I would say the silent half of us here see the reality and are able to temper the optimism on this board with our own assessments. Maurizio is a HUUGE leadership improvement but I do think he is over optimistic as well. Lord knows he’s got to be sweating it financially right now. I don’t see a material way forward without some form of dilution. It is what it is.
But I like monitoring the progress, albeit slow.
Meanwhile, shares in drawer, making more popcorn …D
Amazing how dragging up an ancient squabble can shut down all the dialogue, apology be damned.
Shouldn’t we be getting some Enami numbers by now?
Shouldn’t we be buying jumbo drills and more trucks and hiring more mining crews and making money?
Or perhaps we are gonna sit around and contemplate a flotation plant and how we can’t afford one for 8-12 months before anything productive occurs.
Sorry, but its difficult to be optimistic or patient any longer. Just look at Trader Rich. If we have arrived like BB is shouting ad nauseum, why is someone who has 7 figures exiting. At the very least that should tell you something about this current management team’s ability to instill confidence. The time for exclusively comparing them only to the old corrupt guard has expired.
I’ll say it again, if this is a legit world class find and the assays confirming historical production is equivalent to a measured resource, then what is the issue? We should have our pick of the litter of suitors to kick this thing into high gear. All this talk about all the difficult work and risk has been completed without dilution and how MC gambled and won, well when are we gonna feel like we won? Because someone just exited a once 7 figure position not feeling at all like a winner. It says an awful lot that someone like TR who has all the reason to see it through can’t even stomach any more of it.
I challenge this management team to start getting very descriptive about forecasts and tangible outcomes and execute without missing timelines.
I guess you’re going to have to wait until the October update to see what the next step is.
Well, there it is! Similar to the way you cut down others and twist their words, now you do the same to me. You interject and assume things I’ve said (or never said) so well, you’ve been promoted to poster boy for that old ass-u-me phrase. 
As far as your comment about BB and what you assume I believe, you ignore how often he writes a disclaimer note as he shares his ‘opinions.’ He does not present his opinions as fact. However, he has cited many facts in his DD, combined with his knowledge of geology & mining, to share important info that most here appreciate reading. I don’t know if his DD will point to the promised land or not, but much of what he says makes sense. Not that your posts aren’t appreciated too, but yours often come with growling and bared teeth about someone. 
You know it’s true. By the way, didn’t I just recently post that your suspicions about Les Price turned out to be right after all, way back then?
I’m fully aware of what has or hasn’t been done with either MDMN or AUMC. And yes, there are holes that have not been accounted for as of yet. But naysayers here are doing plenty of their own assumptions & guesses to fill in those voids. Is that supposed to be more reliable somehow?
The past is the past, I’m over it. Aren’t you? 
I, for one, am looking forward to the fact that AUMC has a lot going for it, despite the setbacks and lack of transparency. I’ve been disappointed too, but I also know that MC has s-l-o-w-l-y been meandering in the right direction. I’ve read your posts about how this investment has been dramatically decreasing for the past “7 years.” We can all see that, no doubt. But not every setback has been MC’s fault.
The fact we’ve had no dillution of our investment is a positive. MC has made significant progress in some areas. Not so much in others. Just because he’s not doing it the way you think it should be done doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a vision. We’ll see what happens from here. But as I said before, I’m looking at the glass half full. I’m so sorry that you nearly drank yours up. 
Just for the record: TR had his reasons for selling his MDMN shares over a period of 4 months. He didn’t say he sold his shares of AUMC. His reasons (below) make sense in his particular case. He regrets that he didn’t protect his capital.
FWIW, Auryn has just recently commenced production. Progress is progress. We aren’t going backward.
Yes, for the sake of clarity, if my cost basis was as low as .04 or lower I probably would have held my MDMN shares. When, back in I think 2012 when the stock ran to .19 and all here were in uber hype mode over the prospects of I think the Ulander deal, instead of holding a several million share position with around an .05/.06 basis and selling half for 50% or better profit and being content to hold the rest, I kept buying. Then I had a couple more opportunities to lighten up for some profit and did nothing… and then eventually watched the stock slide all the way here. If I had fewer shares and a lower basis I could have doubled up my position down here relatively cheaply and significantly lowered my basis, giving the AUMC dividend shares a better chance of lowering the cost basis of my current shares which are over $5. But my stupidity squashed all of that, so after so many years with what currently looks like a very slim chance for the stock to do well enough for me to get much of a return, I opted to unload my MDMN for about 22k and change, eat the loss, appreciate the lessons and move on. If I had done just a couple smart things during all that time I would have made a nice profit here and would be sitting on free shares that I’d be content to let sit into perpetuity, but no dice. As I said before, I do hold around 65k AUMC shares that I have no intention of selling unless it gets the kind of volume that will allow me to do so without hurting the share price. I’m not a billionaire or anything but I have a comfortable life and the few that have visited me know I live quite like a minimalist, so the loss hurts but life goes on and I’ll be fine.
