So, now that you know the terms of the financing you are frustrated and feel like we got screwed. When you knew they were trying to find financing you weren’t interested enough to inquire as to what they were trying to achieve. Once you knew what their goals were YOU could have started an effort to put a deal together.
It’s called initiative!
I don’t think it matters if it was before or after Wizard’s post. Wizard’s word is reliable. But b’s back-channel comments are already reflecting his history of unsupported opinions about the company, as well as his baseless character assasinations of other members here. Even as a non-shareholder, he wants the attention of TMP, keeping a handful of members divided with his stated beliefs … at least until the company officially discloses the factual details. jmho It’s time for him to chit or get off the pot.
Have you tried to buy any AUMC shares lately? The only way you’re gonna get em is likely paying the ask price. Even then, the shares are limited. The rest of the market isn’t reacting because AUMC is still running stealth. Wait until they put out official news.
I am showing initiative even if just by questioning whether this was an inside deal at the cost of the common shareholders. This is pennyland, you can get swindled easily. Everyone feels like they are entilted to more, especially after the shenangigans this investment has already gone through. MC by all accounts seems like a stand up character and I know Kevin vouches for that too. FWIW, even Baldy (resident villian) said he gets no indication after speaking with him that this was an insider deal, if that makes anyone feel better.
I’m simply dialoguing here on whether there could have been a better avenue to raise $4M with a supposed pile of ore that should quickly turn into $4M cash once run through the new circuit.
People like Doc, Kevin, Goodin, just to name a few professional people with a shit ton invested in this that may have been able to offer a cheaper option which would benefit their already sunk cost. Seriously, is this a silly question? Nobody knows who the investment group is yet, so is it possible it is Goodin or the other board members or some other affiliate?
Im ecstatic that this is moving forward but I also don’t want to get behind yet another party and wait 5 years for a dividend.
I’m so very enthused.
Within moments of hearing yesterday’s news, I dug $500 “out from under the sofa cushions” and bought AUMC shares. (I set a limit at the ask of .57 and my order filled instantly at .5325)
After seeing Maurizio and Wizard in action in Las Vegas in 2016, I have simply chosen to believe that they, and the whole stable of international mining experts associated with this project, are doing the very best they can to advance things in the most sensible, equitable, profitable, and sensitive ways they can.
I’m here until the $weet end.
– madmen
Continuing the discussion from Auryn/Medinah - 2024 1st Half General Discussion:
Thanks Wiz.
Any update on whether MDMN goes back to its old market status? Or alternatively should we hear something regarding the share swap?
Well it looks like there’s some bitching about the financing. If you have invested in the gold sector you should know some facts up to this point. All juniors WiLL ISSUE stock for exploration plain and simple un less they believe in Santa Claus. Actually Maurizio is our Santa Claus because he put upfront money instead of issuing shares these past years to get us to where we are and people still bitching.
No matter what it is a good deal because the common shares stay the same and we get funding for production. Juniors would dream of getting financing like this. Let the construction of the floatation plant commence!!
From Dentman 11 days ago (372/447)
Got this response from mdmn re what happened to trading and status of AUMC shares.
Hi Daniel, currently mdmn is trading on the expert market and it will remain there.
The company announced it will allocate AUMC shares sometime ago, that objective has
not changed , thanks,
What the heck is the expert market??
I think we’re all waiting on pins and needles for Brecciaboy to … say something. We’ve been spoiled!
See my last post : Profile - TheRod - The Mining Play
Rod gave the right answer 11 days ago (May 22?).
How is Expert Market different from the Grey Market?
The Grey Market is an opaque market where broker-dealers are not willing or able to publicly quote OTC securities given the lack of investor interest, company information or regulatory compliance.
Unlike the Grey Market – where this is no public quote at all – the Expert Market provides additional price transparency, as it allows for unsolicited quoting.
How are Companies affected by these Changes?
