I know we don't always see eye to eye per se, or we have different viewpoints across some of the misadventures of FFX.
However, this is a perfect summary (including the Air BnB analogy) of what has had me perplexed not only since the Company ceased funding the Morila Mine, but the withdrawal of full year production guidance and the resignations of the Managing Director, the Chairman and 2 Directors.
I couldn't agree any more,
to the point I seek permission to plagiarised some of the content of your post (although I intend to reword it somewhat) to be included in queries being sent to both the ASX and ASIC highlighting concerns about numerous complaints/concerns (and not limited to);
The total lack of disclosure to the shareholders (or us mere retail shareholders) to the reasons of;
(a) The Company ceased funding to the Firefinch Limited
80% owned Morila Mine in November 2022, the Company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to refurbish, upgrade, issued mining Contracts to the tune of US$385 million dollars as well as secondary drilling contracts. Since the cessation of funding, the Company has lost control over the financial and operational aspects of the mine, has/is pleading a case of ignorance and/or withholding information on who is in control of the mine, who the current operators of the mine are, under what legal & financial arrangements gold is being mined and (allegedly) sold.
~ The Company are not receiving any information on operational or financial performance, gold sales/revenue, but social media sites are indicating that the Mine Manager employed by Firefinch Limited (and still showing on the company website) to operate the Morila Mine is still acting in his duties as the mine manager and set a record monthly gold production figure in December only 8 weeks after the company withdrew funding.
~ The Company are not receiving information from Morila Mine although we have a representative on the Board of Morila SA, that was/is? still engaged by Firefinch Limited as the Country Manager as still showing on the Company's website!
(b) The Company have not attempted to provide any information to why the Morila Mine didn't reach or wasn't going to achieve production guidance figures after these were withdrawn in an announcement to the market on 4th July 2022. Although they cited a confluence of external factors, as in the price of gold, the falling AUD, price of oil but the stand out was contractor performance?
The very same contractors
~ that were awarded a circa US$385m contract,
~ that the company were initiating contractual legal proceedings against for their underperformance,
~ that were offered a very substantial amount of $0.06c shares to (i) remove debt owing (ii) to make forward payment for a servicing agreement,
++ but have never advised shareholders on the progress of (if) any contractual reimbursements?
++ none of which is at all comforting to the shareholders that could lose a large percent of their investment.
(c) There has been no explanation to why the Managing Director's employment was terminated immediately, other than it was by mutual agreement
~ on what grounds was Anderson's employment terminated? (ignoring the "by mutual agreement rubbish") and what criteria was used to pay a benefit?
++ Section 200B of the Corporations Act, a Company may only give a person a benefit in connection with them ceasing to hold a managerial or executive office in the Company if it is approved by shareholders under section 200E of the Corporations Act or an exemption applies. Section 200B of the Act applies to managerial or executive officers of the Company or any of its subsidiaries, which includes Dr Anderson. The term "benefit" has a wide operation and would include any automatic or accelerated vesting of the Anderson Performance Rights the subject of Resolution 7 upon termination or cessation of employment in accordance with their terms. Accordingly, Shareholder approval is sought for the purpose of Section 200E of the Corporations Act to deal where to do so would involve giving a benefit to Dr Anderson in connection with him ceasing to hold a managerial or executive office.
++ The approval is sought in relation to the Anderson Performance Rights proposed to be issued to Dr Anderson under resolution 6 in this notice of meeting.
https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20210428/pdf/44vyg69gdst4ns.pdf
Sorry I felt it necessary to include the above (c) as I intend to send an enquiry to ASIC (again) on why Anderson received a redundancy payment of $450,000 on his termination. Initially, I accepted the payment as being in the conditions of a service agreement, and that will probably still be the case BUT without knowing why he was terminated IMO casts a doubt over the non shareholder approved benefit payment?
~ side note: Resolution 6 was passed, but this wasn't the benefit Anderson received!
(d) Why did Cowden resign, as in his own words, there was nothing wrong with the ore body? Was there a conflict at board level post the divestment of the Leo Lithium Shares? Included in the enquiry will be the signing off on the announcement of the sale of those shares solely by the secretary.
(e) No information as to why the 2 directors resigned (Wall & Scott) post haste following the announcement of the withdrawal of production guidance,
~ withdrawing guidance is not readily accepted by the investor community and generally will reflect on the share price of the company but it doesn't normally send a company into a downward spiral and extended time in suspension (conditional on reasons)
This is such a shambles, but it didn't have to be or more to the point - it would have been somewhat more palatable if the company had have kept shareholders informed as to why the Morila Mine production targets were not going to be met, and having a thoughtful plan to move forward.
Hell a thoughtful plan would have been a Recapitalisation Package around a 25% discount to the last closing price before going into a halt would have been more acceptable to shareholders at $0.15 and 66% less shares needed?
re: "
Yet here the mine is: sponsoring a conference!!"
~ I am not sure they sponsored a conference, or where that came from only @tinyventures who posted it could help us.
My guess was it was from Mining Indaba 2023? Cape Town South Africa, 6 - 9 February 2023, but after I posted and going through the list of sponsors from the event, Morila Mine doesn't appear.
How is the Morila Mine still running?? As so many as asking ......
There will be a variation of these figures (IMO) but only based on assumptions and for a food for thought debate?
From the MTPP (Medium Term Production Plan) of 10,000oz of gold production per month for 18 months.
~ assuming that the high level of stripping of stage 2 & 3 isn't being done and that the current operators are targeting the available MSP ore, which would also drive the overall AISC down?
~ but based on the MTPP, the AISC for this current quarter was circa US$1,400oz and for the next quarter will be US$1,200oz.
~ I also surmise that they will be picking the nice stuff, that at some point will stop being available but are they still using ore from Viper to blend with the MSP hard rock which also keeps recoveries higher? -- thats actually a question I would like anyone out there to answer, does using mineralised ore to blend with hard rock ore improve % recoveries and thus less ore being milled will still give a reasonable monthly production figure (as Morila achieved in December)
The POG:
~ January range was US$1,824oz - US$1,926oz - a profit variance of US$424oz (using the monthly low) x circa 8,000oz (a figure of 8,300oz was reported on social media for December production) would = US$3,392,000
~ February range was US$1,939oz - US$1,828oz = same as above US$3,392,000
~ March range (to date) US$1,833oz - US$1,992oz = same as above US$3,392,000
This would give (in my estimates) a US$10m net profit based purely on my speculation of what could be happening there, including that I don't believe the cost expenses incurred for pre-stripping MSP stages 2 & 3 would be happening.
~ but again, sourced from social media is a Tailings Solutions Company happy to be working with the Morila Team.
cheers
(20min delay)