For any of you folks that are interested, I started a new thread here. Check it out and participate if you feel so inclined. Maybe we can help each other make some money with other investments/trades since we’re here anyway.
I read TradeRich’s comments the other day about selling his Medinah shares at 1% of the value he paid for them, after going through what he and the rest of us have gone through. That was hard to read. I understand that you have to do what you have to do, but I hope nobody else is going through what he must have been going through in order to make that decision AT THIS PARTICULAR MOMENT IN TIME WHEN EXTREMELY HIGH-GRADE PRODUCTION IS FINALLY COMMENCING AFTER ALL OF THESE YEARS.
Placing a VALUE on the ADL Mining District has always been a difficult task. What we do know to be a FACT, is that Maurizio and his colleagues, the “smart money”, were buying shares of Medinah several years ago, at 100-times the current Medinah share price of $0.0009. When you factor in the Les Price situation, let’s round that down to 50-times the current price. From a mining industry point of view, what has happened to the VALUE of the ADL Mining District since then? It has gone up markedly as accomplishments, like intersecting the DL2 Vein and partially VALIDATING the stellar historical shipping grades, have taken place.
Auryn now has a completed PRODUCTION ADIT to transfer the extremely high-grade ore from the belly of the mountain to the plateau surface. The “gallery” was recently completed as was the “ventilation/safety egress chimney” linking level 3 to the “old workings”. This provided SCALABILITY as Auryn can now simultaneously mine from level 3 as well from several different underlying sub levels in a safe fashion. It also provided OPTIONALITY, in that Auryn can now focus their exploitation efforts on the levels with the greatest vein widths and highest vein grades. SERNAGEOMIN recently signed off on the new ventilation/safety egress systems. This allowed Enami to receive regular shipments/consignments of DL2 Vein ore.
The recently completed “COMPREHENSIVE METALLURGICAL ANALYSIS” identified “flotation” as being the most effective methodology to “beneficiate/concentrate” the ore. A shipment made to Codelco/Enami’s DIRECT SMELTING FACILITY revealed excellent recovery results including 57 gpt gold, 970 gpt silver and 3.3% copper. A lot of VALUE enhancement has occurred since Maurizio was buying Medinah shares at the 9-cent level. At the same time that these improvements were occurring, the share price of both Medinah and Auryn were literally falling off of a cliff. Clearly, either “the market” or Maurizio and colleagues, have/had it wrong. But how can you identify which party had it wrong?
What is the irrefutable ARBITER of VALUE? It’s earnings capacity. We have finally arrived at the MOMENT OF TRUTH. I’ve been criticized for being too positive on the prospects for Auryn and Medinah and too positive on the geology of the ADL Mining District. My approach is very different than that of most mining investors. My time horizons are very long. My share purchases go straight to the “sock drawer”. I’m not a big fan of looking at stock quotes all day long. I’ve been through enough mining deals from start to finish that I have my own approach with these stocks.
I simply list out all of the steps, from A to Z, that a junior explorer is going to need to traverse in order to get into production. For me, the two biggest risk boxes I was able to check off on, in regards to Auryn/Medinah, were the confirmed intersection of the DL2 Vein and the VALIDATION of the historical shipping grades and the recent checking off, by SERNAGEOMIN, of the new “Ventilation/safety egress chimney” directly leading to the important industry concepts of SCALABILITY and OPTIONALITY. Auryn will now be able to mine level 3 at its 2 separate working faces as well as several underlying sub levels which will also have 2 separate working faces per level.
I sense PROGRESS not in share price improvement but in the number of risk boxes I’ve been able to check off on and how many are left to check off on. I add incrementally to my position as the risk boxes get checked off on. Management has to earn my buy orders. I added 4 million Medinah shares with the checking off of each of the 2 risk boxes cited above. I know that I have an ace up my sleeve in that no matter what twists and turns the share price of those shares in the “sock drawer” takes during the journey, I know that once EARNINGS appear, the market will find the proper valuation. That’s when true VISIBILITY presents itself and difficult to understand geological principles no longer matter. Everybody understands EARNINGS.
