Central African Gold Share Discussion Threads

[kemptown trader] 19/6/2004 23:44

I bought 30.000 shares back on April 1st, (what a fools day that was)
I sold off at a loss back in April, via a stop loss.
I recieved a letter from the FSA today 18/06/04 asking me about the trade due to an investigation.
Watch out all, this aint gone away yet and is still early days of collation. I have had CFM shares and did well before but after my last deal with Central African Gold I will stay well clear.
Best of British to you all holding.

[camec] 20/5/2004 10:53

Good effort Muppet Nice de-ramp, i think you blew it at the end with the Edmonds thing. i agree Edmonds is not a miner i doubt he has ever had a shovel in his baby soft hands. However as a business man he is very sucessfull and has made a lot of money for a lot of people, i supose in your mind Stelios is not capable of anything other than Easyjet, most people are capable of patting there head and rubbing there tummy at the same time.

[b b muppet] 19/5/2004 19:57

Phil Edmonds was a cricketer not a miner

[haystack] 19/5/2004 19:16

It is not surprising that Agincourt started a thread on these. He has a habit of picking rubbish and then following them down the drain.

[b b muppet] 19/5/2004 16:45

Frauke,

You should not be playing with fire in sectors you do not understand.

Phil Edmonds was a cricketer not a miner, I am hearing fairly interesting things coming out of the city about an investigation ongoing.

We will soon see, I would not touch a Phil Edmonds play with a bargepole.

SFU is NOT an inferred Resource on 1 drill hole. Nor will it be a mine at 1,000m and 2,000m drill intersections on land given away as not worth a penny high hydrothermal gradient too deep Bushveldt by Lonmin Plc.

CAMEC Well 0.01p shares pull the other one.

CAN No Project even in the Company, just a cash shell.

People are going to get badly burnt on these shares, very badly burnt.

They should have a sign on them labelled CAVEAT EMPTOR!

All IMHO, NAG, DYOR etc, etc

BBM

[camec] 19/5/2004 16:25

OK, so the FSA thing is done and dusted and no one had to go see the headmaster.This news has probably been delayed untill the all clear sounded. Anyone got any thoughts on this new anouncement.

[richgit] 27/4/2004 14:10

If this is true,shareholders should act with their feet and walk away,sending
the message that private investors have had enough of being ridiculed,
manipulated and left to hold the losses.
We do not need the Junior Mining sector to be brought into any disrepute
and the market does not need another Knutsford Group.



April 27, 2004



Sunday Times Reports That The AIM Authorities And FSA May Be Investigating Dealings In Phil Edmonds' Companies.


According to the Prufrock column in the Sunday Times both the Stock Exchange authorities and the Financial Services Authority are taking a look at share price movements which took place in three of ex-cricketer Phil Edmonds' companies back in January. On January 25th our London Correspondent reported in That Was The Week That Was ... in London, Australia and Canada as follows "And finally, an interesting coincidence. All three of the junior mining companies controlled by Phil Edmonds had gained exactly 28 per cent by the close last week. One of them, Southern African Mining, did at least put out a proper news release, informing us that it had acquired a PGM prospect in Botswana and that Roy Pitchford (CEO of Zimplats) had joined the board as a non-exec. Central African Mining announced completion of a fundraising and Capricorn, as usual, announced precisely nothing."

In Australia a speeding ticket would have been issued on the spot by the ASX and an explanation demanded. If that explanation was not satisfactory the shares might have been suspended while an investigation took place. Not in London. Here the onus is laid equally on the nominated adviser to the company, its broker and the regulatory authorities to check unusual price movements by AIM listed companies. The result is that none of them bear full responsibility, and who is the nominated adviser to most of the Edmonds companies? None other than our old friend Grant Thornton which played such a heroic role as nominated adviser to the disastrous listing of Bullion Resources. Gerry Beaney at Grant Thornton pleads that he cannot make a comment on any possible action by the LSE or FSA and he is in a somewhat embarrassing position as his colleague, Brian Moritz, is a director of some of Edmonds' companies.

Back to the reported investigation of the synchronised price movements in January. Phil Edmonds says that he has not been approached by either the AIM regulators or the FSA. Maybe there are letters in the post, but it seems odd that Prufrock should get the story before Edmonds has been contacted. Three months is quite a time to wait before asking questions and it is not as if nothing odd has happened with the Edmond companies in the meantime. At the end of March our Phil listed yet another mining company with no assets called Central African Gold to join Capricorn which still has no assets a year after listing. Minews queried this new fashion of listing junior mining companies with no assets with the AIM authorities and received the following answer from Richard Webster-Smith a few days later.

