Town Hall - 9th March 2023
Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2023 2:48 pm
So much already fed back, apologies for pilforing little snippets from previous posts, used for both for jogging my memory, or clarifying my understanding, but always feel it is good to have everything in one place.
Also apologies for being so long, but hoefully useful feedback from the Town Hall yesterday.
Town Hall – Thursday 9th March 2023
Firstly, where to start, I arrived at the Cheshire Cheese at 14:30 (and I was not the first there!). Started as an intimate group around a single table, but as the minutes past people turned up in droves. I am sure there were at least 50-60 GGPers there before we left for the Town Hall.
The Town Hall meeting room was rammed, I’m sure I only saw 1 or 2 empty seats at the venue, an astonishing turn out (according to a poll conducted of 100% invested GGPers).
Donald set the agenda to centre around 4 main subjects, but in reality once Shaun got going the session was slightly more organic and no topic seemed to be off-limits.
1. The Newmont Proposed bid for Newcrest
2. Next Havieron Mineral Resource Update
3. Scallywag Opportunity
4. Share Price and Drivers
Although discussions did not necessarily always follow the above subjects in order, I will try to relay my feedback under these headings. I will try to include all pertinent information I took from the Q&A and gleaned from the after-session buffet under the individual headings.
1. The Newmont Proposed bid for Newcrest
SD started engaging with Newmont within the first months of his tenure, he has been involved in acquisitions from them in previous roles. He has also developed relationships with Barrick, RIO, Agnico and others as part of his role. Clearly preparing for the future and all eventualities.
Newcrest –
He views them as seriously under-valued (and have been for a while), hence potentially ripe for a takeover.
He feels that the communication of Sandeep’s departure was one of the worst corporate communications from a major company he has seen.
He believes they have taken their eye off the ball in relation to progressing the FS for Havieron, stating that he could almost pinpoint the date of the initial offer from Newmont, as the date the focus on progressing the DFS waned. However, he did not see this as a Havieron only issue, as they have also delayed the DFS for Red Chris.
He believes the Institutional Investors are extremely disappointed in Newcrest’s defence and ability to highlight their true valuation.
If there were to be a winner in the bid, he is on “team” Newmont.
He is of the believe that the bid scenario will be completed one way or the other by the end of April, but did express the likely outcome would be that of the takeover by Newmont being successful.
Potential Benefits for Greatland
He stated that where Havieron would only be a minor part of a majors portfolio, and that it ranks well below a couple of existing NCM mines (Cadia & Red Chris), it is ideal for a well fun focussed junior. He seemed to indicate that being a minor part of combined Newmont/Newcrest it could provide an opportunity for Greatland to be able to acquire 100% of Havieron.
This could be with or without Telfer. His preference would be with Telfer, however, he stated his team has analysed the potential of developing a processing plant at Havieron.
• Potential to save $100m’s in Haulage costs over the life of the mine.
• He referred to Calidus, where building a new processing plant was economic for a 1.7M Oz deposit with a mine life of 7 Years.
• Better carbon footprint over the life of mine.
• Designed to suite Havieron ore.
Personally I view this as more of a negotiation standpoint – look we can progress with 100% Havieron standalone, if you are to divest Telfer, don’t rip us off (NCM already have a contingency of $300Million set aside for the decommissioning of Telfer – according to their annual report).
Funding required to buy back 100% Havieron / purchase Telfer.
• He believes we could easily increase debt by at least $500M by scaling up the debt based on a 100% holding – we secured $220M for our 30% share. He is already in discussion with existing and new banks for this.
• He is already engaging with Institutions that may be willing to come on board should the opportunity arise. No real caveats to coming onboard but may be through share issuance (with some purchased on the open market). He mentioned that Tribeca may be involved as highlighted in the previous fund raising RNS.
• He was keen to point out that this would only be on an accretive (rather than dilutive basis). He ran through the numbers and highlighted that anything less than a 2.33 multiple of shares in issue would be accretive as each share we own would own a larger portion of the Havieron resource. I did point out to him that this would be dilutive in respect to our other assets, and although he agreed he would be happy to progress based upon the guaranteed resources rather than the potential of others.