I’m going to attempt to explain Maurizio’s chosen approach and how critical it is, when this is the approach taken, to keep your eye on the FINISH LINE and what that’s going to look like no matter what today’s share price quote looks like. I’ve referred to the World Gold Council’s statistics dozens of times on this forum. It really, really, really, takes an average of over 24 years for the tiny percentage of successful junior explorers (most often-quoted as 1-in-1,000) to go from the commencement of exploration efforts all of the way into production. These are ULTRA-HIGH RISK MARATHONS. In an industry characterized as one involving the taking of ultra-high risks in search of ultra-high rewards, what do you think is going to happen to that lucky 1-in-1,000 mining corporation that goes into extremely high-grade gold production with only 70 million shares issued and outstanding and the price of gold near all-time-highs? There can be no guarantees, but then again, this is not exactly rocket science. What initially attracted us speculators/investors to this sector was probably the 30- and 40-baggers that we either already participated in or that we read about.
The no frills, ANTI-DILUTION, “bootstrapping” approach, adopted by Maurizio, by definition, is going to lead to a slower pace of development than an approach involving selling shares or ownership percentage points early on, in order to buy fancy equipment like “jumbo” drill rigs.
In essence, there are 2 ways to build a mining company. The way that 98% of companies are FORCED to do it, is to DILUTE the heck out of their share structure early on, before any success is attained, and sell a bunch of shares at ridiculously low-price levels in order to drill out a prospect and have a consulting firm execute “scoping studies” then a “pre-feasibility study” (PFS) and then a “bankable feasibility study” (BFS). That’s just how it’s always been. There usually aren’t any alternatives to this approach.
This is the STANDARD APPROACH taken by almost all junior explorers and developers. It is less than ideal because the price that willing financiers will pay you for your shares, prior to any exploration success, is going to be extremely low because your project has not been DERISKED yet and there’s nothing riskier than bankrolling a junior explorer. Exploration financing is an ultra-high-risk endeavor and willing financiers are going to demand steep discounts to even the existing low share prices. “Private placements” of funds sold to financiers like me, have a hold period during which we purchasers are not allowed to sell our shares. These financiers are going to need to be compensated, via a deep discount to existing share prices, for this lack of liquidity, because a lot of bad things can happen to a young mining company during that hold period.
For a project the size of the DL2 Vein project, the bill attached to this very common STANDARD APPROACH involving formal drill programs and the execution of a variety of studies, is typically somewhere around $30 million and it might take somewhere around 5 years to accomplish. This is simply what you have to do in order to sufficiently DERISK the project in order to attract a major miner with the financial wherewithal and technical expertise needed to advance the project, hopefully all of the way into PRODUCTION. THE MAJORS AND THE FINANCIERS CONTROL THE PLAYING FIELD.
But what if you didn’t need to attract a major miner or outside financier and you could bypass the DILUTION associated with doing what a major or outside financier would FORCE you to do, prior to them being willing to get involved?
Perhaps 2% or so of mining companies can take the IDEAL APPROACH as opposed to the STANDARD APPROACH, but a certain list of “ingredients” need to be present in order to pull this off. First of all, the mining project needs to be an UNDERGROUND VEIN type of project like the DL2 Vein project. This is because an OPEN PIT type of project necessitates a formal drill program and the execution of all of those studies. Why? Firstly, it’s because the drilling is needed to design the optimal open pit design by a process called “kriging”. Secondly, the CAPEX of these projects is often approaching $1 billion and almost all junior explorers need both a major miner and its financial wherewithal as well as the vast amount of technical expertise necessitated to pull it off. Rule #1: VEIN DEPOSITS, where a formal drill program is OPTIONAL and not mandatory, only will qualify for the IDEAL APPROACH.
Besides being a VEIN project, the IDEAL APPROACH necessitates a Maurizio-type figure willing to bankroll the project all of the way until a POSITIVE PRODUCTION DECISION can be made. Advancing the necessary funds while charging zero interest is beyond IDEAL and don’t expect to ever witness this again in your lifetime of making mining investments. For a low-grade deposit, you pretty much have to take the STANDARD APPROACH and do the drilling and execute the studies in order to just arrive at a POSITIVE PRODUCTION DECISION. So, low grade (2-3 gpt gold) deposits WILL NOT QUALIFY FOR THE IDEAL APPROACH because you really need to sharpen your pencil on those projects just to confirm that the project is a “GO”.
The historical shipping grades at the DL2 Vein project were so high that a POSITIVE PRODUCTION DECISION became a no-brainer for Maurizio. Snow White and the 7 dwarfs could mine the DL2 Vein and make a fortune. Maurizio actually provided the funds needed to bring the project all of the way into production and well past the POSITIVE PRODUCTION DECISION stage. This included paying for the drifting of a PRODUCTION ADIT (the Antonino Adit) to the site within the belly of the mountain where the artisanal miners ceased their high-grade mining operation many years ago. The MINE CONSTRUCTION phase started a long time ago.
