Burkina Faso Regime Forcibly Purchases Gold from Endeavour Mine, page-6

I'm just saying it could explain part of the price drop. Endeavour's market cap is about 8.5 or 9X larger than WAF's. It has mines in Burkina Faso, Senegal and the Ivory Coast, with Burkina Faso accounting for a little over 50% of total production. It's the largest miner in BF. The share price dropped 3.8% on the announcement that the government had "commandeered" the gold. "Commandeered" is actually the word the Mines and Energy Ministry used in a press release! Anyway, a day and a half later, WAF fell 5.2%. And WAF's exposure to Burkina Faso is almost twice what Endeavour's is, based on production by country.

Endeavour is telling analysts that the government wanted to purchase the gold because of delays in converting the local currency, which I don't entirely understand. So perhaps you're right, it may not be a big deal.

Anyway, before we only had to worry about Islamic terrorists taking the mines. Now we've potentially got to worry about the Wagner Group or the government absconding with the gold or the properties too. On the other hand, if the analyst consensus is right, for EPS of 0.24 in 2025, and if WAF goes to the same consensus price-earnings multiple as Endeavour for 2025, being 14, we're sitting on a real bargain.

Here's a link to the article where the word "commandeered" is used,

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/burkina-faso-buys-200-kg-gold-endeavours-mana-mine-2023-02-15/

And here's an interesting article in case you missed it,

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/burkina-fasos-vanishing-gold-boom-puts-livelihoods-risk-2022-11-28/

From the second article,

"We see the gold industry declining in Burkina over the next five to ten years," Richard Hyde, executive chairman and CEO of West African Resources (WAF.AX) told Reuters. Security risks mean little exploration is happening, he added, saying West African Resources was one of the few companies to be exploring and planning a new mine.