Cerillion Share Discussion Threads

[papalpower] 13/11/2006 11:50

I like an up to date thread, with the latest information easily linked in. You can use this one, carry on, I ask nobody to use new threads, its a choice, but most people, including me, seem to prefer an up to date thread, with up to date information on the header, along with easy access to research or media comments.

The choice is anyones, keep using this one, or join a new one at

[hpreston] 13/11/2006 11:09

PP What was wrong with this thread or do you have to dominate all the time.
I remember Ashley doing the same on here and it was alleged he was a stooge for Kevin and when they allegedly dumped him the vitriol was superb in payback.

[effortless cool] 12/11/2006 20:46

Thank you. I'll be nice.

[papalpower] 12/11/2006 19:44

EC - you can now.

[effortless cool] 12/11/2006 07:37

PP - How about letting me post on it, then?

[papalpower] 11/11/2006 16:08

At this moment in time, taking it that the Eureka bid is going ahead, then based on the 5/16 pricing, there is not point buying CER shares at the moment, as you can get them cheaper by buying EKA until EKA gets to around 55p.

Simple, take the CER offer price, and times by 5/16 ratio gives you the conversion price of EKA share into CER shares under the 5 new CER for 16 EKA shares offer.

Presently you can therefore buy EKA and get CER shares cheaper than the actual offer price on CER, taking it of course the offer goes ahead, which is 99% certain I would say.

[papalpower] 11/11/2006 16:06

Also, at this moment in time, taking it that the bid is going ahead, then based on the 5/16 pricing, there is not point buying CER shares at the moment, as you can get them cheaper by buying EKA until EKA gets to around 54p.

[papalpower] 11/11/2006 16:04

As it would appear us EKA holders are soon to be CER holders, I have started a new CER thread, and will slowely build it up with information.

Thread link is below :

[papalpower] 11/11/2006 15:54

Celtic Deserves To Be Reassessed In The Light Of The Eureka Acquisition.

Not a lot has been heard from Celtic Resources since it managed to extract US$80 million for its 20 per cent stake in South Verkhoyansk Mining Company, the holder of the license for the Nezhdaninskoye gold mine in Yakutia, Russia. Polyus, the gold mining arm of Russia's metals giant Norilsk Nickel which produces a quarter of the country's gold, was determined to get hold of Nezhdaninskoye as it is one of Russia's biggest gold deposits with a resource base of about 900 tonnes of gold in total reserves under Russian accounting standards. The way it went about it was an object lesson for any western company intent on developing a large Russian gold reserve without a powerful local partner at its elbow as AngloGold Ashanti has been finding out since it acquired Trans-Siberian Gold.

Anyway US$80 million is quite some ammunition for a junior mining company so Celtic has been spending its time this summer sieving other mining opportunities in the FSU and particularly in Kazakhstan where it already operates the Suzdal mine. Here commissioning of the sulphide treatment plant had had a fairly dramatic impact on gold production which rose by 180 per cent to 24,793 ozs in the first half of the year. The plant treated 123, 857 tonnes grading an average of 9.2 g/t gold and there is clearly room for growth in production as the annual capacity of the plant is 300,000 tonnes. Indeed in July 5,141 ozs was produced so the target for the year as a whole was originally pushed up to 60,000 ounces , but has since been reduced to 50,000 ounces due to lower than expected grades.

The sulphide plant incorporates BIOX® bacterial oxidation technology which came into operation in May last year. Since then various teething problems have been identified and overcome, though Kevin Foo, managing director, reckons that there are still some improvement to be made in throughput and gold recovery.It is the first time BIOX has been used successfully in the FSU and he points out that it had to cope with temperatures ranging from -40°C to +40°C during the year. Of the tonnage treated in the first half, 63,455 tonnes at a grade of 15.7 g/t came from the underground mine currently being developed and some more from open pits and stockpiles so the technology proved to be flexible.

Now a decision has to be made as to whether to expand the capacity of the plant as there are mines in the area with refractory ore who could contribute concentrate. First, however, the cash operating cost will have to be reduced from the US$483/oz in the first six months. The plant problems played a part in this, as did the pre-stripping of open pits, but higher fuel costs look like being a permanent problem. Kevin Foo reckons that improved economics may also involve a switch from using a contractor to having its own fleet of trucks. He also thinks that the mine is overstaffed and that its procurement activities could be run more efficiently. Whatever, he is on the case the costs should fall.