My understanding was that he is still looking at 4 to 5 acquisition / jv options in the Paterson, but I believe this has been put on the backburner with the opportunities created by the Newmont/Newcrest saga.
Greatland Corporate skillset
When asked he stated that GGP have the skills and could produce a DFS within weeks, it is clear this is being worked upon, and Shaun stated that everything is being worked upon as if GGP own 100% of the asset.
He was keen to highlight, wherever possible, the quality and skillset of all of the GGP team
• Team now under one roof, no longer in diverse locations across Australia (and Denmark!).
• Michael Thomson - Best resource geologist he has ever come across.
• GGP did not fully grasp understand implications of the JV agreement until (Matt Kwan) General Counsel came on board. The JV was pretty much implicitly worded for the benefit of Newcrest.
• Full skillset employed to enable GGP to manage the mine development / resource 100%
• Development Team (Jeremy Meynert) were not poached from Fortescue, they were leaving anyway (due to lack of acquisitions at Fortescue). However, came highly recommended by Elizabeth / Mark. Saw opportunity available to them at GGP.
• Shareholders unlikely to hear from other board members, Shaun will be the face of the company. However, Shaun is keen to put members of the Management Team in front of the Share Holders. Damien Stephens likely to be first (Damien has already presented on the Havieron discovery - MEGWA July 2022: Damien Stephens: Havieron - History, Character and Potential - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY4oqgKC7eM
2. Next Havieron Mineral Resource Update
Shaun expects an updated MRE to be released by our JV partner as at 30th June in the annual results. If they don’t we will.
He is quite happy to align with NCM at present, they are the senior JV partner, and there are no benefits in upgrading the resource now (pending on Newmont/Newcrest deliberations). Why highlight the value of Havieron if we are potentially looking to acquire 100% of the deposit, if this does not come to fruition then this can he delivered at a later date highlighting the enhanced value of Havieron.
As previously stated he feels NCM are not fully focussed on delivering the DFS, he does not believe this will impact the project. Highlighting that the DTM has already been made. He does not expect one to be delivered in the short term.
He expects the MRE increase to be consistent with the last resource update (circa 50%), and that much of this will come from the Link Zone.
3. Scallywag Opportunity
Shaun and the team are “really excited” by the recent results. However, he is keen not to overly hype and create unsubstantiated optimism.
He pointed out that the mineralisation and high level of pathfinder elements encountered at A35 were intercepted before the real anomaly target, which was really encouraging.
Pearl – he was disappointed that they were unable to collect the sample between 77 and 151 metres as this was directly below the high silver result at 76 metres.
They will be returning to Scallywag this year. Not sure if the exploration will be in 1 or 2 tranches this year. The team are currently reviewing and strategizing for 2023.
4. Share Price and Drivers
Shaun said that he was as disappointed as anyone that the SP was at it’s current level.
He is amazed it has not reacted to the considerable amount of good news and work that has been done over the past 6-12 months (he said 6, but some of this is a bit further back now).
ASX Listing
Gives us access to one of the largest investments bases/pools in the world.
Timescale likely to be June/July but not set in stone, and this might be flexible.
As part of the listing, GGP plan to set up an Australian subsidiary for Havieron. This would require a vote by the share holders to progress. Having to ensure compliance to both UK and Australian law requires 2 set of lawyers and can be time consuming and somewhat cost onerous.
He is not keen on a share consolidation at this stage, however this might be a necessity given that the ASX listing requires a SP of at least $0.20. If a consolidation was to take place he said it would not be 2:1 more likely 3:1 or 12:1 (I think it was either or rather than between).
That said he still finds the fact we have an issuance of 5 Billion shares quite mind blowing, and will certainly consolidate at some time if it not for the ASX lisitng.
He stated that a dual listing is actually more complicated than a start-up listing. A start-up generally takes around 4 months where a dual listing is more likely to take 6 months. Work has already started on this.
Specific details are still being discussed, and he appeared open to various suggestions.
• Should any consolidation take place, should it be prior to the listing or is it better to do upon listing.
• Is it better to wait for the listing to take place post MRE update / DFS release (at a potential better SP)
• Etc.
As previously said, Shaun continues to engage with various Institutional investors.