The answer to this depends on the market on which your securities trade. In order to be quoted by broker-dealers on the Pink Market, a company must provide current public disclosure on an ongoing basis. This may include disclosure provided via the SEC’s EDGAR filing system, through a non-U.S. stock exchange or regulator, or to OTC Markets Group directly via our OTCIQ platform. Companies that do not take the necessary steps to make current disclosure available pursuant to the Pink Current or Pink Limited Guidelines may migrate to the Expert Market. Visit the Information for Pink Companies section of our website for further details.
Here’s a link that gives a little more detail.
(Understanding the Expert Market - OTC Markets Blog)
Some of you may have listened to Craig Hemke’s Yearly Wrap Up Report interview titled Eric Sprott on Gold Price in 2024 (Dec 21 2023). Quite interesting view on inflation, naked shorting, interest rates, difficulty funding of early stage mining projects, the precious mining markets and much more. Generally, some unexpected and surprising views on diverse topics. A candid conversation.
So bottom line is that our mdmn shares can’t be traded and Mdmn mgt holds Aumc shares for its ownership. Us mdmn shareholders should have received Aumc shares 2 years ago but still don’t have them.
If we do ever get those shares they can only be traded on expert market.
Perhaps I’m missing something but not feeling to confident at the moment
Hi Mrb,
I’m feeling very good about the new financing while admitting that there are a lot of details yet to be released. I’ve been in a pretty deep “fact checking dive” since the news came out. My biggest concern had (past tense) to do with whether or not Auryn’s common equity share structure (70 million shares issued and outstanding fully diluted) would be adversely affected by this financing or not.
Although I’m pleased to no end with the assets present at the ADL Mining District and the prospects for some serious earnings coming in the not too distant future, it’s the SHARE STRUCTURE that blows me away. By SHARE STRUCTURE, I mean not only having a de minimis amount of shares outstanding while going into production i.e. 70 million shares, but also the fact that about 64% of those shares are semi-restricted from resale due to Rule 144. In my experience, most new producers in this sector have somewhere around 400 million shares outstanding by the time they go into production and 99% of them are “free-trading”. It’s the COMBINATION of the share structure attributes and the merits of the mineral assets that are extremely impressive.
On the PR I saw the sentence: “EQUITY FINANCING”: Additionally, up to $3 million will be provided through an “equity investment arrangement”, which includes a preferred dividend mechanism with dividends capped at $20 million over 5 years”, and I got concerned especially with that term “EQUITY”.
Technically, PREFERRED SHARES, are often treated as a form of “EQUITY OWNERSHIP” because most PREFERRED SHARES have conversion privileges into common shares. Auryn’s class of PREFERREDS, however, are just the opposite, they have NO conversion privileges into COMMON SHARES.
I have since been told by Maurizio, in no uncertain terms, that there are NO common equity shares involved whatsoever in this deal. So, in my mind, those of us focused in on an ultra-tight share structure, dodged a bullet. The funding market for the junior mineral explorers/developers/producers is currently a total trainwreck.
If you can land a funding in this environment, then people will probably take notice and the assumption will be made that the involved project is of merit. The combination of landing a financing in this environment, building an ore processing facility, and going into production seems like a good way for a junior producer to distinguish itself from the other 2,500 or so “juniors” that tend to all look alike.
My relief has to do with the fact that this level 3 of the DL2 Vein represents but a tiny sliver of the assets present at the overall ADL Mining District. If Auryn were to give a financier, let’s say, 10% of the common shares, then they would receive a 10% equity ownership in ALL OF THE VARIOUS ASSETS at the ADL Mining District. The DL2 Mine is by no means the most valuable of Auryn’s assets; it just happens to be the first to be put into production. Maurizio made it clear that there was no way that was going to happen and as we’ve seen all along, Maurizio has been fairly clear in stating that the 70 million share outstanding figure is not likely going anywhere.
IN THESE MARKETS EARNINGS PER SHARE (“EPS”) IS EVERYTHING
The reason I’m so hung up on the number of SHARES outstanding is because I’m totally obsessed with EARNINGS PER SHARE OR “EPS”, wherein the “S” refers to the # of shares outstanding. The obsession with the “EPS” ratio is because the EPS ratio is the only way to GUARANTEE SHAREHOLDER REWARDS for a publicly-traded corporation. In the easy to manipulate OTC markets, you cannot rely on share prices to reflect “fair market value”.
