TO: Anyone interested:
I've just come back from a week in Chile where I attended a meeting of about 25 mining and exploration companies and the same number of institutional investors. The former included about 8 or 9 juniors, like ourselves, who presented their stories on Monday. The reception YRI received was somewhere between quite positive and reserved while we wait for the market to come back. The "majors" spoke over the next two days. Many of them are, of course, struggling too, but some have a lot going for them, including serious money looking for a home.
For us, the objective at this sort of by-invitiation-only conference is three-fold. It's an opportunity to: a) present your story for potential JV's; b) talk to current and potential large investors; and, c) keep a hand on the pulse of the market and the industry. From all three prospectives, the conference was very, very useful.
The a) group generated a couple of good leads / discussion start-ups, including two with companies that had said "no" at a lower level but at the senior level there, they said they did want to look at projects. For example, there was one VP international exploration from one of the majors who told us that all of the information that had come his way had been routed to two "exploration managers" and he had seen none of it. We told him about the Northern Porphyry Copper Belt and he said he had heard NOTHING about it but "obviously, we have to look seriously at something like this."
This forum is also a useful place for keeping the ideas flowing and gently moving discussions along to the next stage. Obviously, the challenge here is to break out from the hundreds of other stories -- to show why a major should invest in our properties versus others who are looking for the same thing. At the same time, several majors have changed their approach so that they are also waiting to see what happens next. It's tough to get a lot of these guys to even hear ANY story.
By the way, when Barrick spoke to this (packed) audience at the conference, they noted only one other company for special mention: Yamana Resources. Several institutions came up to me after commenting favourably about this reference, and asking for more information. As I may have noted before, Barrick has gotten out of everything in Indonesia EXCEPT our project. This is a reflection of their past committment on the project, the prospectivity of the ground based on the results we've generated to date and their repeated faith in YRI's management and technical abilities.
I can say that today we are in "advanced" discussions on three projects with good progress on four others. For example, we have four property visits lined up for December and January at Tierra del Fuego. The latest one came on Friday after three months of discussions.
I know many of you have become frustrated/apprehensive/jaded/bored with this JV topic, but I hope to have the first JV announcement within weeks. Others, by early next year. Informed hope.
The b) group included fund managers from funds holding north of $200 billion, most of whom admit they are very reluctant, at the moment, about investing in exploration. Several of these, however, said that they were watching the sector, metal prices and the market's new year, very, very closely. This makes this aspect a useful maintenance effort on our part. As a company currently held by more retail / individual investors than by institutions, we see institutions as representing the double-edged sword of having a lot of potential impact on the shareprice, both for good and ill.
As to c), except for the chosen few with major cash, production and diversity, we are all having a rough time. Tax selling, gold price and market troubles are hurting virtually everyone out there. We're worse off than many, and a lot better off than many others of our ilk. But there are several things that bode well for the next three to six months. 1) We'll get past tax-selling season; 2) If the financing goes well, we'll be freer to operate on our best properties; 3) We have a very good chance of having one or more JV's -- thus, helping our coffers and boosting the recognized value of specific projects; 4) Several projects are coming to a stage when results could help the market. These include Santa Cruz, Vanguardia and Tierra del Fuego in Argentina, the Northern Porphyry Copper Belt in Chile, two of our Washington state properties (viz-a-viz possible JV's), Indonesia (if the COWs are signed) and PNG, where we are now running the project.
How the market reacts to any news, especially between now and the spring, I won't predict. The new year SHOULD be a better one for us. Much better than the rollercoaster which was 1997 in which we saw within pennies of both our all time highs and our all time lows. I'll offer no specific advice to investors other than to repeat that I understand your concerns, your anger and your frustration.I appreciate the support we've been shown in the past and whatever support you'll have to offer in the future. Some people have and are going to lose money on YRI. However, in my opinion, the company's management, technical team, partners and properties suggest that MORE people have and are going to MAKE money on this company.
Greg |
