You really do have to shake your head in astonishment at some of the content that is posted on the FFX thread/s. You can count on one hand (that has had 4 fingers amputated) the amount of posters that using their knowledge and experience, combined with a deep research thesis saw issues related to the acquisition of the Morila Gold Mine.
Concerns and flags were raised and waved, but were never supported by anything factual as FFX strove towards being a 2nd tier gold producer, but the misinformation began as soon as the acquisition was announced, everything was thrown at the threads including but not limited too: -- Barrick (Rangold/AngloGold) didn't want it as there was no gold left? ++ the latest announcement Morila's Deposit was increased by over 1 million ounces to 3.3M ounces of gold inclusive of 2.5m ounces in the updated Measured and Indicated Categories. FYI: ++ the Morila Mine ceased meeting Barrick's criteria to be categorised as a Tier 1 gold producer, plain and as simple as that! ~ from Barrick's Annual Report: "Essentially, Barrick was and is only interested two kinds of assets. The first type "tier one" assets; a) have an annual gold production of 500,000oz b) have over a 10 year mine life c) lie in the bottom half of the cost curve, the Morila Mine failed all 3 critical measures to be retained by Barrick.
It wasn't clear where all the funds raised were going, which did make it difficult to ascertain the viability of the project rather than just go on Company presentations, a lot just hasn't made sense in the AISC over the early stages. Excluding the initial plant refurbishments, and the 9 months of overhauling the generators, added to the AISC cost would have been the $30m spent on pre-stripping, and $10m on drilling. These two costs ceased in the interim which is a further nail into the 'current board' irresponsible decision making, that positive earnings were at the doorstep, although stage 2 & 3 pre-stripping would have eventually needed funding.
The professional analysts employed by VanEck obviously didn't see the so called issues and the EFT Gold Fund invested circa $34,000,000 into FFX, post the demerger and VanEck still held over 59,000,000 shares. The professional analysts employed by Sprott obviously never saw the issues either as (from memory) they still held circa 5,000,000 but had also initiated coverage of FFX and issued their reports. ~ I will discard the local research pieces by the likes of Cannacord and Euroz as these are (IMO) produced with a favourable bias.
The insider trading (insider as in management and board of directors) never saw the so called issues as they continued to purchase shares on market and through SPP's, up to as late as the 6th of June 2022.
Professional driller Di Capital never saw the issues mentioned as they converted contractual payments to equity in the company, from memory they also converted their 5m + options.
Yet with all the (alleged concerns and red flags) issues, FFX passed the critique mechanisms to enter into the ASX 300!!
Will shareholders ever really know what happened? ~ that is of course did the management and board (either current or recently resigned) of FFX actually know what really happened for them to tell us?
After doing a little light reading, prompted over time and the amount of posts with shareholders/posters questioning the amount of money spent by Firefinch supporting the local communities before we were in a positive cash flow position. I suggest a read of the Mali Mining Code 2018 as IMO LLL will need to travel the same pathways for community project involvement.