In the case of Medinah, for example, the share price is down 99% during the same timeframe that Auryn corporate developments have been making tremendous progress and Medinah’s 24% stake in Auryn has not changed. There is a total DISCONNECT between the Medinah share price and Auryn’s corporate developments. In fact, Maurizio and his colleagues were buying large blocks of Medinah shares at Medinah share price levels that were 100-TIMES higher (not a misprint) than the recent share price levels of Medinah. This was back when Auryn’s level of corporate development was nowhere near where it is today. Figure that one out. Les’s “activities” were only a part of that discrepancy. CASH DIVIDENDS are extremely honest; if you don’t have the profits, you can’t distribute the cash dividends.
This recent press release by Auryn, as well as Maurizio’s answering of a series of follow up questions, tells me that Maurizio, myself and the new financiers are equally convinced that CASH DIVIDENDS are the way to go. SHAREHOLDER REWARDS will be greatly enhanced by Maurizio’s stellar stewardship of the Auryn share structure in the past. This has represented a combination of Auryn’s “bootstrapping” approach in the past as well as Maurizio’s willingness to advance all of the cash needed to advance the property all of the way into production without charging a penny in interest and without the need to sell one share.
That past “GIFT” will forever be attached to the level of SHAREHOLDER REWARDS to be reaped by all of us. The trick in this business is to not be FORCED into selling boatloads of shares, often at steep discounts to ambient share price levels, in order to fund expensive diamond drill programs that may or may not be successful and may or may not attract a major miner. The same is true in regards to not having to sell loads of shares just to service your monthly burn rate during the inordinately long timeframe it takes for even the most successful junior miners to put a project into production. Auryn shareholders got spared all of that DILUTIONAL DAMAGE.
I would venture a guess that the average number of shares outstanding for a junior producer, on the first day of PRODUCTTION, was north of 400 million shares (versus 70 million shares for Auryn). The result is that all Auryn has to do, from here on out, is TO CREATE A MODERATE LEVEL OF EARNINGS IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE A ROBUST EPS AND THEREFORE ROBUST SHAREHOLDER REWARDS. In my way of thinking, the heavy lifting has already been done. Once into PRODUCTION, the NEED to sell any more shares, markedly decreases. If a source of leverage comes along wherein adding to the outstanding number of shares by 10% results in a doubling of the “enterprise value” of the corporation, then by all means, go for it. That’s not DILUTION, that’s LEVERAGE.
With the grades being mined at the DL2 Mine and the price of gold near all-time highs, and Auryn retaining 100% ownership of all of it assets, I don’t think achieving MODERATE levels of earnings is going to be very difficult. But, there’s still plenty of work to do.
In the current mining industry, a junior miner landing a financing, is the exception and not the norm. There are currently many hundreds of juniors selling shares in a nonstop fashion, just to stay alive while waiting for a financier to appear on a white horse. For many juniors, by the time the white horse arrives, they’ve got so many shares issued and outstanding that by the time they become cash flow positive and can stop selling shares, that it doesn’t really matter. They never will generate robust EARNINGS PER SHARE and be in a position to provide GUARANTEED SHAREHOLDER REWARDS.
WHAT ARE THE REPERCUSSIONS OF AURYN HAVING ITS OWN 100 TONNES PER DAY FROTH FLOTATION PLANT ON SITE?
All of the various individual mineral assets present at the ADL Mining District are going to experience an upwards “bump” in the value of those assets. The other 5 “Main Veins” at the ADL are going to be worth a lot more with an on-site FF plant, and an on-site lab, already in place than without one. Those other 5 “Main Veins” won’t face issues like froth flotation plant PERMITTING RISKS. The FINANCING RISKS will be mitigated if some of the profits from the DL2 Mine get allocated towards the development of these related assets. Assuming similar ore characteristics which is the norm within these “Vein Sets”, the METALLURGICAL work is already done, the froth flotation FLOW SHEET has been designed by the engineers, and the infrastructure is already in place. Once the first domino (the DL2 Mine) has been toppled, the rest are easy. This financing and the construction of the FF plant is reminiscent of that first domino toppling.
