Thought that this might be of interest to owners of BGI stock. Note the section in bold below as this statement comes from someone who has the 'inside edge' on getting the Chairman's job at ASL.
This tells me they (management) will be eager to increase production from 'profitable' and 'high-grade' operations. Mampon's surface/near surface gold is 'high grade' and more than likely to be very profitable for Ashanti over the next three years. Hence, the have a real incentive to get this project underway ASAP. At least that's the way I see it.
The sooner they do the feasibility study, the sooner Birim gets the next advance.
Brian
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DJ Court Victor Says Ghana's Ashanti Should Trim Hedge Book
ACCRA, Ghana (Dow Jones)--Ashanti should scale down its gold hedging position and buy up smaller gold companies to increase production, Jean-Claude Gandur, a possible future leader of the company, told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of a court case last month.
The comments, which couldn't be published while the trial was ongoing, came as Gandur led a group of Ashanti minority shareholders in a court battle to hold an Extraordinary General Meeting. The plaintiffs, who hope to replace certain company directors, won the right to hold an EGM within the next 21 days.
Gandur is a likely candidate for leadership of Ashanti if a new board is elected. A decision to scale back Ashanti's hedge book could mean lower volumes of gold being sold forward on the world market and could even mean a massive gold buy-back.
Gandur said the gold hedge book should be "drawn down" to ease the company's cash flow. Such a move, he said, would pave the way for an expansion of Ashanti's gold production through the acquisition of smaller goldmining companies.
A source familiar with the affair said the government, which holds a 20% stake in Ashanti and a golden share, also wishes to reduce Ashanti's hedging position. He compared Ashanti's large hedging position to a Rolls Royce, saying that Ashanti can only afford a Ford Escort. The hedge book, he said, needs to be brought down to a more manageable size.
Gandur said his favored way of restructuring Ashanti would also involve obtaining new goldmining licenses and changes at the company's most prized asset, the Obuasi goldmine in Ghana.
"The government may not like this but Obuasi must be restructured," he said, adding that the mine loses money.
He said such a reshaping of investment in Obuasi may involve slowing down production and concentrating on parts of the mine that are richest in gold.
"The present board has agreed to make a provision of $140 million to restructure the mine. It's nothing new but it has to be tackled quickly. If you just leave it, it eats all your resources," he said.
(END) DOW JONES NEWS 02-11-00
03:40 PM |