The historical shipping grades can only be trusted, however, if Auryn were to commence their production efforts IN CLOSE PROXIMITY to where the historical shipping grades were achieved. This is where Auryn decided to commence production at. Let’s recap for a second. The IDEAL APPROACH necessitates 1) A VEIN DEPOSIT, 2) A Maurizio-type figure willing to bankroll operations and 3) a relatively HIGH-GRADE VEIN DEPOSIT (perhaps over 8 to 10 gpt gold). The historical shipping grades of 64 gpt gold is what made the POSITIVE PRODUCTION DECISION possible without a formal drill program and the execution of all of those studies.
THE PRESENCE OF THE ”OLD WORKS” (levels 0,1,and 2) WERE A GODSEND IN REGARDS TO THE AURYN VENTILATION/SAFETY EGRESS SYSTEM
One of the biggest expenses in any underground vein project is the construction of a VENTILATION and SAFETY EGRESS SYSTEM. VENTILATION SYSTEMS usually involve a system of vertical “ventilation raises” and “chimneys”. It is extremely expensive to “go vertical” in underground mining operations. The ventilation systems usually involve 2 large fans. The “intake fan” will bring in fresh air from surface and the “exhaust fan” will drive the blast residue and its toxic gases out to the surface. This system of “raises” and “chimneys” could easily have cost Auryn another $20 million to $30 million or so. Auryn was extremely fortunate in this regard in that the artisanal miners had already constructed 7 vertical shafts, now serving as “ventilation raises”, as well as 5 vertical “chimneys” leading to the plateau surface. Let’s add a #4 to the IDEAL APPROACH list, i.e. an already completed ventilation/safety egress system. This might belong in the “beyond ideal” category. This provides SCALABILITY and the ability to simultaneously mine level 3 and various sub levels. This will “supercharge” any future earnings.
The IDEAL APPROACH would also involve a deposit with not just high grades, but also a NEAR SURFACE deposit (close to fresh air), and a deposit with EARLY PRODUCTION OPPORTUNITIES that could provide significant cash flow and perhaps even act as a catalyst for further development activities. When you have a large mining district like that of the ADL, the cash flow could also strengthen management’s bargaining leverage in developing other deposit types present like that of the Pegaso Nero, the development of which WILL necessitate a formal drill program and execution of those studies mentioned. The PN would admittedly not qualify for the IDEAL APPROACH. Think of the DL2 Vein project not just as a potentially huge money maker, but also as a “catalyst”.
Auryn’s situation fit the bill nicely for taking the IDEAL APPROACH. They didn’t need to drill out the property and execute all of those reports. They had 30 years-worth of historical shipping grades (although only about 2,000 tonnes) from the same area where Auryn is to commence production. That’s what you need i.e. PROXIMITY TO HISTORICAL WORKS WITH WELL-DOCUMENTED SHIPPING GRADES. Auryn didn’t need a “defined resource” (MR/MR) to attract a major miner for its money and expertise, it had Maurizio to fill the gap until EARNINGS could take over in driving developments. Maurizio provided the funds necessary at zero interest rate i.e. no “COST OF CAPITAL”.
Auryn did not need to raise money to pay for a VENTILATION SYSTEM which also provided a safety egress system. Maurizio was able to make a POSITIVE PRODUCTION DECISION without incurring many tens of millions of dollars of cost because the GRADES were so high that the POSITIVE PRODUCTION DECISION became a no-brainer. What Auryn did have to fund was the drifting of a PRODUCTION ADIT in order to access the high-grade ore at the spot where the artisanal miners ceased their mining activities.
What Auryn was able to accomplish was INSANELY RARE. They were able to successfully bypass massive levels of DILUTION in BOTH their share structure and in the percentage ownership of the project. They were not FORCED to sell massive amounts of restricted shares, at ridiculously low prices (because of the RISK), in order to fund drilling and the execution of those studies. They were able to advance straight into production and avoid not only this DILUTION but the number of years needed to execute a formal drill program and execute all of those reports.