"Thank you for sending your recently published article regarding Central African Gold, the following is our response to some of the points you raised:

AIM is a specialist growth market and was specifically designed with the needs of
smaller, fast-growing companies, including startup companies with a limited trading
history or relatively few fixed assets in mind. Whilst such companies can raise capital
on AIM, they must also fully and continuously disclose all relevant information regarding
their financial position to the market so potential investors can make an informed decision about whether to invest in that company or not. In addition, the following points need to be made in response to specific issues raised in your article:

•A company's placing price is based on its valuation. The placing price is set by the
company itself, in consultation with its nominated adviser, and it is not unusual for
this to be discounted slightly in order to attract investors.

•A company is responsible for the composition of its own board and must meet
requirements outlined by the Companies Act. Again, AIM rules require that all
relevant information about Directors' backgrounds and current/past directorships is
fully disclosed.

•It is a nominated adviser's responsibility to discharge any questions related to the
independence of directors and to demonstrate that there are effective Chinese Walls
in place in the case when a related person is a director and/or shareholder of an AIM
company that they also act as nominated adviser for.

If there are any other issues that you would like to discuss then please get back to me on
the numbers below."

Minews saw little point in continuing the dialogue, but at the same time our London Correspondent made the following comment in his weekly round-up on April 4th. "The second best gain was made by last week's star listing, Central African Gold. The stock put on a further 46 per cent to close at 14.25p, though during the week the stock traded at the magic 15p level, triggering the issue of the next batch of options to Phil Edmonds and his friends. Will they now push the stock to 25p to capture the last tranche currently available, or will reality set in? Who knows, and frankly who cares – the AIM regulator certainly shows no sign of doing so. Let us remind ourselves that this company now has a market capitalisation of £22m, yet its only asset is the £1m of cash raised in the flotation last week. It has no mining assets and (according to last week's prospectus) is nowhere near getting any. Yet it is apparently worth more than most of London's more serious exploration juniors – companies with solid professional management and good prospects to work on."

If the AIM regulator wants to be seen to have some teeth it should have a close look at the dealings that took place in Central African Gold after its March listing as well as the trades in Southern African Mining and Central African Mining and Capricorn back in January. If it does not, there is a danger that London's junior mining sector will get the reputation of Perth or Vancouver in the bad old days when anything was possible. Shareholders will not be happy if these balloons crash back to earth again, still without assets, but doubtless the advisers will continue to collect their fees.

[hoping] 26/4/2004 23:24

Sell, Sell, Sell...............

[richgit] 22/4/2004 13:21

THE STOCK IS ALREADY VALUED AT WHAT IT MAY BE IN A COUPLE OF YEARS



Scam,
Could describe this stock`s valuation,and hopefully for private investors it isnt.
There is no justification for it to be valued above its cash raised,so being very generous 2p.
Then they have to find something to do with the money,ie: a project.
Realistically after a few years proving they`ve got an asset that may be viable the Market may then value it at the CURRENT £16Million,but investors need it to go
to £32 Million to get a worthy reward and that`s without ANY mass dilution!!!!!!!!!


There are dozens of miners that have been around for 8 years plus that arent
valued at half of CAN.

If it is a Scam they could announce some pathetic project before March 2005
that may get the shares rotating and then sell the bulk of their shares
which stand them at near to zilch.A very handsome profit.
They dont actually have to do anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

However knowing how blind many private investors are,I daresay at some
point a ramp situation will be invented which may at least allow some of the first wave of succours to escape.

Turning £1 Million into £16 Million over night without any business or definitive project is quite something to behold.

SELL

[little woman] 22/4/2004 10:03

Is any one is this stock?

[little woman] 21/4/2004 15:54

current buy 10.5p and sell 10p - great time to get in

[little woman] 21/4/2004 01:18

So it looks like this is a company that should do well over the next 12 months as the directors can't sell thier shares, and as it is trading 10-11p from an initial high of 14p, once people realise it's there it should do well.

[little woman] 21/4/2004 01:15

LONDON (Mineweb.com) – Not content with being chairman and chief executive of no fewer than three AIM listed companies – one of them still a cash shell nearly a year after it started trading - Phil Edmonds is about to launch yet another on London's Alternative Market.
And once again it seems that Thomas Kaplan will be providing some of the cash to get the new company, Central African Gold, up and running.

