Thanks to Vince for changing the Thread title from Glass Earth to AXG - Anitpodes Gold.
I did try to do it myself but failed miserably .
Best Wishes
Paper Tiger
PT, can I briefly say, that after so gallantly starting this thread all those years ago, this is your second post on it. That would probably imply that you are a reasonably smart investor, and use your time well. Congrats (Edit, Vince and yourself appear to have spelling trouble with Antipodes.)
Here is a press article on NBR from today, an interview with the new CEO, Thomas Rabone. Stuart Rabone, his father, is the lead author of a scientific paper on the geological structures and gold potential at WKP.
Looks like the exploration expenditure to October next year is not necessarily huge, maybe $730,000. That is the shortfall cash that is owed to the joint venture by GEL. By June 2015, there should be a preliminary economic assessment on WKP.
I have to take the entire blame for the spelling, which I have now corrected.
During the course of helping troubleshoot the "I started the thread but I can not change it's name bug" I obviously got a little careless.
Hopefully the new name (which is actually applicable from next Tuesday) and emphasis is a successful change for the company and all it's holders.
Best Wishes
Paper Tiger
Thanks for the encouragement PT - at the moment AXG is at a low point MCap wise, only time and some more exploration work will tell.
While the share is not trading here in NZ as per the ruling until Tuesday next week, I presume this is not AXG management's idea, because it is still trading on the TSX. Shares mostly traded at C1c on Friday, on the GEL ticker. The volume was relatively low, I guess most investors will wait and see what happens next week. A 10c shareprice will put it on the radar of more investors.
Reading between the lines, I think Antipodes Gold will have a modest drill programme in 2014-2015, after all, the drilling is expensive at WKP. Their last planning when Newmont were more closely involved mentioned $800,000 just to move the drill sites around for several drills. To contribute the $730,000 shortfall to the JV by late next year, they will possibly drill at close spacings so helicopter work is reduced, maybe multiple drills from one collar as they've done before. The hope will be that these drills fire up investor interest, so a more comprehensive programme can be achieved.
If AXG get to 51% of the JV, (needs another $3.2mill exploration expenditure) that's a powerful bargaining position when it comes to decision-making, but of course at that point there is no confirmed requirement that Newmont have to start contributing 49% of the ongoing costs (not that I noted anyway). Previously, Newmont's geologist team at Waihi sporadically worked on WKP. That team has apparently been severely reduced. Newmont's policy worldwide, at the moment, reportedly is to not do any greenfields exploration. They will develop existing resources. It's a real hunker-down attitude, obviously tied to the gold price and investor sentiment.
That policy means that they're able to move ahead with Correnso, a smart move, as it's high grade and close to their mill. This does give AXG some room to make a point over WKP in the meantime, but they'll need to find all the resources for that work themselves. I can see that the enthusiasm of Thomas Rabone, and the real-world experience of Adrian Fleming (who also has some capital backing) should be handy for the company. Simon Henderson is still on the board, I'm unsure if the paid side of his involvement is a full-time position or as a consultant.
Here's the company MCap and shareprice trend since the IPO, corrected for the dilutions.
Based on the $730,000 to meet their JV costs, AXG could drill 2 holes at 500mtrs each, but the JV was intending to drill 9 or 10 holes in the next series I think.
The highest grades at WKP were in or near the JV discovery of the Central Zone's T-Stream Breccia. This vein is up to 5 metres across, the vein is continuous but the gold grades are not as well behaved. It still seems to be the most likely spot to start underground mining, and this is the area Antipodes Gold will be working in, for the near future. Grades were up to nearly 3oz/tonne in some parts of this vein, but it's the average grade that is more important. Of the 38 drills that have gone down into WKP (this is not many for a big area), WKP drills 24,25,26,31,33 painted a picture, the discovery being made in 2010-2011, and filled out since.
Look at pages 7.11 and 7.12 of this RPA document, the resource report.
The Northern Miner has produced an article on Antipodes Gold. This was posted on the AXG website yesterday I think. Interesting background, and there is also a 21 page investor presentation loaded on the website.
11/4/2014 — Gold
Antipodes tells shareholders it’s now a one-project company
Antipodes Gold Ltd (TSX-V & NZAX: AXG) has told its shareholders that following the name change, capital and major boardroom changes it was now a single project company.
Until recently, it was known as Glass Earth Gold Ltd and as well as a new managing director in Thomas Rabone, it has essentially a new board and former CEO Simon Henderson has stepped off as a director but is now exploration manager.
In the share reconstruction Antipodes rolled back its issued shares on a one-for-10 basis, partly as a measure to be seen as a “tight” company to allow a capital raising to take place.
Rabone said the WKP gold project – a joint venture with Newmont Waihi Gold near Waihi in the Hauraki goldfield – was now the single project for the company.
The first inferred resource for WKP, produced in mid 2013 for Canadian market compliance, was 260,000 ounces of gold at a grade of 6.2 grams/tonne gold, at a cut-off grade of 3 g/t.
Antipodes said development of the T-Stream target at WKP was “compelling” as this zone was less than 25% tested and was open on strike and depth, with no drilling below 200 metres depth.
Near T-Stream the “Western Zone” has provided drill hits including 3.2m grading 37 g/t Au.
Rabone said the company was proposing a 5,000m drilling programme on this area.
Antipodes has re-negotiated the joint venture with Newmont Waihi to lift its equity from 35% to 51% and to take over project management.
AXG has published the full year report on SEDAR (30th April), but not on the TSX or the NZX yet. It's not a pretty sight. The Auditors produced strong warnings about the company not being a going concern, and refused to comment on most of the content. In fact the company at 31st Dec 2013 had $83,000 in cash, but owed well over a million to sundry creditors, most of whom have been put on hold (placer creditors, and Newmont). To top it all off, the asset value of just about everything has been dropped to a bare minimum, which is effectively $2mill for their share of WKP's permit. They'd have spent a lot more than that for their part of the exploration costs. KPMG didn't even accept that figure.
Well, that was a lot of money to blow away wasn't it? I hope a few people got something out of it.
Maybe that's so, Yankiwi. I have been patiently waiting to see the annual reports posted on the AXG website, on the NZX, or on the TSX. Not yet, not yet. I suppose legally, the fact is that the data is there on SEDAR. All of the GEL files have now been renamed as AXG, so if you want to check back, they are still there, but need to be searched for through the Antipodes Gold company.
To spare anyone going through the reports, KPMG has provided their audit opinion at the front of the document. There was a bit of musing for the 2012 year books, but it was a lot more hard-nosed for the 2013 report.
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