Historically, not many mining companies have had all of the “ingredients” needed to take this IDEAL APPROACH. Of the many, many dozens of junior explorers I’ve invested in, this is my first IDEAL APPROACH. Part of the reason that it was an IDEAL APPROACH from the point of view of shareholders is that, along the way, Maurizio shouldered most of the RISK burden. Most juniors spend the majority of their time searching for financiers. It is a very good thing when management owns 60% of the shares of a mining corporation. This way, the financial incentives of the smallest shareholder lines up nicely with those of management and if management had significant financial wherewithal, it would be highly motivated to advance funds for further development without its share position being DILUTED. Notice also what management DIDN’T DO. They didn’t sell themselves ultra-cheap shares in order to fund developments. They did just the opposite, they provided funds without charging interest. In valuing mining assets and mining corporations, I’m always looking for “comps” or “comparable” mining situations. Where in the heck are you going to find one for this situation?
BEING ABLE TO TAKE THE “IDEAL APPROACH” IS BEYOND RARE
Here’s the problem with being able to take the IDEAL APPROACH. It is so rare that many observers will, as if by default, say that without a formal drill program and formally blocked out ounces of “MR/MR”, and without all of those studies, you just can’t have anything of “VALUE”. If you ask them why, the answer might be: “It’s because EVERYBODY does it that way, any you just can’t shortcut the system. It’s always been done that way.” Baloney, EARNINGS CREATE THE MOST DEFINITIVE FORM OF “VALUE” ESTIMATION THERE IS.
That “no MR/MR translates into no VALUE” mentality only lasts until the first dozen or so truckloads of ore have been shipped. After that, it won’t resonate. The people cutting the checks don’t care if you have blocked out ounces of “MR/MR” or a 150-page “Bankable Feasibility Study” in your top desk drawer. Financiers need those things, not the people cutting the checks, and certainly not investors that choose to focus in on EARNING POTENTIAL. Auryn has already gathered most of the information contained in a PFS or BFS. The recently completed “COMPREHENSIVE METALLURGICAL ANALYSIS” performed in Peru added nicely to this accumulation. We now know that “flotation” and “direct smelting” work just fine for the DL2 Vein ore. For those that are big fans of “gravity separation” beneficiation methodologies, there will be plenty of opportunities for deploying that methodology. At the current level of the DL2 Vein, a combination of “flotation” followed by smelting, for the lower grade ore, and DIRECT SMELTING, for the higher grade ore, works the best.
What an investor needs is for SOMEBODY WILLING TO TAKE THE RISK associated with the lack of those drill results and studies. This is where Maurizio stepped in and I would guess that it was the historical shipping grades that allowed him to take that RISK and to arrive at a POSITIVE PRODUCTION DECISION. Once the POSITIVE PRODUCTION DECISION was made by Maurizio, the company commenced the drifting of the Antonino Adit. Keep in mind that the process of drilling out a deposit and performing those studies DOES NOT PUT A PROJECT INTO PRODUCTION, IT ONLY LEADS TO A PRODUCTION DECISION i.e. A “GO” OR A “NO GO”.
After performing the drill program and executing those studies, the junior mining corporation is typically left with a massively diluted share structure and a lesser ownership percentage of the project. The next task then becomes finding a willing financier to fund into production that damaged company with a MASSIVELY DILUTED SHARE STRUCTURE AND A LESSER OWNERSHIP PERCENTAGE OF THE PROJECT. After that occurs, if it occurs, there is not much of the pie left to split up. Ounces in the ground are not ounces in the truck. The markets don’t give a mining firm much credit for “ounces in the ground” any longer. This is because those ounces may never end up in a truck. Would it have been nice if those artisanal miners of the DL2 Vein would have drilled out the entire vein? Sure, it would have been nice but they didn’t. Maurizio rolled the dice and he won.
WHEN TAKING THIS “IDEAL APPROACH”, WHAT DOES THE “FINISH LINE” LOOK LIKE?
For Auryn, the “finish line” might be likened to a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the first truckload of high-grade ore sitting at the top of the North Road aimed down towards the processing facilities. Part of the “ceremony” would be the appending to the back bumper of a metaphorical IDEAL APPROACH “congratulatory bumper sticker”. In the case of being able to take the IDEAL APPROACH, the bumper sticker would read: “This truckload of high-grade ore is owned 100% by Auryn. The proceeds from the sale of this ore will be divided by only 70 million shares in order to calculate the EARNINGS PER SHARE for Auryn and its shareholders. The EPS will then be directly tied to the SHAREHOLDER REWARDS (share price) earned by Auryn’s shareholders.”
For the vast majority of mining companies unable to take this IDEAL APPROACH, their version of the bumper sticker might reference perhaps 470 million shares outstanding instead of 70 million. An owner of 1 million shares of Auryn would theoretically be entitled to one-seventieth (1/70th) of the proceeds resulting from the sale of the ore, in the case of the IDEAL APPROACH versus perhaps one-four hundred and seventieth (1/470th) in the case of the company unable to take the IDEAL APPROACH. If that company had to give up half of its ownership percentage perhaps to a “royalty streamer” in exchange for funds, then that 1/470th figure becomes 1/940th. The IDEAL APPROACH is not for everybody or for every mineral deposit, but if you can pull it off then things could get interesting.
