RE:Hmmmm, some M&A Experience on the BofDMy bad for lack of info - Anna Banana got her first 100,000 options the day before the NR, but they didn't file with the traffic cops until Aug. 5. Must be priced in the high 30 cents range I'm supposing.
There are about 800,000 or so left in the pot for issuance, but our legal beagle has her first tranche of ugly $2-plus expiring in September, then in the last week of November a whack of $2.86 options in the hands of the directors will expire - more than 600,000 or so if memory of the AGM proxy circular serves. So they will have about a million and a half begging for issuance before anything too grand might ruin an opportunity to get them out the door at prices pleasing to the Black-scholes calculator.
Since RioT says they aren't finalizing their underground financing and plans until the end of the year ... Expect some thumb twiddling pending December perhaps, when the bulk of cheapie options will pop up. Maybe then presto very encouraging results from re-visiting the long ignored shallow gold results over on the Eastern flank of the JV ground. Doc Panteleyev said some poking about there might be rewarding ... back in 2003. He was probably shaking to 50 Cent 'in da club' back then. Groggy Greggy might have noted, as the years have evaporated since those heady days, the irony of that heavily anticipated debut album being named "Get Rich or Die Trying".
We have been told in the annual information forms and quarterly updates there ain't no drills turning anywhere pending better political and financial weather. The Yerington update to come will flop onto a cold pan and just sit there given the current state of the junior copper universe. RioT has said they will revisit some datasets at OT for shallow targets and might poke a hole or two - maybe that is a little hint there is reason to take ETG out of the JV for a meaningful reward justified by a very promising new open pit or two to be added to the downstream decision tree, perhaps even bumping Heruga. Up north at Ulan Khud there is still a question mark or two, and Westward in what was once the Eagle anomaly and Might have had Zeus and Falcon rubbing their eyes.
But back to that option string .... If there are a few bucks a share of miraculous good news then better wait for Santa season once our fearless leaders have their little paper duckies all in alignment with their shareholders' interests.
In the meantime, consider whether the DP has the muscle to conclude an OTLLC deal with ETG making any IA moot as the TRQ 2009 deal will absorb anything ETG is throwing into an OTLLC pot ... Hopefully for some breathtaking compensation in relation to the current, pathetic level to which management has hoisted, or maybe one should observe, lowered, a marker cap that once stood up towards dizzying heights in the $3 days back in early 2012.
His Gregness may have been a little hasty, as he had been about that intersection of the top of a 700m extension of the HNE ore body, when through rosy spectacles he had this love note for us:
Greg Crowe, President and CEO commented, "Looking back, 2011 was really about laying a strong foundation for the future of Entre Gold. Significant advances have been made to both of our key assets. In Mongolia, our joint venture partner Oyu Tolgoi LLC (“OTLLC”) and project manager Rio Tinto are nearing 75% completion on the construction of the Oyu Tolgoi mining complex. The initial phases of the Oyu Tolgoi mining complex include a portion of the joint venture’s Hugo North Extension deposit. Initial production from OTLLC’s open pit deposits is scheduled to commence in the second half of 2012. Underground work continues at a fast pace with first commercial production from OTLLC’s Hugo North deposit expected in 2015. Entre expects first development production from the joint venture’s Hugo North Extension deposit that same year.”
Updated information on the reserve case production schedules was provided in a technical report to be filed by Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (“Ivanhoe Mines”) on March 30, 2012. Today Entre filed a separate NI 43-101 compliant technical report, which discusses the impact of the updated mine plan on the joint venture property as well as future development options for the considerable joint venture assets.
Greg Crowe further noted, “In addition to the advancements related to our Mongolian assets, we recently announced a substantial upgrade and expansion of resources for the Ann Mason Project in Nevada, which is fast becoming one of the leading undeveloped copper projects in North America. This latest resource estimate converts 75% of the previously estimated inferred resources into the indicated category using a 0.3% copper cut-off. We are now preparing a preliminary economic assessment for Ann Mason, which is expected in the second half of 2012.”
Oh dear, how the bloom faded on those roses when a mere seven months later our Mongolian friends had managed to throw a massive, market cap destroying wrench into the works, and our share price was declining faster than The Hermanator at Kitzbuhl.
This is not the sound of a happy camper sitting on a whack of $2.86 options in October 2012:
Greg Crowe, President and CEO stated, "We are very disappointed in the recent decline in Entre’s share price, and feel this does not reflect the underlying value of either of our two main projects. We are not aware of any material undisclosed information that may be contributing to the market activity, and are attributing it largely to the current political uncertainty in Mongolia.”
Despite recent assurances from the Mongolian Foreign Minister that the government would not seek to re-open the Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement, on October 15, 2012, Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. (“Turquoise Hill”) advised that the Mongolian Minister of Mines had requested the parties renegotiate the landmark agreement. Rio Tinto, Turquoise Hill and Oyu Tolgoi LLC have rejected the request, stating that the Investment Agreement provides a stable legal framework and is a legally-binding document.
On October 9, 2012, Turquoise Hill provided an update which confirmed that Phase 1 construction at Oyu Tolgoi is essentially complete, and negotiations on a power purchase agreement with Chinese authorities are actively progressing. First ore is expected to be processed through the concentrator within six weeks of conclusion of the power agreement.
Greg Crowe commented, “Rio Tinto and Turquoise Hill Resources have committed over $6 billion to developing the Oyu Tolgoi project, which is transforming the Mongolian economy along with creating thousands of skilled jobs for Mongolians. Turquoise Hill still anticipates underground production at Oyu Tolgoi to commence in 2016. The joint venture’s Hugo North Extension deposit is a key component of the first lift of that underground production. In the meantime, our technical team is finalizing a Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) for our 100% owned Ann Mason deposit in Nevada. When released, these results will better quantify the scope and worth of the project and provide a road map to further advance this major asset.”
The Company feels it is important at this time to reiterate its project highlights."
Thunk and down we went to the tragic, yet in many was fortuitous depths of the past winter when some clever punter picked up, if you can believe it, 18 cent shares while the main assets remained not only fundamentally unchanged, but enhanced not only by a whack of Sandstorm cash (in return for some dilution and a grind on the metals stream to be sure), but by significant progress on the capex and commissioning of OT.
Now a very good chance a further $5 billion or so to be sunk in partial reliance on resources owned 20% or 30% by our battered little ETG. Forget trying to prognosticate Chinese progress or copper futures ... Although their Alcan deal made them look a little clumsy, the brain trust at RioT is saying OT is a future cornerstone if not flagship asset in their copper/gold/moly portfolio.
There was a time when OT was the ONLY game that ETG was cashed-up for something. We never found out what.
So just hang tight and patient. You will be rewarded, unless the end of industrial civilization as we know it is coming to some climactic disaster in the meantime.
In the words of that depressive friendless money maker extraordinaire, Jesse Livermore, before he put a bullet through his noggin: "be right, sit tight."
cg Fmcdh & Utcchtr!
happy holidays summer campers