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[zeberdie] 02/8/2018 15:28

Its not 22p

[dianecarberry] 02/8/2018 15:23

Indeed I might be but I have called HUM 100% spot on though !

LOL

[rileyma] 02/8/2018 15:20

Ah good man !👍

[zeberdie] 02/8/2018 15:20

Conman ? you know nothing of the man.

[zeberdie] 02/8/2018 15:10

Q&A: Hummingbird CEO reflects on first mine build
Hummingbird Resources CEO Dan Betts is now a gold miner. He graduated from developer by building Yanfolila in Mali, which produced 33,100 ounces of gold in the June quarter.

Dan doesn't bet: the Hummingbird CEO says the swerve to investing in the Bunker Hill base metal project made good financial sense
• Exploration / Development > Leadership
• 01 August 2018
• Comments
• Share
Alex Hamer

Hummingbird has recently also looked outside West Africa, with a US$1.5 million convertible loan to zinc-lead-silver developer Bunker Hill Mining, which has a project in the US state of Idaho.
Mining Journal: Yanfolila has had its first full quarter after ramp up, but you're not out of the development zone yet as Dugbe in Liberia is still in the permitting stage. Does it feel different as a developer in Liberia now that you've actually built a mine?
Dan Betts: They're pretty unconnected, to be honest. That said, if we were to build the Dugbe mine in Liberia, I would go at it with a lot more confidence, having done it before. There are differences; different geography, different terrain, different politics, but in terms of the physical nature of building a mine, the main bit is the logistics and the team building and the execution, I think we'd be in a much stronger position to deliver that project now.
MJ: Looking at an investment Hummingbird has made recently, Idaho is quite different to West Africa, and it's also a base metal project. What made you put some money into something so different?
DB: It's a good question. A few people were surprised about it. It's worth explaining our thinking. What is Hummingbird? People want to say we're a West African gold company. I would say we are an ambitious mining company that wants to be a lower cost-quartile, cash-generative, profitable, well-managed, mining company. We want to be able to exploit opportunity where we find it. Liberia was an opportunity; we found that gold from scratch, Mali was an opportunity from our relationships, what's next for Hummingbird, it could go in lots of different directions. As a team, we've been screening literally hundreds of projects around the world, and there's a lot of different criteria on which a project can succeed or fail.
If we go off-piste, out of gold and out of West Africa, the rationale for doing so would have to be exponentially better, and the further afield you get from that, in any discipline, be that the metal or the geography or the complexity of the project, the terms would have to be materially better. Idaho, lead-zinc-silver ... I accept it's very different to what we are doing in West Africa. That said, if the terms are exceptional, we've got to look at it.
We have done some preliminary due diligence, and in terms of our financial discipline and all the returns and ability to execute, it was worth a second look. That second look takes a lot of time, and there's going to be a lot of detailed due diligence, and that would not have been possible had we not given Bunker Hill this convertible loan because it would have gone bankrupt, and then the whole thing would have unravelled.
For us, this is not so much an investment as an opportunity to lock down that opportunity should it pass that due dilligence. It's abso no way a commitment to get involved in Bunker Hill and build it.
MJ: Now the mine's up-and-running, can you give me a highlight and lowlight of the Yanfolila development process?
DB: There were lots of different individual challenges. Probably the specific one I'd highlight is the day I was told the mill, which was ahead of schedule, had been demurred in Abidjan, and [we] went down to get it and it wasn't there. We had the paperwork saying it had landed, and it wasn't there. There'd been a cyber-attack with lots of companies affected, and Maersk had had a big cyber-attack and lost lots of freight. Their system had told us the mill had been delivered, [but] it was still on the boat, and we didn't know where it was. It was lost in amongst tens of thousands of containers all around the world.
Through our relationships in the team, we knew someone who knew someone, and this thing turned up in the port in Angola. That was a bad couple of days.
The intensity of the situation probably brings about the highlight, which is the team. Everyone says it's a challenge to go from exploration into construction, then operations, and I totally agree with that. I think the highlight is overcoming that challenge and the team we built during that process and for that process.
MJ: In May, three people were killed by the Malian National Guard on the Komana West site at Yanfolila. The statement at the time didn't have a lot of detail around why things had turned, and then ultimately why people were shot. Can you fill in the details there?