The 75 per cent owned Zherek open pit heap leach operation is only 28 kms from Suzdal and it had a disappointing first half as winter dragged on and transitional opres were encountered which do not leach as well as oxides. The result was a reduced production of 3,571 ounces compared with 4,611 in the first half of 2005. Things are now on the up, however, and production is expected to reach 12,000 ounces this year. The oxide ore, on the other hand is running out and Celtic has been carrying out technical and economic studies to see if it is worth trucking the ore to Suzdal. The latest opinion is that this should be possible and profitable and an increase in plant capacity to 400,000 tonnes is definitely on the cards now that SRK has confirmed a new JORC compliant resource estimate of 2 million ounces for the company's gold assets..

In the meantime Kevin Foo is popping in and out of meetings as Celtic moves to buy back Eureka Mining which it spun off in 2004. A paper deal of 5 Celtic shares for every 16 Eureka is envisaged and it makes sense as Celtic has cash and Eureka needs some. It brings with it the Shorskoye molybdenum mine which is a joint venture with Kazatomprom in the same region of Kazakhstan as Celtic's gold mines.. In September the partners announced that contracts had been signed for the sale of molybdenum concentrate and Eureka had just received its first cash payment of US$1.25 million so cash flow was underway. Kevin reckons that by spending between US$6 and US$10 million production could be cranked up to an annual rate of 3 million lbs of molybdenum by next year. "It doesn't take a brain of Britain to see that 3 million lbs times at least US$20/lb adds up to quite a lot of money, "he says, " but investors do not seem to have caught on." He can be forgiven for being a bit sour about the investment world after the extraordinary treatment meted out to Eureka a couple of months ago by its Nomad which was written abut on Minesite at the time.

Eureka's other main asset, the Chelyabinsk copper gold project in Russia, is significantly larger Back in July a pre-feasibility study was completed on the Miheevskoye copper deposit, which is just part of the project. A new JORC compliant resource estimate was announced with a total indicated resource amounting to 373.5 million tonnes grading 0.38% copper and 0.10 g/t gold to contain 1.42 million tonnes of copper and 1.20 million ounces of gold with more to come as the deposit remains open to the south and west.

Again investors seem to have overlooked the fact that this is not the only deposit which will be delineated. Another one, Tominskoye, has a resource of 250 million tonnes at higher grades of copper and gold and more will be discovered in the future as the project is a big one running down from Russia into Kazakhstan. An open pit is planned for the first five years at Miheevskoye , but the total mine life is expected to be twelve years with average annual production running at 81,000 tonnes copper and 55,000 ozs gold. A definitive feasibility study should be completed before the middle of next year and commissioning is expected to start in the third quarter of 2009. The enlarged Celtic now has plenty of potential and a lot of work to do. Acquisitions are mentioned as a possibility, but they need to be very good and very cheap as the current portfolio deserves priority when the money is being spent.

[konil] 11/11/2006 14:13

one of the most negative things about the nez situation is the way cer have dealt with the associated ir and pr - the comment i've just made is slightly prejudicial as i admit i'm not 100% familiar with the background, but i'm catching up fast. however, the positive flipside therefore is that probably no one gave any credence to the $11.4m in so called 'assets' that remained due for collection from that deal, which means that having to remove it from the balance sheet is a non-event as regards market reaction.

with cer's gold production and the eka acquisition on the cheap (assuming it all goes through), cer have some absolutely superb revenue generating assets and the cash to develop them and the big chely project further, which means that by the time they need to raise further finance they will be in a very strong position to attract lenders and negotiate good financing terms.

i don't know how good cer management's currency is with the instis and the banks but assuming its not completely soft, then sooner or later the market will rerate cer to take account of its formidable portfolio.

[andy] 11/11/2006 12:02

Dooby,

Your link didn't work for me, but this one did;

[bionicdog] 11/11/2006 10:56

Well spotted and only 14 hours after I posted it.

[wassapper] 11/11/2006 08:13

Minesite Story

Celtic Deserves To Be Reassessed In The Light Of The Eureka Acquisition.

Not a lot has been heard from Celtic Resources since it managed to extract US$80 million for its 20 per cent stake in South Verkhoyansk Mining Company, the holder of the license for the Nezhdaninskoye gold mine in Yakutia, Russia. Polyus, the gold mining arm of Russia's metals giant Norilsk Nickel which produces a quarter of the country's gold, was determined to get hold of Nezhdaninskoye as it is one of Russia's biggest gold deposits with a resource base of about 900 tonnes of gold in total reserves under Russian accounting standards. The way it went about it was an object lesson for any western company intent on developing a large Russian gold reserve without a powerful local partner at its elbow as AngloGold Ashanti has been finding out since it acquired Trans-Siberian Gold. .. more ..