There’s nothing wrong with the STANDARD APPROACH for building a mining company if you don’t have the “ingredients” necessary to take the IDEAL APPROACH and earn that bumper sticker. As the owner of shares of mining majors, I like it when juniors with a significant discovery are FORCED to use the STANDARD APPROACH. When I’m in those shoes, I like it when the shareholders of the juniors shoulder that risk. I doubt that most mining investors even realize that there is a different way to build a mining company than by taking the STANDARD APPROACH.
As investors, our focus, over the last couple of years, probably should have been, put the shares in the “sock drawer”, and concentrate on the progress being made towards achieving that bumper sticker and the reaching that finish line. Because we are investors trying to make a profit, our focus was probably on the share price and “the market”. Can “the market” recognize when a mining company is taking the IDEAL APPROACH? Of course not, that is, not until they see the bumper sticker on that truck rolling down the road and get an appreciation for potential earnings.
Thanks, Breccia!
I needed that…
– madmen
This one won’t age well. For the benefit of all participants here, analysis of a 200lb sample would not be considered a comprehensive mettalurgical analysis. It wouldn’t even be considered. For the record AUMC (CDCH shareholders) and MDMN have already suffered from 90% dilution when Maurizio took over and post LP’s shenanigans. Seventy million shares is indeed a tight float but the new owners hold the vast majority of it.
This statement DIRECTLY from the company is somehow, not suprisingly, ignored:
“Regarding the establishment of a floatation plant, AURYN is considering several options, including raising funds via a private placement.”
Sill waiting:
“We will promptly report financial results from these dispatches.”
Didn’t they say the same thing when they sent a truck down the road several years ago?
BB…party of one.
Did you read every word?
Coming up on the end of Quarter 3, 2023 - we’ll then be due a report from the company.
Was hoping we’d hear something about production by the end of August, but maybe they didn’t do so well? Don’t know.
None of us has a choice but to stick around and see if this thing turns around - selling now for one cent on the dollar is a tough one (feel sorry for Traderich). Thank God we can count on Brecciaboy for some positive spin/explanation - and I think he’s right, when they start cutting checks over there at ENAMI, they don’t first ask about MR/MR, they just write the checks to whomever shows up with the ore. Let’s go!
Interesting that although Mr Goodin is no longer a Mdmn board member but is a Auryn board member that Mdmn (A Nevada Corooration) uses his address and phone number in Indy
This info is on quarterly report located on OTC
Hi Dentman,
Nevada-domiciled “private corporation”, which we refer to as a “publicly-traded corporation”, has to have a “registered office” as per NRS 78.250. Gary was kind enough to allow Medinah to use his law office for that purpose.
Medinah is currently a “holding company”. It’s like a safety deposit box with a little over 16 million Auryn shares in it. There’s a little bit of debt owed but there are no interest charges associated with the debt. The plan for distributing the 16-plus million Auryn shares to the Medinah shareholders in a pro rata fashion haven’t changed to my knowledge. I do think that management could have explained the rationale in a little more detail, however. The plan is for Auryn to first go into production and establish EARNINGS. Then Auryn becomes “fully reporting” to the SEC and starts filing 10-Q’s, 10 K’s and 8-Ks. An 8-K “current report” covers developments that might be construed as “material events”. Then Auryn seeks a loftier trading venue which mandates being “fully reporting” to the SEC. Many institutional investors cannot buy the shares of a “nonreporting issuer”. Investors prefer “AUDITED FINANCIALS” because there are repercussions for cheaters.
Management has already mentioned the possibility of going to the OTCQX or OTCQB. NASDAQ has a variety of listing venues that Auryn might qualify for which are summarized below:
NASDAQ Listing Requirements | Colonial Stock Transfer
My mentors are suggesting that Auryn consider shooting for the NASDAQ GLOBAL MARKET. You need a $4 share price and 400 shareholders. Medinah has over 3,000 shareholders, so that listing requirement should be no problem if done in conjunction with Medinah’s dividending out of their Auryn shares.
One thing I’ve been warned many times is for Auryn to become “fully reporting” prior to Medinah dividending out its 16-plus million Auryn shares. Apparently, it is a much easier process when done in that order. Part of the SEC’s mandate is for the recipients of shares in a dividend distribution, like the Medinah shareholders in this case, to have full and unfettered access to filings like 10-K’s and 10-Q’s (quarterly filings) and audited financials of the company whose shares they are receiving.