DB: It's the worst day of my professional career, without a doubt. It was a horrendous event.
To be clear, it wasn't the community, it was an isolated group of people within the community. It was a very depressing event from our point of view because ever since we inherited the project from Gold Fields, a massive priority for us has been the community and environmental issues and all the projects we are developing in the community. Speak to the government of Mali, and they will tell you Hummingbird is years ahead of where any other mining company or peer company has been at this stage of development. It was a massively depressing event.
What happened is as we mobilised to pre-strip Komana West, the second pit, which was a well-communicated date, it had been communicated for probably two years beforehand. The artisanal miners in that area would have had to be demobilised by that date. Right up until the day before, there was no anticipation of any issues. Everyone knew this was happening. Most of the artisanals had already demobilised, and it was as per the community engagement plans we had.
In the morning, we mobilised to start pre-stripping the Komana West pit, and there were a few artisanal miners who were still there, who objected, and I wasn't there at the time, the national guard were managing and overseeing the eviction, but the official reports are that the artisanals protested and opened fire on the national guard, and the national guard returned fire. In that, three people were killed, and I think a number of others were injured. It was a horrendous event.
Obviously [this led to] a complete rethink on how this happened out of the blue, our communication, our intelligence. I would say two months on, our engagement with the community is better, there's been massive support from the surrounding communities and the community at large for Hummingbird, or the local company which is known as SMK, and this was absolutely an isolated group of illegal, artisanal miners.
That said, there is no situation that should ever come to the point where people get shot, so even though it was the national guard, and not directly reporting to Hummingbird, it's on our licence area, it's because of the activity we're doing, and we as the owners of that project have to take responsibility for it and all we can do is engage more and step up our level of community activity.
MJ: You've been in the resources game for a while now, are there any projects you'd like to have another crack at?
DB: Not specific projects. There are places I've been where I think it would be fantastic to work.
When I first turned up in Liberia, there was a lot more opportunity there than I realised. I think the projects that would have been available to get involved in at the time were largely iron ore projects, and the more I start to learn about the industry, I don't think those are projects for me, really. In a way, that's probably a good swerve. Ignorance is bliss. I'd love to do some more work in South America, I think Peru's got some amazing mineral endowments, and amazing people, and amazing place to work.
MJ: You founded the company with your dad [Hummingbird non-executive director Stephen Betts]. How do you find working with him?
He's fantastic. He couldn't be more supportive. He's a sage old hand, he's seen a lot of it all before. He's not a miner per se, but he's been a businessman all his life in the gold industry.
In our board meetings he's often the voice of reason, and sometimes boards can get carried away with red herrings and issues and not focusing on the core values of the business, which ultimately are the people and wellbeing of your people. He's great, he always brings it back to reality. I know he's totally supportive. Ultimately, the old family business has been going since 1760, I suppose we've grown up in a business environment and always working together as a family. It's totally natural as far as I'm concerned.

[fsjamescampbell] 02/8/2018 15:08

Cannacord and Mirabaud value HUM at 52p and 50p respectively (i have read the reports that prove it)! So Lurker5 reckons the "savvy" investors know when to take profit......true and i would equally say that the "savvy" investor also knows when he is on to a winner as the weak sell to appease their bed wetting fears, i remain strong and remain collecting additional shares............another 20k shares today and i will continue to do so if we see 25p and 23p and so on! I would say with broker notes valuing 52p and 50p who are industry and financial experts that these are the voices of real reason and knowledge! The bears are in control and whether this has been a well orchestrated plan to continue to pressurise the share price to breaking point so that larger players can buy in at a lower level, well thats the game we are involved in. Rest assured as HUM continue to reach milestone targets and hit gold production figures, this wonderful investment will grow and grow and grow!