He is not expecting anymore news to come out before the IPO (his words – ASX Listing). Not sure and didn’t press him as to whether this included the next interim exploration update.
Also apologies for being so long, but hoefully useful feedback from the Town Hall yesterday.
Town Hall – Thursday 9th March 2023
Firstly, where to start, I arrived at the Cheshire Cheese at 14:30 (and I was not the first there!). Started as an intimate group around a single table, but as the minutes past people turned up in droves. I am sure there were at least 50-60 GGPers there before we left for the Town Hall.
The Town Hall meeting room was rammed, I’m sure I only saw 1 or 2 empty seats at the venue, an astonishing turn out (according to a poll conducted of 100% invested GGPers).
Donald set the agenda to centre around 4 main subjects, but in reality once Shaun got going the session was slightly more organic and no topic seemed to be off-limits.
1. The Newmont Proposed bid for Newcrest
2. Next Havieron Mineral Resource Update
3. Scallywag Opportunity
4. Share Price and Drivers
Although discussions did not necessarily always follow the above subjects in order, I will try to relay my feedback under these headings. I will try to include all pertinent information I took from the Q&A and gleaned from the after-session buffet under the individual headings.
1. The Newmont Proposed bid for Newcrest
SD started engaging with Newmont within the first months of his tenure, he has been involved in acquisitions from them in previous roles. He has also developed relationships with Barrick, RIO, Agnico and others as part of his role. Clearly preparing for the future and all eventualities.
Newcrest –
He views them as seriously under-valued (and have been for a while), hence potentially ripe for a takeover.
He feels that the communication of Sandeep’s departure was one of the worst corporate communications from a major company he has seen.
He believes they have taken their eye off the ball in relation to progressing the FS for Havieron, stating that he could almost pinpoint the date of the initial offer from Newmont, as the date the focus on progressing the DFS waned. However, he did not see this as a Havieron only issue, as they have also delayed the DFS for Red Chris.
He believes the Institutional Investors are extremely disappointed in Newcrest’s defence and ability to highlight their true valuation.
If there were to be a winner in the bid, he is on “team” Newmont.
He is of the believe that the bid scenario will be completed one way or the other by the end of April, but did express the likely outcome would be that of the takeover by Newmont being successful.
Potential Benefits for Greatland
He stated that where Havieron would only be a minor part of a majors portfolio, and that it ranks well below a couple of existing NCM mines (Cadia & Red Chris), it is ideal for a well fun focussed junior. He seemed to indicate that being a minor part of combined Newmont/Newcrest it could provide an opportunity for Greatland to be able to acquire 100% of Havieron.
This could be with or without Telfer. His preference would be with Telfer, however, he stated his team has analysed the potential of developing a processing plant at Havieron.
• Potential to save $100m’s in Haulage costs over the life of the mine.
• He referred to Calidus, where building a new processing plant was economic for a 1.7M Oz deposit with a mine life of 7 Years.
• Better carbon footprint over the life of mine.
• Designed to suite Havieron ore.
Personally I view this as more of a negotiation standpoint – look we can progress with 100% Havieron standalone, if you are to divest Telfer, don’t rip us off (NCM already have a contingency of $300Million set aside for the decommissioning of Telfer – according to their annual report).
Funding required to buy back 100% Havieron / purchase Telfer.
• He believes we could easily increase debt by at least $500M by scaling up the debt based on a 100% holding – we secured $220M for our 30% share. He is already in discussion with existing and new banks for this.
• He is already engaging with Institutions that may be willing to come on board should the opportunity arise. No real caveats to coming onboard but may be through share issuance (with some purchased on the open market). He mentioned that Tribeca may be involved as highlighted in the previous fund raising RNS.
• He was keen to point out that this would only be on an accretive (rather than dilutive basis). He ran through the numbers and highlighted that anything less than a 2.33 multiple of shares in issue would be accretive as each share we own would own a larger portion of the Havieron resource. I did point out to him that this would be dilutive in respect to our other assets, and although he agreed he would be happy to progress based upon the guaranteed resources rather than the potential of others.
My understanding was that he is still looking at 4 to 5 acquisition / jv options in the Paterson, but I believe this has been put on the backburner with the opportunities created by the Newmont/Newcrest saga.