The presence of an on-site lab is going to streamline exploration efforts elsewhere at the ADL Mining District. This FF plant project is not just about ENHANCED PRODUCTION. This is a very complicated industry for Main Street investors to get their arms around. Receiving the stamp of approval from mining financiers that know a lot more than we do about what is going on behind the scenes is important. The saying is to follow the “smart money”.
The very structure of the deal, which is extremely atypical, suggests that both sides of the table are convinced that CASH DIVIDENDS are in the not-too-distant future. This means that profits, in excess of those needed to just sustain operations, are presumed to be in the not-too-distant future.
The new financiers will represent yet another party that is not going to want Auryn to spend money on things like diamond drill programs. Recall two statistics from the World Gold Council (WGC). The first is that only about 1-in-1,000 junior mineral explorers will EVER get a mineral prospect into production. The second is that even for that lucky 1-in-1,000 junior miner, it takes an average of about 24 years from the commencement of exploration activities to the first day of production. Mining financiers are well aware of these dismal odds for success FOR THE EXPLORERS. When they loan money to “junior explorers”, yet to defy these terrible odds for success, they have to demand an enormous amount of shares at steep discounts to the current share prices BECAUSE OF THE DISMAL ODDS. With “junior producers” needing money, not to do extremely high-risk diamond drilling, but to build PRODUCTION FACILITIES, things are different. The dismal odds have already been beaten and the inordinate time delays have already been dealt with.
JUST HOW DID AURYN BYPASS ALL OF THIS SHARE DILUTION THAT THE OTHER JUNIORS ARE SUFFERING FROM?
Besides having Maurizio there to advance all of the cash needed to put the project into production, and thereby avoid the sale of shares, Auryn didn’t have to do any expensive diamond drilling. They were able to make a POSITIVE PRODUCTION DECISION without drilling one hole. Why? Because the property had already been in production for 30 years and Auryn simply had to gain access to the site where the prior production effort had ceased via drifting the Antonino Adit. When they got there, they learned that the grades of the DL2 Vein were even higher than the stellar grades that the prior artisanal miners were able to average i.e. an average 64 gpt gold. The new financiers are not financing ultra-high-risk EXPLORATION with dismal odds for success, they’re financing PRODUCTION with clear visibility of how they will be repaid in the near term.
The last thing that a junior that has successfully made it into production and that is generating profits wants to do is to start drilling out other areas on their property only to start that miserable ultra-high-risk EXPLORATION cycle all over again. Once into production, the profits need to either be plowed back into PRODUCTION OPERATIONS in order to increase next year’s profits or they need to be distributed to the stakeholders via CASH DIVIDENDS. If a company like Auryn wants to develop one of their mineral assets out in the “north forty”, they need to do it via a JV strategic alliance and let somebody else pay for the drilling. YOU DON’T WANT TO START THAT UGLY ULTRA-HIGH-RISK CYCLE ONCE AGAIN.
Being that the new financiers are no doubt financially savvy, I have to assume that they pushed pretty firmly for an equity participation involving acquiring Auryn shares. That’s where the fast money and the big money is going to be made. Dividend distributions over the course of 5 years represents SURE MONEY but certainly not FAST MONEY.
What we need to keep in mind is that all of this is happening at a time when the price of gold is near all time highs and everybody and their brother wants exposure to gold and copper assets. Might this help Auryn generate MODERATE earnings? I think so. The timing could be very fortuitous.
Auryn still has a lot of work to do. They need to rapidly get their intra adit production rates up to 100 tpd in order to match the “throughput” of the new FF plant. They need to successfully “tweak” the FLOW SHEET for the new plant in order to address any “refractory ore” issues. It’s one thing to estimate production grades and production rates from studies done on a bench top in a lab. We need to get into production before prognosticating grades and production rates. RECOVERY RATES tend to increase as these adjustments are made. We still need to hear from Dr. Helmut Mischo and his recommendations for putting the entire ADL Mining District into production.