TO PUT TO BED ANY TALK OF BEING PAID TO WRITE REPORTS AND TWEETS I CAN CATEGORICALLY SAY THAT I TWEET AND WRITE REPORTS THAT ARE 100% TRUE AND FACTUAL! THEY ARE WRITTEN IN A POSITIVE AND UPBEAT MANNER WHICH REFLECTS MY PERSONAL FEELINGS ABOUT HUM AND THEIR STRATEGIES, ASSETS AND EXPERTISE IN DELIVERING. I WILL CONTINUE TO WRITE REPORTS AND TWEETS AS LONG AS THIS REMAINS THE CASE, ALL IN MY OWN TIME AND EXPENSE, READ THEM, DON'T READ THEM, THAT'S THE BEAUTY OF THE WORLD WE LIVE IN, WE ALL HAVE THIS CHOICE! THE REPORT FROM THE MALI TRIP IN MARCH WAS OVER 70 PAGES WITH DIAGRAMS AND PHOTOGRAPHS, IT TOOK AROUND 30 HOURS TO PREPARE. I BILL £80 AN HOUR AS AN ARCHITECT SO THAT LOVELY REPORT COST ME £2400 IN TIME TO PREPARE. BUT I ABSOLUTELY LOVED PUTTING IT TOGETHER, AN EXACT ACCOUNT OF THE TRIP IN ORDER OF ITINERARY, FIRST HAND, WITH FINE DETAIL AND COLOUR ON THE OPERATIONS AND ELEMENTS OF THE PROCESS THAT THE MAN ON THE STREET CAN READ, UNDERSTAND AND DIGEST FOR HIS OR HER BENEFIT!

These are testing times for sure, question his who has the balls to follow this through, to hold strong to the fundamentals and operational success that HUM continue to reach time after time after time. Hold and increase and be in a position to benefit from the current drifts and drops we are experiencing. The destination is a golden future but to get there we may have to walk through hard times, fear and weakness............I HAVE CONFIDENCE KNOWING THE TEAM, THE ASSETS THE DRIVE AND THE SUCCESS TO DATE THAT HUM HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BE KNOCKING ON THE DOOR TO BEING A MID / TOP TIER MINING COMPANY IN THE YEARS TO COME! BT, DIANEC, LURKER, PERRYSTALSIS AND ALL THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE LUNATIC CONVENTION WILL BE LONG LONG GONE AND NO DOUBT KNOCKING OTHER STOCKS TO TRY AND GET THEIR WEEKEND COKE FIX FUNDS SECURED!

£2400 crikey.....i reckon i need to do an invoice for Dan Betts for that one!

[bookwormrobert] 02/8/2018 15:07

Qualifications? I have rather a lot, I'm afraid, Lurker. (Those in the Twitter group know my day job).
Frankly, your posts read like a disgruntled ex-employee, perhaps of the unlamented Beaufort itself. Am I right?
I've got no problems with people posting bearish comments on Hummingbird, even straightforward ignorant idiotic ones like DianeCarberry. But people pretending to expertise they clearly don't possess gets on my t*ts. It's a weakness, I suppose. But I've fired dozens of people like you in my time.

[zeberdie] 02/8/2018 15:06

Q&A: Hummingbird CEO reflects on first mine build
Hummingbird Resources CEO Dan Betts is now a gold miner. He graduated from developer by building Yanfolila in Mali, which produced 33,100 ounces of gold in the June quarter.

