Re; Debacle with BarrickDEBACLE WITH BARRICK; - My take on this is that negotiations were hot and heavy, and the deal simply fell through. I believe that the sticky point related to the fact that Barrick would only get involved if they controlled the play. RF offered them a sweet deal on up to 49% only, but I am sure his price was much much higher if they wanted control.
These boys are playing high stakes poker, and I sure that they are not too happy with each other. The day IVN announced that they were filing a preliminary prospectus, between the lines it meant "There is no upcoming deal with Barrick". Kind of like their rebuttal to Barrick was "we don't need your stinkin money!".
Barricks timing with their response was, IMHO, not co-incidental at all. They waited until the day after the financing closed, to announce that they had "No intentions of further pursueing Oya.". Look what they did to the share price of Oya, at the same time rubbing mud into RF's face, as well as the broker's who participated in the placement. (Especially when you consider the the subsription included the extra 10 million share over-allotment!) Kind of like theri response was "Don't mess with us or else!"
Some might argue that they waited until after the financing closed to help their buddies at IVN out, so that IVN could raise their much needed cash first, before the bomb was dropped. Upon carefully analyzing the situation, I would tend to strongly disagree, based on the following;
-WHY DID BARRICK MAKE A FORMAL ANNOUNCMENT IN THE FIRST PLACE, ESPECIALLY ONE DAY AFTER THE FINANCING CLOSED? Barrick made no such formal announcement when they initiated talks with IVN. Sure, when questioned, they mentioned that they had signed a CA with IVN, as had many other companies. My point is that the formal announcement was damaging, as was the timeing.
-When IVN formally responded to Barrick, they stated in their response:
In a communication earlier today between senior Barrick and Ivanhoe management, Barrick indicated its principal concern, as a gold company, was the copper weighting of the project as opposed to a view of the technical merits of the project.
Come on folks, we did'nt get off the turnip truck today. Everyone and thier dog is fully aware that OYA is primarily a Copper play. We knew that 2.5 years ago with the Southwest discovery, and we have know that all along with the HUGO discovery. For some reason, we are supposed to believe that Barrick just realized that this was more of a Copper play.
Let's face it, Barrick has watched with envy the Sucess Freeport Mcmoran has had with Grasberg, and Barrick fully realizes that there is probably a better future with Copper than with gold. That's why they got involved here in the first place.
I suppose that the best possible response from IVN wrt the on going poker game would be to do a sweetheart deal with one of Barricks arch-enemies, say Newmont, Freeport of Placer.. Now would that be sweet!
Anyhow, the above is just MHO, and I could be way off track, but the timing, and the "not enough gold" response would lead me to believe that I am on the right track. I made a samll fortune off this deal last year, having sold all my personal holdings some time ago, but I just could not resist to chip away at a few cheap warrants on friday. For the naysayers like dakota995 and preslava (a short seller with lot's of balls who always shows up on the liquid deals when there is blood on the streets), I don't wish to repeat previous long winded comments, but re-read this post if you have a minute.
https://www.stockhouse.ca/bullboards/viewmessage.asp?no=7361668&tableid=1
My point being that this will one day be an absolutely awesome mine, and the operator will make wheelbarrows of money. I also believe that although the remoteness brings upon additinal start up costs such as on-site power generation, and road and/or rail construction, operating costs will be amongst the lowest in the world. (Much cheaper than Grasberg at 15,000 feet in the mountains of a potentially unstable country.) I also firmly believe that the entire deposit will be much larger, especially if IVN can secure a deal with ETG to explore possible extionsions of Oya.
Speaking of ETG, I have always maintained that they will be taken over. On friday, a pal of mine called who knows a big big big time broker who works out of the Caymen islands. This broker is big-time and never wrong. he called my pal and tole him that ETG will be taken out, it's just a matter of time. (I also bought some cheap ETG shares on friday as well - take advantage when there is a temporary sell-off!)
Good luck to all longs, and keep the big picture in mind - the world is running short of copper, and Oya is probably the largest mineral discovery on the planet over the past 25 years.
JANDD