[doobydave] 10/11/2006 21:59

And here's the other, more worrying side of the story:

[bionicdog] 10/11/2006 18:39

Feature Story Date: November 10, 2006

Celtic Deserves To Be Reassessed In The Light Of The Eureka Acquisition.

Not a lot has been heard from Celtic Resources since it managed to extract US$80 million for its 20 per cent stake in South Verkhoyansk Mining Company, the holder of the license for the Nezhdaninskoye gold mine in Yakutia, Russia. Polyus, the gold mining arm of Russia's metals giant Norilsk Nickel which produces a quarter of the country's gold, was determined to get hold of Nezhdaninskoye as it is one of Russia's biggest gold deposits with a resource base of about 900 tonnes of gold in total reserves under Russian accounting standards. The way it went about it was an object lesson for any western company intent on developing a large Russian gold reserve without a powerful local partner at its elbow as AngloGold Ashanti has been finding out since it acquired Trans-Siberian Gold.

Anyway US$80 million is quite some ammunition for a junior mining company so Celtic has been spending its time this summer sieving other mining opportunities in the FSU and particularly in Kazakhstan where it already operates the Suzdal mine. Here commissioning of the sulphide treatment plant had had a fairly dramatic impact on gold production which rose by 180 per cent to 24,793 ozs in the first half of the year. The plant treated 123, 857 tonnes grading an average of 9.2 g/t gold and there is clearly room for growth in production as the annual capacity of the plant is 300,000 tonnes. Indeed in July 5,141 ozs was produced so the target for the year as a whole was originally pushed up to 60,000 ounces , but has since been reduced to 50,000 ounces due to lower than expected grades.

The sulphide plant incorporates BIOX® bacterial oxidation technology which came into operation in May last year. Since then various teething problems have been identified and overcome, though Kevin Foo, managing director, reckons that there are still some improvement to be made in throughput and gold recovery.It is the first time BIOX has been used successfully in the FSU and he points out that it had to cope with temperatures ranging from -40°C to +40°C during the year. Of the tonnage treated in the first half, 63,455 tonnes at a grade of 15.7 g/t came from the underground mine currently being developed and some more from open pits and stockpiles so the technology proved to be flexible.

Now a decision has to be made as to whether to expand the capacity of the plant as there are mines in the area with refractory ore who could contribute concentrate. First, however, the cash operating cost will have to be reduced from the US$483/oz in the first six months. The plant problems played a part in this, as did the pre-stripping of open pits, but higher fuel costs look like being a permanent problem. Kevin Foo reckons that improved economics may also involve a switch from using a contractor to having its own fleet of trucks. He also thinks that the mine is overstaffed and that its procurement activities could be run more efficiently. Whatever, he is on the case the costs should fall.

The 75 per cent owned Zherek open pit heap leach operation is only 28 kms from Suzdal and it had a disappointing first half as winter dragged on and transitional opres were encountered which do not leach as well as oxides. The result was a reduced production of 3,571 ounces compared with 4,611 in the first half of 2005. Things are now on the up, however, and production is expected to reach 12,000 ounces this year. The oxide ore, on the other hand is running out and Celtic has been carrying out technical and economic studies to see if it is worth trucking the ore to Suzdal. The latest opinion is that this should be possible and profitable and an increase in plant capacity to 400,000 tonnes is definitely on the cards now that SRK has confirmed a new JORC compliant resource estimate of 2 million ounces for the company's gold assets..

In the meantime Kevin Foo is popping in and out of meetings as Celtic moves to buy back Eureka Mining which it spun off in 2004. A paper deal of 5 Celtic shares for every 16 Eureka is envisaged and it makes sense as Celtic has cash and Eureka needs some. It brings with it the Shorskoye molybdenum mine which is a joint venture with Kazatomprom in the same region of Kazakhstan as Celtic's gold mines.. In September the partners announced that contracts had been signed for the sale of molybdenum concentrate and Eureka had just received its first cash payment of US$1.25 million so cash flow was underway. Kevin reckons that by spending between US$6 and US$10 million production could be cranked up to an annual rate of 3 million lbs of molybdenum by next year. "It doesn't take a brain of Britain to see that 3 million lbs times at least US$20/lb adds up to quite a lot of money, "he says, " but investors do not seem to have caught on." He can be forgiven for being a bit sour about the investment world after the extraordinary treatment meted out to Eureka a couple of months ago by its Nomad which was written abut on Minesite at the time.

Eureka's other main asset, the Chelyabinsk copper gold project in Russia, is significantly larger Back in July a pre-feasibility study was completed on the Miheevskoye copper deposit, which is just part of the project. A new JORC compliant resource estimate was announced with a total indicated resource amounting to 373.5 million tonnes grading 0.38% copper and 0.10 g/t gold to contain 1.42 million tonnes of copper and 1.20 million ounces of gold with more to come as the deposit remains open to the south and west.

