putu proving up to 2Btn, NL having 1.4m oz of gold. He assumed no value for Nkout, Ngoa & Akom. Kernot valued AAAM at above £3 a share. In view of the very conservative assumptions used & the subsequent strength of the price of IO & gold, the shares must be worth considerably more than that. Read Full Thread Reply

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