cant see the forest for the trees

Cityview is like a big picture and if you are standing too close then you won't be able to see it in full. So if you are one of those who are unsure about CVI let me take you back a few steps.

The Angolan civil war ended in 2002 following the death of UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi. From that point forward the country began the task of rebuildingitself and it was likely during 2003 that Mark Smyth and others including Ian Egan began looking at the treasure chest that had finally become available after 30 years of conflict. Treasures like copper, gold, diamonds and especially oil. These commodities had been in production prior to the outbreak of hostilities and it was just a matter of and being picked up by the quick and nimble.

The actual starting point would be when the Cachoeiras de Binga prospecting licence was first granted to Sociedade Mineira Simba Jamba LDA of Angola, a subsidiary of Simbajamba Mines Ltd (Samoa) in January 2004. Mark initially incorporated Simbajamba Mines in Canada, however for reasons unknown another Simbajamba Mines was born in Somoa on 19 January 2004. Three days later on the 22nd, the prospecting licence was issued and during 2004 the Canadian Simbajamba Mines changed its name to Simba Mines Inc. In July 2005 Simba moved from Canada to Nivada USA in order to get listed on the OTCBB. In June 2005 the Zenza/Dondo licence was offered to Simba and along the way they managed to acquire the Benguella licence.

When it comes to knowing the right contacts, the original Board of Simba was made up of Mark Smyth, Ian Egan, David Furlong, Nik Zuks (CEO) and Paul Kopejtka. Just to clarify, Nik Zuks was instrumental in the establishment of MIS and Paul Kopejtka is the current Executive Chairman of MMS. Nik Zuks has also been a Director on MMS and everyone knows the others.

In parallel to Simba, Newport Gold acquired the gold licence in August 2005 and GBF Mining acquired the Longonjo diamond licence around September of the same year. In March 2006, Mark was appointed CEO of Cityview and by May 2006 Cityview began the acquisition of the Longonjo and Ucua licenses. Additional licenses have come their way being the Bentiaba and the Benguella SW licenses. And then there's the oil, which we all know about.

It's worth pointing out here that Newport Gold and GBF Mining were registered at 1412 High Rd, London, the office of Charles Niren (accountant), Company Secretary of Newport Gold. The other companies registered there as well include Burfield International Incorporated, Silverplace Ltd, The Foreign Co. Ltd, Foreign Trading Ltd, Futurecorp Ltd and Firstcorp Ltd. Some of these companies were connected with Teddy Lourenco de Almeida and Luis Cupenala and others were connected with Mark. Two of those companies are on page 7 available from www.public-exhibition.zoomshare.com.

The reason for using a multitude of companies could be put down to the complexities involved with having so many Angolan partners.

For example in America, Mark was trying to get Simba listed on the OTCBB so he could raise the capital required to move these projects forward. First there was a failed merger with a shelf company YFC 355 Inc. This was followed by another failure with YFC Corp, followed by yet another failure with Australian Forest Industries. Finally Mark managed to transfer the Simbajamba assets to Zebra Copper in June 2007. Why the other mergers failed may well have been due to the very high number of shareholders of Simbjamba. In September 2004 there were listed approximately 89. Many of these would be Angolan and may have been hard to convince that the best path forward was the one Mark had chosen.

As the different plays have come into focus, the big picture starts to emerge. From the beginning, it appears it was Mark's intention to get a hold on as many mining licences as he could and I would put his success down to his good contacts. In fact what Mark has done is no different than a post Christmas sale except the manager has let him in the back door, and whilst others are waiting patiently at the front door for the bell, Mark is calmly going around the store gathering up the best on offer.

But the complexities of the wheeling and dealing continue with the need to merge all of the various licenses under Fortitude Minerals. As an example the Cachoeiras de Binga licence which was granted to Sociedade Mineira Simba Jamba LDA only came with an 80% interest with the remaining 20% interest in the licence being held by a local Angolan partner, Maelo-Exploracao e Obras Publicas LDA. All the other licenses are similar in their ownership. Another
example in CVI's case is where the Longonjo and Ucua licenses have recently shown up with Angolan Partners as holding a 30% interest. Previous to 9 October 2007 they were not even on the radar screen.

To build Fortitude it will be necessary to give shares to these various parties or pay them out. How much of Fortitude does CVI intend to hold, I'm not sure
but at the moment CVI have acquired 6,543,885 shares. When the Longonjo and Ucua licenses are transferred CVI will receive another 20,000,000 shares and CVI would then have a majority interest of 51.34%, the value being approx. $47.3M. Once all the complexities have been dealt with Fortitude can start to move forward and that moment may be not too far away.

Mark's manoeuvres are no different from Andrew (Twiggy) Forest with FMG. Whilst RIO and BHP were asleep at the wheel Twiggy was grabbing any prospective tenements that were available in WA. I feel Mark is doing the same in Angola and it was essential for him to get his hands on as many assets as soon as possible because as Mark once mentioned on a BRR "powerful forces are circling".

FMG has yet to make it's first shipment but that hasn't affected FMG's share price from rising unabated and CVI's share price will mirror that. But Twiggy is operating in an area which was already heavily staked out, hundreds of kilometres from a port with a railway line to build. The WA landscape is covered in applications for mining tenements, many having to deal with Aboriginal Land Titles, Aboriginal Heritage and environmental issues and so forth. Many of these issues do not exist in Angola and Angola doesn't come with the high operating expenses as Australian operations do. As mentioned in the announcements, infrastructure is close by and one of the major ports, Lobito is actually inside the Benguella licence area and the Chinese are rebuilding the coastal train lines. CVI is unlike many Australian companies where the main asset is a small land locked tenement with no real prospect of immediate commercial viability due to its long distance from port. Nor, I might add are they attempting to drill holes on a hit and miss basis for their oil and gas as companies are currently doing north of Darwin. The gas is there, the oil is there, the minerals are there. It's just a matter of going forward. The licence areas that Fortitude will own cover a massive 15,000 sq km. You can bet that Mark has used old government records to pick the best licenses available -
those with previous workings and proven reserves.

So it has been for Mark, I would say, a very long four years but the foundation has now been laid and the pace is starting to pick up. The big picture is emerging for everyone to see and that big picture is a diversified mining and energy business operating in a low opex environment with excellent contacts and strong backing and I would not be suprised to see more additions added to the CVI trophy cabinet.

I don't know about you but I am feeling relaxed and comfortable. The share price will take care of itself and as time goes by, who knows one day we may see an intra-day swing of the current share price. CVI has enormous upside potential, it has the contacts, it has the leadership and it has the talent that will drive it forward. Just think Twiggy and FMG and you can see where Mark and CVI are heading.


Cheers.