Dentman,
Strategically, that would have made little sense to the eventual success of the company. Bad market timing, certainly disappointing for shareholders, whatever, but financially ruinous for the company moving forward. If you have confidence in the company ongoing and making progress towards it’s stated goal, you can certainly buy AUMC on the open market. MDMN shares are illiquid and not for speculative day trading purposes and never have been, although they’ve been available for purchase (and still are) for as many years as the ADL ownership and management have undergone the many changes over the years. MDMN shares are clearly underpriced on the open market, will be directly converted for present shareholders to AUMC when the conversion occurs.
It is my thinking that the company wants to preserve as best as possible those MDMN shares for current shareholders. OK, at this point it is only my conjecture. AUMC’s management has indicated that finally, after all the setbacks and incremental advancements, it is taking all steps necessary to be a profitable producing miner. The decision has been made. MDMN shares will be directly convertible to freetrading AUMC shares to those owning shares on an estimated 200 to 1 basis per shareholder. MDMN shares never went through the reverse conversion that CDCH shares did that represented 5% of the total ownership of the ADL and resulted in freetrading AUMC shares.Some certificate holders have likely entered the market as there are now presently 9,195,353 shares in the float. Those shares are free trading and very tightly held, and therefore, somewhat considerably illiquid also. MDMN shares are primarily placeholders for those shareholders that had a proportionate “ownership by share structure” of the ADL when AUMC was restructured and formed. Management of AUMC has been protective of the share structure during all this time. Considering the impending increased value of AUMC stock once permits and the FF plant are obtained and constructed, why would any current shareholder want that conversion right now?
EZ
Thanks for all that EZ but until we have the Aumc shares, we don’t have them.
Dentman,
I too share your concern as to why they would create what is effectively a ‘locked-in’ situation for MDMN shareholders. I am hoping there is an end-game coming soon via a share transfer, but I am not happy with the information flow, nor how it has been handled! I would love to hear some views on the why of this move to the Expert market, and why no information?
TIA
Not to be insensitive here, but current shareholders have all experienced a great deal of financial hardship and lost opportunities elsewhere by holding these MDMN shares long in our portfolio holdings. I’d like to see AUMC shares rise to a much higher dollar level before MDMN shares are distributed as AUMC shares. Yes, I have a large number of MDMN shares bought at a much higher level than they are trading at today. I am underwater and overweight in my MDMN shares, as is anyone who bought at the .05 level or above and have not averaged down over the years. I have not averaged down. I’m in better shape than most here because I also had a large number of CDCH shares before the conversion. You may call me crazy if you like, because I’m confident these AUMC shares will rise to the $10 level after AUMC demonstrates it can produce from the Don Luis vein with a profit in a shorter time than most here can imagine.
Having a large multimillion number of MDMN converted shares instantly tradable to the existing small AUMC float will inevitably result in a very large decrease in the PPS as impatient shareholders anxiously sell immediately. When my converted shares come onto the market I would very much like to see that very high dollar value of a producing mine reflected in the market. If anyone has a FOMO of missing out on this event when it occurs, Baldy provided everyone with what could mitigate that situation. Buy AUMC shares before they appreciate further with the progression towards permitting, FF plant construction, and the running of ore through the mill. Patience required now more than ever for present shareholders.
EZ
Hello BB!
One thing that became clear to me is we have yet another party to this matter whose interests are aligned with ours. As you so aptly point out, the new financier actually wants dividends as much and as fast as we do! MC put his mind to it and worked us a real miracle!
The throughput of the FF plant being 100 tons per day - that’s also very good information - thanks very much!
Can someone explain to me more about the mdmn conversion to aumc. I understand to approximate 1/200 but where will these will shares come from without hurting the share structure of aumc. I would think there will be a large amount of shares converted. And, why would it be beneficial to MDMN shareholders to had a later conversation once aumc is at a higher cost. - it would still be the same amount of shares or am I just way off?
Sorry for the misspellings- I’m on my iPhone and didn’t go back and check for autocorrections.