Dan doesn't bet: the Hummingbird CEO says the swerve to investing in the Bunker Hill base metal project made good financial sense
• Exploration / Development > Leadership
• 01 August 2018
• Comments
• Share
Alex Hamer

Hummingbird has recently also looked outside West Africa, with a US$1.5 million convertible loan to zinc-lead-silver developer Bunker Hill Mining, which has a project in the US state of Idaho.
Mining Journal: Yanfolila has had its first full quarter after ramp up, but you're not out of the development zone yet as Dugbe in Liberia is still in the permitting stage. Does it feel different as a developer in Liberia now that you've actually built a mine?
Dan Betts: They're pretty unconnected, to be honest. That said, if we were to build the Dugbe mine in Liberia, I would go at it with a lot more confidence, having done it before. There are differences; different geography, different terrain, different politics, but in terms of the physical nature of building a mine, the main bit is the logistics and the team building and the execution, I think we'd be in a much stronger position to deliver that project now.
MJ: Looking at an investment Hummingbird has made recently, Idaho is quite different to West Africa, and it's also a base metal project. What made you put some money into something so different?
DB: It's a good question. A few people were surprised about it. It's worth explaining our thinking. What is Hummingbird? People want to say we're a West African gold company. I would say we are an ambitious mining company that wants to be a lower cost-quartile, cash-generative, profitable, well-managed, mining company. We want to be able to exploit opportunity where we find it. Liberia was an opportunity; we found that gold from scratch, Mali was an opportunity from our relationships, what's next for Hummingbird, it could go in lots of different directions. As a team, we've been screening literally hundreds of projects around the world, and there's a lot of different criteria on which a project can succeed or fail.
If we go off-piste, out of gold and out of West Africa, the rationale for doing so would have to be exponentially better, and the further afield you get from that, in any discipline, be that the metal or the geography or the complexity of the project, the terms would have to be materially better. Idaho, lead-zinc-silver ... I accept it's very different to what we are doing in West Africa. That said, if the terms are exceptional, we've got to look at it.
We have done some preliminary due diligence, and in terms of our financial discipline and all the returns and ability to execute, it was worth a second look. That second look takes a lot of time, and there's going to be a lot of detailed due diligence, and that would not have been possible had we not given Bunker Hill this convertible loan because it would have gone bankrupt, and then the whole thing would have unravelled.
For us, this is not so much an investment as an opportunity to lock down that opportunity should it pass that due dilligence. It's abso no way a commitment to get involved in Bunker Hill and build it.
MJ: Now the mine's up-and-running, can you give me a highlight and lowlight of the Yanfolila development process?
DB: There were lots of different individual challenges. Probably the specific one I'd highlight is the day I was told the mill, which was ahead of schedule, had been demurred in Abidjan, and [we] went down to get it and it wasn't there. We had the paperwork saying it had landed, and it wasn't there. There'd been a cyber-attack with lots of companies affected, and Maersk had had a big cyber-attack and lost lots of freight. Their system had told us the mill had been delivered, [but] it was still on the boat, and we didn't know where it was. It was lost in amongst tens of thousands of containers all around the world.
Through our relationships in the team, we knew someone who knew someone, and this thing turned up in the port in Angola. That was a bad couple of days.
The intensity of the situation probably brings about the highlight, which is the team. Everyone says it's a challenge to go from exploration into construction, then operations, and I totally agree with that. I think the highlight is overcoming that challenge and the team we built during that process and for that process.
MJ: In May, three people were killed by the Malian National Guard on the Komana West site at Yanfolila. The statement at the time didn't have a lot of detail around why things had turned, and then ultimately why people were shot. Can you fill in the details there?
DB: It's the worst day of my professional career, without a doubt. It was a horrendous event.
To be clear, it wasn't the community, it was an isolated group of people within the community. It was a very depressing event from our point of view because ever since we inherited the project from Gold Fields, a massive priority for us has been the community and environmental issues and all the projects we are developing in the community. Speak to the government of Mali, and they will tell you Hummingbird is years ahead of where any other mining company or peer company has been at this stage of development. It was a massively depressing event.
What happened is as we mobilised to pre-strip Komana West, the second pit, which was a well-communicated date, it had been communicated for probably two years beforehand. The artisanal miners in that area would have had to be demobilised by that date. Right up until the day before, there was no anticipation of any issues. Everyone knew this was happening. Most of the artisanals had already demobilised, and it was as per the community engagement plans we had.
In the morning, we mobilised to start pre-stripping the Komana West pit, and there were a few artisanal miners who were still there, who objected, and I wasn't there at the time, the national guard were managing and overseeing the eviction, but the official reports are that the artisanals protested and opened fire on the national guard, and the national guard returned fire. In that, three people were killed, and I think a number of others were injured. It was a horrendous event.
Obviously [this led to] a complete rethink on how this happened out of the blue, our communication, our intelligence. I would say two months on, our engagement with the community is better, there's been massive support from the surrounding communities and the community at large for Hummingbird, or the local company which is known as SMK, and this was absolutely an isolated group of illegal, artisanal miners.
That said, there is no situation that should ever come to the point where people get shot, so even though it was the national guard, and not directly reporting to Hummingbird, it's on our licence area, it's because of the activity we're doing, and we as the owners of that project have to take responsibility for it and all we can do is engage more and step up our level of community activity.
MJ: You've been in the resources game for a while now, are there any projects you'd like to have another crack at?
DB: Not specific projects. There are places I've been where I think it would be fantastic to work.
When I first turned up in Liberia, there was a lot more opportunity there than I realised. I think the projects that would have been available to get involved in at the time were largely iron ore projects, and the more I start to learn about the industry, I don't think those are projects for me, really. In a way, that's probably a good swerve. Ignorance is bliss. I'd love to do some more work in South America, I think Peru's got some amazing mineral endowments, and amazing people, and amazing place to work.
MJ: You founded the company with your dad [Hummingbird non-executive director Stephen Betts]. How do you find working with him?
He's fantastic. He couldn't be more supportive. He's a sage old hand, he's seen a lot of it all before. He's not a miner per se, but he's been a businessman all his life in the gold industry.
In our board meetings he's often the voice of reason, and sometimes boards can get carried away with red herrings and issues and not focusing on the core values of the business, which ultimately are the people and wellbeing of your people. He's great, he always brings it back to reality. I know he's totally supportive. Ultimately, the old family business has been going since 1760, I suppose we've grown up in a business environment and always working together as a family. It's totally natural as far as I'm concerned.