A higher listing status for Auryn should conceivably attract more seasoned investors. Some mining majors insist on doing business with only “fully reporting” issuers. If the Auryn share price gets a nice pop from going into production and posting some earnings, then Medinah will have to sell less Auryn shares in order to satisfy its debt obligations. This would result in more dividend shares for all Medinah shareholders. The $4 minimum share price will finally give Auryn management some incentive to do some promoting. Going into production will give them something to promote. I think you might be able to appreciate how important going into production really is for a young mining company like Auryn or Medinah. Prior to this achievement, an Auryn-type mining firm might not pop up on anybody’s radar screen.
As far as share prices go, the 2023 “Average P/E multiple ratios by industry” survey done annually by the Stern College of Business at NYU are now out. The average Current P/E “multiple” for the mining industry went up about 1 point to 32.18 times EARNINGS. This average was calculated from a sampling of 68 mining firms. This means that a mining firm with an “average growth rate” can be expected to trade at about 32-times its “EARNINGS PER SHARE”. A young producer with plenty of SCALABILITY, that can increase the number of working faces it is mining by drifting a “decline spiral” and opening up sub levels in an incremental fashion, is typically going to be awarded a higher than average “multiple”. This is because its PRODUCTION RATES and therefore its EARNINGS are expected to ramp up over time. This, however, may only last for a handful of years, because PRODUCTION RATES as well as EARNINGS are going to tend to plateau out with time. Enjoy it while you can.
A ”Barrick” or Agnico-Eagle”, that cannot match the dynamic growth profile of a young producer with SCALABILITY, is going to trade at a lesser “multiple”. These majors cannot increase their PRODUCTION RATES, perhaps 8-fold, by going from mining 100 working faces to 800 working faces like Auryn can go from mining 1 working face to 8.
These majors cannot increase their PRODUCTION RATES, perhaps another 3-fold, by deploying TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS like “jumbo” drill rigs. Why? Because they have already deployed a fleet of them. The majors need to ACQUIRE dynamic growth profiles, they can’t generate them organically.
What Auryn’s “bootstrapping” approach did was to keep the denominator of the EARNINGS PER SHARE ratio i.e. the number of SHARES outstanding extremely low (70 million). This way, even a moderate level of EARNINGS will result in an outsized EARNINGS PER SHARE ratio. This will then be multiplied by the proper “multiple” to determine appropriate share prices. UNTIL YOU GO INTO PRODUCTION, NONE OF THIS MATTERS IN SOME MARKETS. “Call me when you have EARNINGS”.
Have they determined the share distribution as a dividend? Don’t we have to pay capital gains taxes on a dividend? If so I would rather pay taxes based on prices before they go up!
I don’t think a share dividend is a tax event. My understanding is that your basis for those Auryn shares will be what their value was on the dividend date. You would not pay any tax unless there is a gain when you sell the Auryn shares. But don’t rely on my opinion. All I know about accounting is what I read on the internet.
Dollar cost averaging over a 25 year period with a stock down 99% and progress measured by a tunnel. Brilliant investment strategy. You do indeed have an ace up your sleeve and investors here who have bougtht into this logic will forever be in your debt (or in debt). Please make sure you don’t forget my invitation to your next conference in Omaha.
4 million shares at this price should provide adequate funds to fuel a truck load to Enami. Everything counts.
PREPARING FOR THE NEXT AURYN QUARTERLY UPDATE DUE THE WEEK OF OCTOBER 2-6, 2023
I think we’re all wondering how much Enami is going to charge us for processing our ore. To my knowledge, the best reference we have in this regard is the quarterly update provided by Auryn management dated January 7, 2022 as well as Enami’s monthly “tarifas” (pay rates) published on their website. While Auryn was drifting the Antonino Adit, they intersected about 24 mineralized “structures/veins”. They didn’t pursue any of these very far because they knew that the grades of the DL2 Vein would probably blow away the grades of any of these veins and they were right.
They did, however, take a lot of samples, and sent 48 tonnes of this lower-grade “Antonino Adit ore” to Enami for processing. The grades came back at 16 gpt gold, 47 gpt silver and 5.3% copper. Enami took out their fee and any deductions for impurities, and Auryn and Enami agreed to a “settlement” of 15 gpt gold, 31 gpt silver and 3% copper. Apparently, Enami’s processing facilities did very well at extracting the gold but so-so on the recovery of the silver and copper. Enami cut a check for $36,207 for the 3 truckloads weighing in at a total of 48 tonnes. There is a lot of information packed into these figures.