(While we are name-dropping, Roy Pitchford, chief executive of Zimbabwe Platinum, Bruce Rowan, the UK based Australian serial investor in resource stocks, and Brian Moritz, head of Grant Thornton's capital markets group, will get a mention later because they all figure in the Edmonds' story).

Kaplan first contacted Edmonds by telephone, apparently out of the blue, towards the end of last year and then put money into two of Edmonds' companies in September. Since that time shares in both of them, Capricorn Resources (LSE:CIR) and Southern African Resources (LSE:SFU), have rocketed in price for no other apparent reason.

For those who don't recognise the name, Kaplan is not your average mining man. He is an American with a doctor of philosophy degree in history from England's Oxford University who made his first big bucks by using strategic forecasting in US fund management. His speciality is an analytical method that attempts to identify and assess global trends in politics and economics and the way these trends relate to the international financial markets.

One trend he thought he had identified in the early 1990s was a coming shortage of silver. He looked round for a suitable company to invest in and, when he couldn't find one, set up his own – Apex Silver (ASE:SIL). George Soros, who has accumulated a fortune from international investment and is well known for his forays in the international currency markets, and his brother Paul, put their personal money into Apex. Paul Soros is still a director of that company and Kaplan remains chairman.

Kaplan brought together some of the best people in silver exploration and it was not long before Apex identified the huge San Cristobal deposit in Bolivia (the obvious country to look for silver). But several years later Apex has not started development because Kaplan is waiting for the silver price to go up to what he considers to be a reasonable level. Detractors suggest San Cristobal is really a zinc deposit with silver as a by-product and that transporting metal to the coast would be very expensive. Apex is not short of cash, it had US$42m in the bank and recently raised another $165.6m by issuing more equity. So something might happen soon.

Edmonds has also been around the mining scene for many years. His cv mentions first of all that he once played cricket for England and he seems to have been more successful with bat and ball than with his early choice of mining vehicles. Philippine Gold, in particular, had a disastrous time when he was in charge.

While cynics suggest that he and his fellow directors probably want four companies because that means more fees and options for all involved, Edmonds says there is logic to it. The first company he launched on AIM, Central African Mining (known colloquially as CAMEC), exports copper and cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo and tantalum from Namibia and Mozambique.

CAMEC, through its contacts, also got the opportunity to become involved in a platinum project on South Africa's Bushveld. But it was thought better to put that project into a separate company – so Southern African Resources was set up. It is very early days, but using inferred resource figures, the Snowden Group suggests SAR's Leeuwkop project on the western limb of the Bushveld, might produce 300,000 ounces of platinum a year for 24 years.

This estimate apparently attracted Kaplan's attention. Edmonds believes Kaplan had been tracking potential platinum investments via the internet. After the out-of-the-blue telephone call from Kaplan, Edmonds flew to meet the American in Saint Tropez in the south of France and they began what seems set to be a long term relationship.

Edmonds says he wants to build CAMEC into a substantial mining business with copper, cobalt and tantalum operations of its own and investments in other entities. CAMEC already has a 10 percent stake in SAR, received in exchange for the platinum project.

After CAMEC and SAR came Capricorn. Edmonds says the objective is for Capricorn to invest in late-development, single commodity, natural resources projects – he mentions diamonds and oil but the former seems more likely. Capricorn raised £400,000 at 1p a share in February last year before listing on AIM but so far no projects have materialised. Edmonds explains: "Things always seem to take longer than anticipated. But in eight to twelve weeks we should have something interesting to say."

Meanwhile, gold is very much in favour at present so the fourth single-commodity company, Central African Gold, was to be launched on AIM today (February 4). But there has been a delay because, according to Edmonds, potential American investors want changes to the structure and that means a new prospectus must be produced.

Also, he says it has been difficult to satisfy demand for Central African Gold stock, so the cash to be raised ahead of the listing has been increased from £700,000 to £1m.

Thanks to the Kaplan connection, Edmunds' companies are riding high at present. Shares in CAMEC were drifting along at 1.5p less than a year ago. It raised £2.48m on January 19 at 4p a share. In the following ten days the shares peaked at 13.25p, giving CAMEC a market value of £43m.

Shares in SAR and Capricorn have been motoring since September 12 when it was announced that Kaplan's Bermuda based family trusts had put cash into them. He paid 1.5p a share for 16 percent of Capricorn, a total cost of $150,000. Last week the shares reached 13p. His investment in SAR totalled £400,000, giving him 6.1 percent of that company, at 4p a share. Last week the price went up to 33p.

By an amazing coincidence, shares in all three of the Edmonds' AIM companies reached their peak prices almost exactly at the same time, on January 27 and 28. At that time he was in the US talking to potential investors in Central African Gold.

