Amara Share Discussion Threads

[richgit] 25/7/2015 19:39

There could be considerable buying at 24p

You may have circa 2 months to think about that- or maybe far less.

[amargosa] 17/7/2015 09:07

I do wonder what role a lot of the employees fulfil; did the PR team, for example, prevent or even hinder the slide from over a pound to 8p?

[rogsim] 17/7/2015 08:59

I'm waiting, but my track record as an investor is awful. Maybe Katharine Sutton should get active and tell Mr McGloin what Investor Relations means - or is her work solely with IIs?

[amargosa] 17/7/2015 08:42

It's been a disaster for shareholders so far. But now what, sell up or wait?

[rogsim] 17/7/2015 08:37

I'm still keen to know how Mr McGloin et al. spend their time. Are they twiddling their thumbs, or getting the finance for Yaoure and Baomahun in place? Are they working on selling some properties, arranging partners, or working on legal matters re. Sega.? All of these, I suppose. Meanwhile, the share price continues to drift lower, as does the apparent demand for gold.

As you can tell, the reason for my disgruntlement is my own stupidity as an investor. I was in CLF at the time of the "takeover" attempt....

[amargosa] 17/7/2015 08:11

I'm sure all that is true. The managers, workers, and IC gov, etc will do very nicely over the next 10 years if the mine gets built. Don't be surprised if one group of stakeholders doesn't.

[bikwik] 16/7/2015 10:24

This stock is so attractive at these levels, but hardly anyone can see it. Still, that is the madness that is the stockmarket. True gold has not yet showed it has bottomed. However, with Amara's all in sustaining costs at an incredible $648 an ounce and a ten year mine life with 247,000 ounces of gold a year it is a stunning prospect.

Maybe this recent article will add some sparkle:

Amara plans one of Africa’s biggest gold mines

25 Jun 2015
“Mining here goes back to 1880,” says Peter Brown, the chief operating office of Amara Mining (LON:AMA).

Feet firmly planted in the red African earth, he stands on the lip of a hill overlooking an old mining pit at Amara’s Yaoure gold project in Cote D’Ivoire, the distant outline of village huts shimmering in the distance across a valley beyond.

“I have a record back to 1880,” he adds. “Although probably mining by the locals goes back even further.”

The most recent significant effort was undertaken by Amara itself - then trading under its former name of Cluff Gold - and it entailed the excavation of the pit that Brown is now standing in front of.

At that time Yaoure was called Angovia, after the local village, and it yielded gold production in the tens of thousands of ounces.

Now, though, the plan is completely different, and is much, much more ambitious.

As the hot sun beats down, Brown pauses to light up an old pipe, and then proceeds to point out various drilling sites inside the old pit in front of him.

“The old Cluff pit is now called Yaoure Central,” he says. “All our drilling is in Yaoure Central.”

The difference this time round is that Amara isn’t targeting the easy-to-access oxide ore at surface. That’s all gone.

This time round Amara is targeting more than six and a half million ounces of gold in slightly deeper sulphide ore, a more complex mining task but potentially a much more lucrative one too.

The plans are to mine at a rate of around 247,000 ounces per year over a ten year mine life, with all-in sustaining costs running at a very attractive US$648 per ounce.

Given that the current gold price is still comfortably above US$1,150 per ounce, that allows for an awful lot of margin.

How is Amara able to mine so cheaply, where peers regularly see costs punching through the US$1,000 per ounce mark? The answer is simple – infrastructure.

“I’d challenge you to find anywhere in West Africa with such good infrastructure,̶1; says Amara executive chairman John McGloin back in the site office.

His audience is the same delegation that Brown addressed earlier, and consists of investors and journalists who have travelled up that morning from the commercial capital of Cote D’Ivoire, Abidjan.

The journey, almost all of it on paved roads, has taken only a couple of hours and in the final stretch the party has crossed over the dam that blocks the Bandama River to create Lake Kossou, the largest lake in Cote D’Ivoire.

This dam supports one of the most significant hydroelectric projects in West Africa, as McGloin is keen to emphasise.

“The dam is a major trunk for power”, he says. “The rate is US8 cents per kilowatt hour.”

There are many West African mining companies reliant on on-site diesel power that can only dream of power at such a price. Their costs show why.

But Amara faces different challenges, because this mine is one of the biggest gold mines around, it won’t be cheap to build. A recent pre-feasibility study put the pre-production capital costs at around US$447mln, money which won’t be easy to find in capital markets no longer enamoured of mining stories.

Nonetheless, inside the company there is a bullishness that tells its own story.

Staff are running a book on which of the following two outcomes is now the most likely: a takeout before mining commences, agreed at an attractive price, or a successful fund raising followed by production.

McGloin is no stranger to capital markets and has in the past shown himself able to put together innovative forms of funding.

Back in 2012 he signed up Samsung in an innovative funding deal that brought one of the world’s great electronic giants directly into the gold business.

More recently the IFC, the investment arm of the World Bank, has expressed interest in helping to fund the project to the end of the bankable feasibility stage.

Whether McGloin can repeat these successes on a much larger scale remains to be seen.

But he’s not a man that should be underestimated.

When he took the helm at Amara, the Yaoure project was viewed simply as a mined-out pit on care and maintenance, waiting for a spike in the gold price to get it going again.

Now, three years later, the company is sitting on one of the largest undeveloped gold mines in Africa, fully funded to the end of a bankable feasibility study, in the sure knowledge that once up and running it will be one of the cheapest operations around.

[bikwik] 14/7/2015 23:16

Yes I agree Darren. This one is particularly relevant to Amara mining. Puts it into perspective.

[amargosa] 13/7/2015 16:29

Well the project in IC is still on the IFC's website, but will they still pay 16p?

[darren234] 09/7/2015 07:50

For those interested in mining companies check this Interview with Charles Gibson: Head of Mining at Edison Research

[amargosa] 01/7/2015 16:33

It probably takes a long time to spend their boom-time salaries.

[rogsim] 01/7/2015 15:50

Does anyone know how the Management Team spend their time? Are they just waiting around for further drilling results, or are they actively seeking partners, finance, etc?

[amargosa] 30/6/2015 12:44

Anyone have any thoughts on the pfs?

[amargosa] 24/6/2015 15:49

LOL yep, I mean 'does not'.

Thanks, now edited.

[corrientes] 24/6/2015 14:36

You mean 'does not' ?

Fine balancing act here with the CB's determined to keep the gold price close to miners' production costs, but maybe dare not push the price too low in
case they need to revisit their fictitious balance sheets when the xxxx finally
hits the fan !

[amargosa] 24/6/2015 08:17

Let's just hope that Yaoure does not suffer the same fate as Baomahun.

[corrientes] 22/6/2015 08:36

I hope you're right but there's a fair bit of money involved.

[amargosa] 22/6/2015 08:16

I doubt a dispute with thier local company in B F would affect the value of the assets in SL and IC.

[john148] 21/6/2015 22:07

Good point corrientes. Maybe the company can provide its shareholders with an update as to what progress is being made in reaching a settlement.

[corrientes] 21/6/2015 18:42

Maybe nothing can happen until the legal dispute with BCM concerning the defunct Burkina Faso operation is resolved.

[john148] 21/6/2015 18:30

Think its time Amara invited a bid. This company is sitting on a fortune yet doesn't seem to have the financial capacity to exploit the resourse to it's full potential.

[amargosa] 21/6/2015 17:48

When was the last time they mentioned Samsung?

[edjge2] 20/6/2015 21:57

Wonder if this is bottoming, hope it is an infant cup.