If you do the math, and calculate the “gold equivalent” grade which factors in the “by product contributions” from the silver and the copper, you come up with a “gold equivalent” grade, for the “Antonino Adit ore” post-settlement, of a little over 16 gpt which is equal to slightly over one-half ounce per tonne since there are 31.1 grams in each Troy ounce of gold. In 48 tonnes of ore grading an average of one-half ounce per tonne, there are approximately 24 ounces of “gold equivalent” present. After Enami took out their fees and subtracted their penalties, they paid $36,207 divided by 24 ounces of “gold equivalent” equals about $1,508 per ounce of “gold equivalent” net.
If that ore from the Antonino Adit, were to average the same grade that the artisanal miners averaged while mining the DL2 Vein ore i.e. 64 gpt gold (about 4-times as much), that check would have been for about $144,000 AFTER ENAMI TOOK OUT THEIR FEES AND PENALTIES. If Auryn were able to average even 31 gpt gold, half of what their artisanal miners counterparts averaged, then that “post-Enami fees” check would have been for about $72,000 for those 3 truckloads or about $24,000 for each of the 3 truckloads of ore. Out of that “post-Enami gross income”, Auryn still has to pay the miners for mining 3 truckloads of ore, crushing it and transporting it to Enami as well as diesel and various other maintenance-related and administrative costs.
Auryn management has been kicking around the PRODUCTION RATE of 40 tonnes per day for quite a while. Originally, they thought they could average that figure from just mining ore from the old works on levels 0,1, and 2. Later they suggested that they couldn’t average 40 tpd figure until after they intersected the DL2 Vein and they could simultaneously mine 2 working faces 24 hours per workday. They made this intersection about 9 months ago. This 40 tpd PRODUCTION RATE would represent 2.5 of those 16-tonne truckloads per day or a check for about $60,000 “post-Enami fees” per workday. Again, this assumes that Auryn can average just half of the grade that the artisanal miners did. Assuming 300 workdays per year, this represents about $18 million in “post Enami fees” pre-tax income out of which other bills need to be paid.
Keep in mind that the “agreed to settlement” for the recent “experimental batch” of ore sent to the DIRECT SMELTING facilities of Enami/Codelco, came back at 57 gpt gold, 978 gpt silver and 3.23% copper. This represents over 60 gpt “gold equivalent” or about 2 ounces per tonne. This is right in line with what the artisanal miners averaged and about 4-times the average grade witnessed in the Antonino Adit.
Don’t expect the ore being shipped to Enami’s flotation facilities (designed for the ore grading 20 gpt gold or less) to be anywhere near 60 gpt gold. We don’t currently know the ratio of trucks heading to the smelter versus those heading to the flotation facility. I think that there is a lot of important information contained in that $36,207 check being paid out by Enami for 48 tonnes of 16 gpt “gold equivalent” grade ore. It give us a nice “benchmark” to use for deciphering further updates.
We need to keep in mind another statistic. The average grade of gold being sent to Enami by the smaller producers in Chile is 4 gpt gold. These miners are still making a profit while using Enami as their processor. Would it not make sense that any miner shipping ore averaging perhaps 8 to 15 times that figure is going to make a handsome income?
At Enami, there are thresholds in place that reward high-grade gold ore over low-grade ore. If you think about it, this makes sense. If a miner’s ore is destined for one of Enami’s heap leach piles, Enami doesn’t want its precious heap leach pads filled with hundreds of millions of tonnes of ore containing a couple of flakes of gold. It has to store those “tailings” somewhere in an environmentally friendly manner pretty much forever.
When reviewing future quarterly updates, my comparative benchmark is a 40 tpd PRODUCTION RATE, averaging a gold equivalent grade of just 31 gpt gold, will net Auryn about $60,000 after Enami takes out their fees and before the miners are paid and the transportation costs are covered. When you do the math on the distances to the 2 processing facilities that will be used by Auryn, one truck can easily make 2 to 3 round trips per day.
As far as Auryn building their own on-site flotation facility, it would depend upon the cost for Engineering, Procurement and Construction (“EPC”) as well as the COST OF CAPITAL. You would need to compute the cost savings from not using Enami’s facilities over the expected life expectancy of the assets and make a GO or NO GO decision. Before Auryn made a commitment to deploy their own flotation facility, I would think they would want to do what is necessary to perhaps quadruple that 40 tpd PRODUCTION RATE through the purchase of a “jumbo” drill and opening up the lower sub levels through the “decline spiral”. Theoretically, they could stockpile the ore destined for a flotation plant on-site and wait for their own facility or just ship it to Enami now.