The Australian Stock Exchange would almost certainly have asked for an explanation but AIM leaves supervision of its listed companies to the nominated advisers (nomads). Grant Thornton is nomad to SAR and Capricorn, as well as to Central African Gold. And Brian Moritz, head of Grant Thornton's capital markets group, is also a director of all three companies. Some say this represents a big conflict of interest, but Edmonds disagrees and so, we must assume, does the AIM team.

Bruce Rowan is also on the boards of SAR and Capricorn and previously was probably the biggest single investor. He is on the board or an investor in several other natural resources stocks as well as manager of Tiger Resource Finance (LSE:TIR) which, of course, invests in mining/exploration stocks. Rowan is not on the CAMEC board but he owned 26 percent when it listed on AIM in October 2002 and there has been no record of any sale since. Rowan is also expected to put some cash into Central African Gold.

Apart from Edmonds, one other person is on all four of his boards, a 34 year old Zimbabwean, Andrew Groves, who is described as development director. Groves, who was born in Harare and educated in South Africa as well as Zimbabwe, obviously played a key role in finding the African assets. According to his cv he
has significant experience in operations management in Southern and Central Africa, and has extensive knowledge of the mining industry in Namibia and Mozambique

He also played some part in introducing Roy Pitchford, chief executive of Zimbabwe Platinum, now part of Impala Platinum, who joined the SAR board last month and is also a director of Central African Gold. The SAR appointment met with Kaplan's approval, says Edmonds, because the American was one of the biggest private investors in Zimplats.

Edmonds hopes Pitchford eventually will take over as chief executive of SAR. That company expanded in January by paying A$4.7m for 52 percent of Tau Mining, owner of the Molopo Farms platinum project in southern Botswana.

This is all part on a plan to introduce key professional management to the Edmonds' companies so that he can relinquish the chief executive's role in all but CAMEC.

Meanwhile, further work on the AIM launch of Central African Mining as another Edmonds cash shell will probably have to wait until he returns from Cape Town on February 14. Like many others in London he is off to the Indaba at the weekend.

[little woman] 20/4/2004 13:30

Central African Mining & Exploration company is the EPIC CFM

[little woman] 20/4/2004 13:21

Recently issued AIM share (26/03/04)

The Company announces that the directors and substantial shareholders have all
agreed, in accordance with the AIM Rules, not to dispose of any of their shares
held at admission until the first anniversary of the Company's admission to AIM,
being 26 March 2005 except in certain limited circumstances. The holdings at
admission were as follows:


Name Number of shares Percentage of issued share capital
Phil Edmonds (Director) 19,500,000 12.30%
Andrew Groves (Director) 14,000,000 8.83%
Roy Pitchford (Director) 15,000,000 9.46%
Central African Mining & Exploration 20,000,000 12.62%
Company plc
Thomas Kaplan 35,000,000 22.08%


Any of the names familar?

[hoping] 15/4/2004 13:36

Heading back towards 1p.
Maybe you can top up then. :)

[simonevans] 14/4/2004 20:23

Tend to agree - unfortunately didn't manage to get any shares in the first place though...would have been interested at 1p!

[hoping] 14/4/2004 14:53

Time to bail out.

[nmitra] 13/4/2004 11:47

what's happening?

[hoping] 08/4/2004 16:28

I'd stay well clear until next year then.

[swna] 08/4/2004 15:04

Central African Gold PLC
08 April 2004

CENTRAL AFRICAN GOLD PLC ('THE COMPANY')



Ordinary Shares of 0.1p each



The Company announces that the directors and substantial shareholders have all
agreed, in accordance with the AIM Rules, not to dispose of any of their shares
held at admission until the first anniversary of the Company's admission to AIM,
being 26 March 2005 except in certain limited circumstances. The holdings at
admission were as follows:


Name Number of shares Percentage of issued share capital
Phil Edmonds (Director) 19,500,000 12.30%
Andrew Groves (Director) 14,000,000 8.83%
Roy Pitchford (Director) 15,000,000 9.46%
Central African Mining & Exploration 20,000,000 12.62%
Company plc
Thomas Kaplan 35,000,000 22.08%





1 year!? - So a couple more million quid for Edmonds next year then. I would settle for that. I don't know what to make of this. Do they try and increase the share price by this time or sit back and wait?

[swna] 08/4/2004 08:58

ASC flying again - short of stock as were CAN - will be back in this later after ASC

[richgit] 08/4/2004 00:54

2p......... and that`s generous