Boris:
While I, of course, can't speak for Brian Fagen, and in the realm of "for what it's worth"... I don"t recall exactly when his report came out but, since we've only seen the reverse (dare I call it a trend?) on Yamana's share price in the last two weeks, it may have been published just when we were at our lowest...(ie. feeling that the market may still have been taking us to near free-fall, no matter what the shape of our prospects.) I would love for him to have stayed with a solid buy throughout that period but, pragmatically, it would have been difficult for anyone to rate us at a buy at that stage... although some did. Would Brian re-rate us now? I don't know. However, recently when he spoke in Vancouver at the Randol show, he was noting the continuing Bearish mood across the exploration sector. As I recall, he didn't mention or endorse anyone during his speech but still told a few people I heard from that he still likes Yamana very much. He also published my (roughly) monthly plans and forecast chart.
Regarding Indonesia, I have said here fairly recently (unless my memory's slipped again) that we are very happy with the exploration progress we are making in Indonesia, particularly in COW application block number 1. (Page 16 of our 1997 annual report will show where that is, as will the press release last March which came out the day before our stock hit C$6.65. The Web site version of our annual report at yamana.com is under Indonesia and it's one of the "Southern COW" maps.)
However, given the market's understandably negative attitude towards Indonesia, PLUS the fact that the Indonesian government has not yet signed the 7th Generation COW applications PLUS the fact that we only have field results (stream seds, rock float, aeromag etc.), we are not going out of our way to comment on the area. We are not holding anything substantial back and I am not telling tales out of school but we find the assay results and geology around one particular circular feature (diatreme) and transverse fault positive "interesting" enough that we have sent in several extra people and we are "focusing" on the target. I am considering putting out a release in the next month or two, once we have more complete results.
Meanwhile, with Union Mining NL's board meeting (re: PNG) just behind us -- one of the reasons Vic Bradley and I are in Australia -- and Yamana's board meetings (two days informally & the formal one) and our annual meeting just ahead, I don't expect to release anything in the very near future. There are a couple of reason's that I could be wrong about this though.
I'm still in Brisbane until Friday morning so I may or may not get back to my messages here.
Thanks for the interest.
Greg |
