just returned from a luncheon with Bernard and Christiaan! Will be short in point form.
- 10 atteneded, didn’t get to meet @87crash!
RUBIES
- Auction debacle: Bernard indicated that the only problem with the auction was Volume. Auction was 2-3 years premature, basically, should never had happened. In order to go to auction, we need a minimum of $10M of inventory.
- BO stated many times that MUS is still only a ruby explorer and not a producer. Need to go through the necessary phases to become a producer which he estimate may take 2 years. Still learning about the product we have in the ground.
- Direct sales through our Thai office is the best way to move smaller parcels as exploration grows.
- inventory moved to Thailand and been regraded as we speak.
- Specila stones: special stones are not worth as much as what the numbers have been mentioned in here. Apparently they are worth much less ! I mentioned the specials to him directly during the break. I asked why not sell them to get some cash and he said that they are used for direct selling marketing. We need them to showcase our product to buyers.
- new ruby discoveries : I asked him why are they not being more specific about what they are discovering. His answer was that there is a mix of colours discovered and certainly it is not corundum but gem quality as per announcement.He said there is no point in announcing details before we know the product in detail because we will be doing the same mistakes we did in the past by upramping our deposits when we are really just starting to explore properly. He seeemd very comfortable with what our ground contains.
- artisinals mining: scaled down significantly until they can fully understand the value of what is recovered. The gem industry is tough and murky, you won’t know the value until you actually sell. No spot price as like gold, silver etc. Artisinals are helping with bulk smapling as they indicate the area where the higher quality rubies are which they uncovered.
Overall, they are still understanding the value of our rubies and they are preparing for direct sales. Indication is that bulk sampling will be ramped up to get a Jorc and head into production. 2 years. My feel is that BO was very honest and did not give false hope. Everything needs to be done in the right order.
GRAPHITE
VERY BULLISH ON GRAPHITE
- Aim is to have DFS by end of year and build a pilot plant processing 10,000t per annum by Q3-Q4 2019. Cost approx $10M with cashflow of $15M paying itself off in less than 2 years.
- once pilot is built and producing, aim will be to add to pilot plant and ramp up to 60,000t/ year. Offtake partner should be able to finance expansion, could be more than 60,000t if financier wants it higher.
Laid into Christiaan about the auction. He said that it was a very bad result but I am still here putting my money into the company and have not sold a single share. He hopes that next time we meet, this time next year, we will be in a much better position..
BO said that our SP should really be higher only with the graphite. I interrupted him by saying that brokers I speak to don’t want to touch MUS because of the BOD hence why SP is not reflecting graphite value. Told him he has a lot of ground to make up due to the poor handling of the BOD and he agreed. I asked for both of them to be transparent with us shareholders and get the job done. Only with proven results will confidence come back into MUS board.Christiaan hung his head and BO looked at me straight and said that I was right and they are doing just that.
I really liked BO.
He pulled me aside after the meeting and had a 5mim chat. He acknowledged that the past has been bad but that he believes in both projects and that they will get it right. I again asked for him to be transparent with shareholders because a lot of us have lost a lot of money.
Seemed very honest and humble.
Hopefully
@87 Crash can also add if I have missed something.
Hope the above helps. It is only my interpretation of the meeting and not to convince anyone to buy or sell.
My opinion: I will be taken up my rights issue and also more at these prices. My instinct tells me that BO and Christiaan ( to his credit, he is meeting a lot of shareholders and been smacked around but still there) will get things moving.
DYOR and good luck to us all.