Again investors seem to have overlooked the fact that this is not the only deposit which will be delineated. Another one, Tominskoye, has a resource of 250 million tonnes at higher grades of copper and gold and more will be discovered in the future as the project is a big one running down from Russia into Kazakhstan. An open pit is planned for the first five years at Miheevskoye , but the total mine life is expected to be twelve years with average annual production running at 81,000 tonnes copper and 55,000 ozs gold. A definitive feasibility study should be completed before the middle of next year and commissioning is expected to start in the third quarter of 2009. The enlarged Celtic now has plenty of potential and a lot of work to do. Acquisitions are mentioned as a possibility, but they need to be very good and very cheap as the current portfolio deserves priority when the money is being spent.

[hpreston] 10/11/2006 11:40

Half of our 50% ended up in the Caymen Islands and we lost it. Suddenly it returns to guess who- the Ruskys
Lol

[konil] 09/11/2006 20:43

judge jury, i'm in catch up mode on cer. i don't understand the relevance or implications of your post, could you please summarise for idiots like me. tia.

[judge jury] 09/11/2006 19:07

A nice kick in the teeth for long term holders

Polyus Group to acquire 50% of SVMC, holder of Nezhdaninskoe license
9 November 2006
SKRIN Newswire

Polyus Gold, Russia's largest gold producer announces today the decision to acquire a 50% stake (292 493 ordinary shares) in OJSC South Verkhoyansk Mining Company from Interros holding company. The decision was passed by Polyus Gold Board of Directors in the meeting held on November 7, 2006. The transaction will amount to US$ 300 mln. This acquisition will result in consolidation of 100% of SVMC shares under Polyus Group (OJSC Polyus Gold and its subsidiaries). Nezhdanisnkoe deposit is currently undergoing extensive exploration, especially in the central and northern areas. These exploration works are expected to provide substantial growth in gold reserves. The results of the exploration will become the basis for developing Nezhdaninskoe scoping study to be compiled in 2007 by VNIPIPromtechnologii engineering company which was chosen general contractor through a recent tender.

Commenting on the decisions of the Board, CEO of Polyus Gold Evgueni Ivanov said: "By consolidating 100% of SVMC shares Polyus Gold will substantially increase its reserve base and establish full control over one of the largest gold deposits in Russia". Mr. Ivanov also noted that, "This transaction became possible through final resolution and settlement of a number of claims regarding ownership of some part of SVMC shares". "Polyus Gold management is confident that the acquired asset has strong potential for value growth, especially due to the geological perspectives of Nezhdaninskoe", - said Mr. Ivanov. The Board has also approved the Public and investor relations policy of Polyus Gold and passed the decision to expand the company's Engineering center in Krasnoyarsk. Polyus acquired 50% of OJSC SVMC in September 2005, as part of a larger transaction to acquire mining assets located in Sakha Republic (Yakutia) from Alrosa Investment Group. Interros holding company announced the acquisition of a 20% stake in OJSC SVMC from Celtic Resources in December 2005. OJSC SVMC holds license to develop Nezhdaninskoye deposit, one of the largest gold deposit in Russia. Nezhdaninskoye reserves according to Russian classification amount to 220 tonnes (7.1 m oz) of B+C1 categories and 690 tonnes (22.2 m oz) of C2+P1 categories.

[chevyplus] 09/11/2006 12:03

konil,
not completely sure of the situation with Eureka but I think they may have been struggling to get finance to get a few projects up and running.I think they may have spent the budget on aquistions etc and left the well a little dry.As for Institutional support Im not sure of the involvement or amounts but think it is only small.
Chevyplus

[konil] 09/11/2006 03:40

chevy, i'm still catching up on cer history so i have no debate about what you say re. the nez deal and welcome your insights. i am only here because of eka and i can tell you most definitely that eka shareholders feel completely shafted by the proposed deal, which means its a very good deal for existing cer holders. if the proposed takeover goes ahead there will be many ex-eka cer holders who don't trust the management to look after shareholders interests, that's never a healthy situation and catches up with everybody sooner or later. it will take a lot to overcome that negative sentiment. furthermore, apart from the pi's it remains to be seen how foo and cronies will square it with the eka institutional holders - and that could mean cer pi's (new and old) are in for some rough treatment too, if the instis get more preferential treatment than usual to make up for the shafting at eka. of course if cer don't need to raise any finance in uk (if for example they are relying on jv's and russian finance) then they may be able to ride roughshod over the insti holders, but they would be burning a lot of bridges.