To: Mark Bartlett who wrote (539 ) 12/22/1999 10:10:00 PM From: john.d Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 4409
Hi Mark, it was good to see you at the annual meeting on Monday. I took some notes and thought I would share some of the highlights with the group. Peter Mordaunt, President, provided some history on the company; reviewed the company's present position, and outlined where they're heading. He then took questions from the audience. There was about 20 people in attendance and the meeting was held at Corner Bay's office. Here are the highlights. The recent financing will fund the metallurgical work and the following drilling program. The company will be pursuing drilling on three fronts. 1) Down dip Mentioned that the previous drill program was limited by the capacity of the rigs, which was 300 meters, as a result some holes could not be drilled to determine the complete deposit depth. I think this is good when the deposit is deeper than you originally anticipated! He said that that future drilling would be undertaken with higher capacity equipment, which is capable of drilling to deeper zones. Peter did say that they have not yet located the feeder zone; when they do he expects that the grade will likely be higher, however recovery rates are expected to be lower. 2) Northwest Suggested that the surface mimics the underlying structure and they are working together with a structural expert to develop the targets. 3) South There was a lot of technical discussion, which Peter summed up by saying that he thought this was decent target to pursue. I got the sense that he was optimistic. Peter mentioned that they were shocked/pleased by the results of hole #39. Can't recall why? One person asked about asked about the potential of a takeover. Peter responded that the he thought the best way to maximize shareholder value was to develop the property by CB. If they were to take on developing the mine, he is confident that they could find and attract the necessary expertise in the southwestern United States. If they were to proceed down this path, he expected that it would take 24 - 36 months to develop the mine. However, and this is a big however, if an excellent offer were presented to the company management, this would in turn be presented to the shareholders. I got the sense that Peter didn't expect offers anytime soon and was less than enthusiastic about an offer of stock instead of cash. He also implied that he didn't see any obvious takeover candidates. Thought I might be wrong about this latter point? Peter did not expect a hostile takeover offer since private financing to date has primarily ended up in "friendly" hands and management retains a large portion of the shares. Incidentally, I am pleased that they have used private financing that avoids high fees associated with brokerage firms and the increased dilution that occurs with a low issue price. The recent financing at $3 supports this. On the flip side may not get much exposure from these same houses. He mentioned that some companies have signed confidentiality agreements, although only limited information was being transferred at this time. Peter said that he did not expect an offer from any of these companies in the immediate future. Peter said that a decision to go it alone or sell for "instant gratification" would likely be made in the next year. But in the interim, they plan to stick to their game plan, which is to develop the property by CB. When asked about fast tracking the project, Peter said without hesitation that the company plans to proceed in an orderly fashion. I was very pleased with this response. In my view if you fast track a project you invariably stumble, make mistakes, which in the end sets you further behind. There is no issue around land use since there is only 5-7" of rainfall a year; consequently, there is no potential to grow crops in this region. There is a good infrastructure to support a mine in this area and power is not far away. Expect the new drill program to commence in February 2000 and last for 3-4 months, with results being announced after there is sufficient data to adequately understand what they have. For example in the case of drilling out the play to the south, Peter prefers not to issue a new release on limited data since it may only cause confusion or set up unrealistic expectations. One caveat to this, if there are some outstanding results to report, we can expect to hear quickly. New drilling program is for 5,000 meters and the RC rigs can drill up to 200 meters/day, which suggests that they can drill about 1 hole every 2 days per rig. We can expect another financing next year to further delineate the reserves (this will be the case if the deposit continues to expand) and to commence feasibility and engineering studies on developing the mine. The deposit sits in the middle of a large block of land which CB owns all the rights to, so we are well protected if the deposit grows. There was a lot technical discussion about the recovery rates. This is major risk area for this opportunity. I believe that management expects the extraction process to be heap leaching with a RR of 70%+, but qualified it by saying that it could be as low as 40% or as high as 90%. CB will not know for sure until the metallurgical work by Metcon is completed in the New Year. Break even RR is 30%. My key conclusions are: 1) I have confidence in management's capability to maximize the value of this asset and protect our interests. More specifically, they are proceeding in an orderly, timely and profession fashion. In addition, I believe they will negotiate (are doing that already) the best deal if a reasonable takeover offer is presented. 2) There is real potential to add to the resource by a factor of 2 and possibly more!! 3) The potential of a takeover is unlikely until the heap leach process has been confirmed and the recovery rate is finalized. I do not believe that CB management would let the property go for a low offer that would likely be made prior to firming up the RR from the metallurgical study and more is known about the additional resource potential. 4) The key risk of this opportunity is the recovery rate. I believe management expects the extraction process will be heap leach with a recovery rate of 70% or higher. However, until the exact RR number is confirmed by the metallurgical study, I consider this investment HIGH risk. On balance the potential rewards outweigh these risks in my view. I think 2000 will be a very interesting year. John