RE:sea publicity splurge -- is KSM sale imminent
So if you are Barrick or Newmont, Newcrest, Kinross etc.,. and you are hot to get KSM and TC tied-up, what is the playbook?
You can’t pull a trigger on TC because it can’t be valued and you want the whole property because of the MML tunnel route control. I find it hard to believe even one more season of drilling will scope out PSZ, Konkin and Orpiment well enough to give confidence to the Amigoes on what they have in hand.
You can can pull the trigger on KSM, but would then be putting yourself hostage in part to the auction of TC. What leverage would you have over the winner of that? Perhaps only that you will be the natural financing partner for a JV on (expanded) shared tunnel access and larger mill.
Does Snowfields/Pretium offer an alternate route East? Or do you just sub-in for SEA, and wait on TC and whether you will partner-up with it’s downstream owner, or maybe win the auction of the property? Given the size, a partnership and a joint venture on the tunnel and mill might not be the worst outcome, in which case if you have nowhere else to park your cash in the next two years, why not buy up SEA, accept that you’ll have to wait, and know you have just boosted your reserves and padded your downstream production. That I can see.
At least the KSM price will be a lot more illuminating than the oddball Snowfields transaction,
cg