Looking Back at the Greenstone MineTiming is Key I think it's easy to forget how disliked the mining sector was by the general investment community. We are now just breaking out of a 12 year gold price consolidation period. Now that the price of gold is comfortablly over $2,000 USD / oz (currently hovering around $2,500 USD / oz), there will be a race for many to replenish their mineral reserves. The easiest way to do this is to go out and buy mid/advanced stage assets, in established / friendly geopolitical jurisdictions.
Greenstone Mine I continue to bring up the Greenstone Mine, mainly because it is only 45 km down the road from the Ishkoday. As such, it probably has some similarities when it comes to geology and low cost of mineral extraction and operation. But we can also look at it's past technical reports and learn a thing or two.
Below is a section of the Greenstone Technical Report from 2016.
Note the following phrases:
-Mineral resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.
-Inferred Mineral Resources have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and as to whether they can be mined economically. It cannot be assumed that all or part of the inferred resources will ever be converted to a higher category. Mineral Reources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.
NI 43-101 reports are designed specifically to have very cautionary language. LME's Technical Report is no different.
In 2016, when the Greenstone Technical report was published, the price of gold ranged from about $1,060 - $1,350 USD / oz (down from the highs of late 2011 of $1,900 USD / oz). This same technical report assumes a gold price of $1,625 USD / oz. 2016 was not an ideal time to be developing a new mine. If the price of gold was higher, the Greenstone mine would have been built much faster.
Fast forward to today, gold has been steadily increasing since 2015. Looking back, 2015 was the end of the bear market for gold and the beginning of the current gold super cycle. Cynthia and team have been laying the foundation and fast-tracking the development of the Ishkoday. It's available to whoever wants to make a fair and appropriate offer. The special committee as well as the financial advisor have been moving forward on that front. While Cynthia and the geological team have been continuing to do what always needs to be done, explore the property and drill. Ultimately, as the price of gold increases, so too does the BO price for LME.