The cold face, well put. Brian must sell La Dem, and asap. Off takes, project financing heavily discounted - he needs to offer a sacrificial lamb for this to take off, and I feel whatever game he's playing with holding out is pushing the management's credibility.
What are the steps needed to finalise financing of La Dem? Updated Scoping Study > DFS > buyers > contracts > agreement from GeoMinera, the board and an AGM? And those finance funds would be solely for La Dem - none of the El Pilar exploration. They will need another CR after this drilling in El Pilar - the $2mil will hopefully include assay results, although the exorbitant wages present a risk to $2mil being enough to even get JORC compliant results and instead they may need to pay the blokes down the road to provide unofficial results again. But this $2mil won't cover other surveys needed, let alone further drilling before PFS or scoping study is drafted for El Pilar.
So the timing of La Dem financing is critical to the ability to raise further funds at a better price without such big dilution as we've seen today. Isn't the updated scoping study due this month for La Dem - or has that too been delayed? Surely Brian would have announced that before the CR to try to improve the VWAP, if it was close to ready. This CR tells me the scoping study isn't ready, and then where does that put the DFS? Is Feb even a chance for the DFS? Without it, there's no confirmed financing IMO - and can this $2mil stretch through to March/ April for Brian to sell the DFS in whatever way he needs to to interested parties? He'll have to take the highest bidder - and if he can only get one bidder then he'll have to take it. That timeframe presents a concern for the next CR.
That is unless Brian sees the fall-back plan and alternative to succeeding with La Dem or El Pilar as being to hold out until AAU receives proceeds from the Dom Republic legal battle, which if judged in June then may come in Q3/ Q4, and whoever has shares then gets the share of the $30-40mil.. If all else fails, there's always that. And who is accumulating as many shares as they can now? Might those legal proceeds be Brian's exit strategy, or just safety net? Not impossible, but likely he'd want to stay on $780k p.a. for as long as he can.
That Dom Republic battle is a compelling reason to be invested.
AAU Price at posting:
3.4¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
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