Greatland Corporate skillset
When asked he stated that GGP have the skills and could produce a DFS within weeks, it is clear this is being worked upon, and Shaun stated that everything is being worked upon as if GGP own 100% of the asset.
He was keen to highlight, wherever possible, the quality and skillset of all of the GGP team
• Team now under one roof, no longer in diverse locations across Australia (and Denmark!).
• Michael Thomson - Best resource geologist he has ever come across.
• GGP did not fully grasp understand implications of the JV agreement until (Matt Kwan) General Counsel came on board. The JV was pretty much implicitly worded for the benefit of Newcrest.
• Full skillset employed to enable GGP to manage the mine development / resource 100%
• Development Team (Jeremy Meynert) were not poached from Fortescue, they were leaving anyway (due to lack of acquisitions at Fortescue). However, came highly recommended by Elizabeth / Mark. Saw opportunity available to them at GGP.
• Shareholders unlikely to hear from other board members, Shaun will be the face of the company. However, Shaun is keen to put members of the Management Team in front of the Share Holders. Damien Stephens likely to be first (Damien has already presented on the Havieron discovery - MEGWA July 2022: Damien Stephens: Havieron - History, Character and Potential - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY4oqgKC7eM
2. Next Havieron Mineral Resource Update
Shaun expects an updated MRE to be released by our JV partner as at 30th June in the annual results. If they don’t we will.
He is quite happy to align with NCM at present, they are the senior JV partner, and there are no benefits in upgrading the resource now (pending on Newmont/Newcrest deliberations). Why highlight the value of Havieron if we are potentially looking to acquire 100% of the deposit, if this does not come to fruition then this can he delivered at a later date highlighting the enhanced value of Havieron.
As previously stated he feels NCM are not fully focussed on delivering the DFS, he does not believe this will impact the project. Highlighting that the DTM has already been made. He does not expect one to be delivered in the short term.
He expects the MRE increase to be consistent with the last resource update (circa 50%), and that much of this will come from the Link Zone.
3. Scallywag Opportunity
Shaun and the team are “really excited” by the recent results. However, he is keen not to overly hype and create unsubstantiated optimism.
He pointed out that the mineralisation and high level of pathfinder elements encountered at A35 were intercepted before the real anomaly target, which was really encouraging.
Pearl – he was disappointed that they were unable to collect the sample between 77 and 151 metres as this was directly below the high silver result at 76 metres.
They will be returning to Scallywag this year. Not sure if the exploration will be in 1 or 2 tranches this year. The team are currently reviewing and strategizing for 2023.
4. Share Price and Drivers
Shaun said that he was as disappointed as anyone that the SP was at it’s current level.
He is amazed it has not reacted to the considerable amount of good news and work that has been done over the past 6-12 months (he said 6, but some of this is a bit further back now).
ASX Listing
Gives us access to one of the largest investments bases/pools in the world.
Timescale likely to be June/July but not set in stone, and this might be flexible.
As part of the listing, GGP plan to set up an Australian subsidiary for Havieron. This would require a vote by the share holders to progress. Having to ensure compliance to both UK and Australian law requires 2 set of lawyers and can be time consuming and somewhat cost onerous.
He is not keen on a share consolidation at this stage, however this might be a necessity given that the ASX listing requires a SP of at least $0.20. If a consolidation was to take place he said it would not be 2:1 more likely 3:1 or 12:1 (I think it was either or rather than between).
That said he still finds the fact we have an issuance of 5 Billion shares quite mind blowing, and will certainly consolidate at some time if it not for the ASX lisitng.
He stated that a dual listing is actually more complicated than a start-up listing. A start-up generally takes around 4 months where a dual listing is more likely to take 6 months. Work has already started on this.
Specific details are still being discussed, and he appeared open to various suggestions.
• Should any consolidation take place, should it be prior to the listing or is it better to do upon listing.
• Is it better to wait for the listing to take place post MRE update / DFS release (at a potential better SP)
• Etc.
As previously said, Shaun continues to engage with various Institutional investors.
He is not expecting anymore news to come out before the IPO (his words – ASX Listing). Not sure and didn’t press him as to whether this included the next interim exploration update.
He was a jerk