This ruling WASN'T a surprise......And it's NOT the FIRST time FM has had "issues" with this mine and this corrupt Gov't. I had warned on here & FM, that it was better for FM to QUICKLY divest themselves of this problematic mine, when these issues started to resurface their ugly heads AGAIN late last year. For this simple reason....... because this would NOT go away no matter how honestly, fairly you deal with useless, corrupt folks like these. And what do you know.? I was proven right once again......as these problems have comeback to bite FM's butt.....AGAIN!!!. I mean seriously, how dense & stupid does FM mgmt have to be not to have seen this coming? The RED FLAGS & signs were there well before this boiled over to this point....
What people & investors like myself have to realize, if you don't already, is the following. These unstable, totally uselss Banana Republics, with NO economy to speak of EXCEPT for constant, massive foreign aid..... ARE..... utter out-of-control dumpsterfires.....and could be ready to explode at any time.....unexepctedly .....like it happened here last year with FM. I mean seriously, what did you expect to happen? Pananma and ALL its Govt's has been sooo currupt for some time now......i mean it's been a MAIN central hub for major drug trafficking across all North America for over 50 years? What did you expect? Fairness? Honesty from these corrupt fools? To me it's still amazing that the Western nations, meaning specifically the US Gov't, are STILL giving these corrupt jackas* massive, generous amounts of money in the form of foreign aid AFTER what they represented themsleves as..... just so they can eat .....
It boggles the mind WHY FM did not just GTHO when they had the chance to do so since 2017/2018. Sure the mine is extemely profitable, and sure it MIGHT be worth all the headaches & hassels....BUT .....when these things keep popping up constanly.....showing their ugly heads.....you just got to wonder when enough is enough? I mean you cannot be in constant legal fights or arbitration with these corrupt MF'ers everytime they try to blackmail or shake you down for more money so you can keep what's legal yours and what was "supposedly" negotiated in good faith. Pananma is Panama and that's it! This corrupt state, this corrupt Gov'ts and it's totally useless populace is NEVER gonna change.....It's always been a Banana Republic, IT IS a literal Banana Republic and it will ALWAYS BE a friggen Banana Repubic.
Investor NEED to understand that what's happening here has nothing to do with ANY environmental issues/concerns or protesters or something as laughable as "unconstitutional" contracts. Which the latter, i find completely hilarious as a justification to deny FM that mine, coming from such a corrupt, usless state such as Panama which has been a narco state a loyal proponent of the drug cartels since hte 60's. Pure & simple this is just another SHAKEDOWN of the company because A) they want more money once again OR B) they want the Canadians completely out of there so they can take control of the mine for themselves and either nationalize it or give control of it to someone who's more alligned with their greedy objectives........meaning someone who will give them, the corrupt Govt, a larger slice of that lucrative pie.....
These so called protests & civil unrest were all setup & encouraged by the folks who control Panama and it's Gov't. As they themsleves cannot confront or blackmail FM mgmt directly as they did in the past, because this would be too obivious for even the dumbest of folk, they encouraged THESE protests so they can attain their greedy goals. I mean just look at what FM is paying out in terms of "taxes" or royalities or what i call money bags to tihs corrupt Gov't. the payout went from about ~$50M per annum to ~$500M wit this revised deal, a 10 fold!!!!!!! increase and that STILL wasnt enough......as they want alot more. In my 40 years of investing in this sector and being an investor in the financial markets ........i NEVER heard of any miner EVER paying such ludicruous, copious amounts of money either in taxes or royalties. THAT number is just insane as far as i'm concerned or as industry standards go.
So where do we go from here, now that the ruling from the SC has come down? Well, as the company stated it's off to arbitration courts once again. Hopefully other Western miners will now realize what a total unstable, unreliable shh...."You know what" hole.....Panama is and they will completely avoid ANY investment there. Starving these fools of EVERYTHING even food to eat is the only way to get solid results from people like this.......and hopefully the USA, once Sleepy Crazy Joe and his superwoke cronnies get booted from office and there's NEW admin in place, once that happens ALL foreign aid should be cut to Panama. IF the Panamanian Gov't think they can get away with this or they can pull off something similar to what the Mongolian Gov't did, they have a BIG suprise coming their way.
What about the stock price? Well, first disregard numbnutts like Mr. Sigg who thinks this is going even close to something like $5.......The Panamanian assets & operations have already been fully discounted from stock and i don't see it going much lower. It may experience some selling pressures, for a few days, from nervous investors who are risk averse heading for the exits, but once that boils and things calm down it should settle in this current range until either one of two things happen. One, either the FM "DEALS" with the corrupt Panamanian Gov't appropriately by winning its arbitration case OR Panama eventually gives up their blackmailing tactics. Two, FM gets sold to or mergers with a better, larger operator who can handle & deal with these problematic issues more effeciently and get better results.
My bet is on option two and FM eventually gets sold to either Vale, Rio or Barrick OR merges with someone like Teck. At the INSANE, depressed valuations FM is currently trading at, it would make them a VERY atttractive takeover target IF they beleive they can do a better job dealing with those corrupt Panamians and get better results. Right now with FM barely at a $12B EV, they are just a sitting duck waiting to be taken out by a bigger player....as all the risk from Panama has been removed from the stock price and has been MORE tha fully discounted. My advice? Anyone that has some cash lying around and doesnt know what to do with it or where to invest in, i think you have a great opportunity here lying right infront of you in the form of a decimated FM stock price. A once in lifetime opportunity that VERY rare indeed and where the risk/reward is VERY attractive.You won't get better than this in these markets......
GLTA