OREA in limboSo, it looks like NG lost out on the Cardinal Res’ gold project. Shandong upped its offer to A$1.0. Clearly, NG is on lookout for acquisitions (probably before it comes out as a public company again in a much-improved gold environment), Does this put OREA 45%, as now a must have in the Russian’s sights? One major barrier – the FG permit!
We are still waiting for the NG ESIA report on Montagne d'Or to the French gov’. The issues raised by the FG public debate in 2018 were given to the Russians to take specific account of within their analysis. Was NG waiting for the outcome of their Cardinal offer before moving ahead (or delaying) the Montagne d’Or project? Who knows, but there now appears no reason for any delay (NG has the money) and with gold at $1900 plus, this project only gets more and more valuable.
Should the permit go through there should be a fast reevaluation of this project’s worth to both NG and OREA (again, if my memory serves me correctly the BFS was originally calculated on a gold price around US$12 – 1300). Montagne d’Or would be the prime mover gold project in FG and probably the cutting edge mine for Rainforest mining in the world. What value might such mine construction knowledge be worth by itself to another miner, and there are a lot waiting in the wings in FG alone?
OREA has about 1.25 mill oz., P&P and remember we await the NG infill drill results held under wraps since around March 2018. Not to mention the CGT expansion drill results to factor in which were made just before NG became the mine operator. These indicated gold stretching at least 700 meters at strike beyond the BFS pit limits and further, gold contacted (only 1 drill hole done) around 175 meters below the lowest BFS drilled hole. This is potentially a huge mine but it is worth basically zero to OREA presently.
Should the permit come through, IMHO, there will be big boys (Barrick, Newmont) who want more than just OREA 1.25 plus oz., or mid tiers who would happily partner with NG just to get - mine knowledge, the P&P oz., much more potential production growth and a prime mover foothold in FG (e.g., IAG holds 10.2% of OREA and Sandstorm is out there with their royalty needs 4.2% holding).
Arrival of the ESIA will be a big day for South American gold mining with a large eager readership. Add to this a possible near or producing acquisition that OREA (via its new French investor 11.1%) are actively looking for according to the CEO, and the Maripa project with its series of drill resluts to come, and we have more potential impacting news to drive single company and/or spin off news.
Oh, by the way, in case you haven’t gleaned this, I am a long-time holder so maybe just a little biased. DYODD.