FDR + B2Gold = a whole new ball game?Founders wasted little time revealing their new strategic investor. Not being a gold industry analyst, I can only relate my surface observations.
For starters, the management team appears rich in experience, stretching back to BTG predecessor Bema Gold’s early days. Which I sort of remember, as I was brand new in the brokerage industry in 1996. One day soon after I started, a brilliant but controversial B.S.D. stockbroker/promoter in our office made a huge bet on Bema as its stock was about to surge. He made over $1 million in a few trading sessions.
Which was a lot of money at the time. He quickly received the public adulation of our Sales Manager, as whispered reports of the size of the winning trade ricocheted around our head office. It was my first experience seeing a major stock market operator work his magic in person. I knew little about serious trading, so it made a big impression.
Apologies if I’ve told that story before, but it seemed to fit well here with our latest news. And with the general hopes and dreams of this group of shareholders.
Today, BTG is big enough to buy 5% of FDR and hardly notice the expense. But apparently not so big it has lost the hunger for rapid growth. Sounds like the perfect strategic investor for our needs.
And B2Gold has already proven its ability to get into fast growing gold mining stories ahead of the crowd with its purchase of 10% of Snowline below $3.00. Negatives? Some of BTG’s properties might have geopolitical risk… but what gold mine doesn’t, these days? And BTG seems a little ESG-infested, but again - what major company besides Berkshire Hathaway has managed to fully avoid that affliction lately?
Whether our new partner wants ultimately to own all of Founders is not immediately relevant. What matters for now is the massive one-two punch of the market / industry recognition of FDR and the huge combined injection of cash we’ll have once the separate financing closes. And the vast flexibility said money affords our management.
What assays are coming now? More Froyo first, followed quickly by Lower Antino’s initial cores, and finally Buese’s second round of results. All within the next 30 days, I expect.
Coinciding roughly with the closing of the $20 million bought deal, just in case that formality is needed to give FDR day-traders the green light. And a fourth drill coming to our property very soon, by the sounds of it.
Lower Antino, being a rich-looking un-drilled zone, has the biggest chance to break our stock-price out of its range. But I’d be happy to have some other piece of news do the job sooner. Or to have the general momentum of this past week’s developments simply build to escape velocity all on its own by Wednesday or Thursday.
A new exciting phase ahead. Time for our next 400 gram-meter assay? Another analyst with a huge FDR price target? Space aliens setting up an embassy adjacent to Antino and commencing their own gold exploration?
Just kidding about that last part. For better or worse, we are alone in the universe. Though if aliens *did* exist, they would probably be in a hurry to stake a claim in our district.