[lurker5] 02/8/2018 14:47

Mr Bookworm ! What qualifications do you have ?

[muffster] 02/8/2018 14:31

Good point.

[darola] 02/8/2018 14:29

So can’t buy any. But can sell shed loads - ummmm, drop not manufactured at all then!

[dianecarberry] 02/8/2018 14:23

M&G record at stock picking is not the best to be honest.

They are essentially guessers.

[darola] 02/8/2018 14:19

I mean, why would M&G investments buy over 10m shares in the last few months if this was such a dog - absolutely clueless.

[darola] 02/8/2018 14:17

Lurker5. Another clueless deramper with no affinity for the facts and fundementals.

Filtered!

[bookwormrobert] 02/8/2018 13:40

Lurker - I've read your 2758 post - absolute garbage.
Why are you pretending to be what you are very clearly not, a financial analyst?

[lurker5] 02/8/2018 13:21

Beaufort was a serial and dodgy ramper of Hum before its unlamented and deserved demise (although the same dodgy analyst with his same dodgy 'target' price has moved on to you-know-where - see my 2758 post as above for explanation just how dodgy) So, yes, no doubt some of its mugs are still going through their de-mugging process. But I doubt that's the reason savvy investors are staying away. Its far more the fundamentals which are way different from the 'stonking' ones FSJ and his ilk believe in, but which they're incapable of working out.

[simoore89] 02/8/2018 12:58

Posted on #HUM Twitter earlier https://www.mining-journal.com/leadership/news/1343715/q-hummingbird-ceo-reflects-on-first-mine-build

[bookwormrobert] 02/8/2018 12:57

Hi Plasbryn!
I'd love to know the answer to your question as well. Beaufort had 15,000 clients, and they pushed their "own" shares to their clients very hard. How much of the current share price drop is due to these shareholdings being liquidated by Price Waterhouse (who don't care at all what price they get)?