IKN

Shareholders of mining companies in Nicaragua cannot claim innocence. All they have is ignorance. This from IKN679, out last weekend.

Nicaragua political risk update (including some mining this time)

In March this year we ran a small series of political risk updates on the worsening conditions for human rights under the dictator Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, documenting how his increasingly authoritarian government was closing down press outlets, hundreds of NGOs and arresting people speaking out against the oppressive regime. Recently, Nicaragua has been the centre of a small political storm when the USA (as hosts this year) uninvited Ortega and his government from the upcoming Organization of American States (OAS) summit in June. For a while, the US move threatened to see other countries boycotting the event until Nicaragua said that it wasn’t even interested in attending (thereby letting AMLO of Mexico and Arce of Bolivia, among others, off a hook of their own making).

However, the latest news from Nicaragua has its mining industry as backdrop. Two weeks ago, the regional Catholic bishop, Monseñor Rolando Álvarez, spoke out at an assembly mass and decried the development of the Pavon mining project located in his diocese at the nearby town of Rancho Grande. The project, owned and developed by Calibre Mining (CXB.to), is now in feasibility stage and nearing the moment when EIA and construction permits are set to be awarded. It is highly unpopular in the zone and historically opposed by the local population, even to the point when a few years ago Daniel Ortega (via his wife) agreed with locals and told the previous operators, B2Gold, to shut down development. Now that has changed, which brought the bishop’s words (translated (23)):

“The area (Cerro Pavon) is again being exposed to death, a crime is being committed against nature and the people of Rancho Grande are being disrespected, because a ministerial resolution said there would be no more mining in Rancho Grande, and now there’s the mining company in Cerro Pavon. We want to say, with sincere hearts, no more mining in Rancho Grande, no more mining development in Cerro Pavon.”

The reply from the Ortega government came this week. This Thursday 19th May, Monseñor Álvarez announced via the Catholic church TV channel that he and another bishop had been aggressively tailed by members of the Nicaragua secret police all day and that, when he had confronted the people tailing him, they answered that they were following orders. The next day, Friday May 20, the Nicaragua government ordered the immediate closedown of the Catholic church’s TV channel (24). This adds to the recent accusation made by Ortega that the bishops in his country have “a criminal terrorist mentality” and are “demons in cassocks”. Nice man. This publication feels it important you know exactly what you are sponsoring by buying and owning shares of Canadian mining companies operating in Nicaragua.

How can you call yourself a mining company when your entire business model revolves around deliberately suckering in greenhorns on social media, filling your pockets with their money and distributing it to insiders? Mining the market? Mining paper? Whatever, but Amir Adnani is the type of pure scum that gives the industry its bad name, supported by zero moral colleagues, a hierarchy and an entire sector that prefers to turn a blind eye and enable these white collar recidivists, rather than clean itself up.

This is a play in three acts. First up the ATM facility, set up by Goldmining in December last year that sells treasury shares directly to the market:

“…an equity distribution agreement (the “Distribution Agreement”) with a syndicate of agents led by BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., and including BMO Capital Markets Corp., H.C. Wainwright & Co. LLC, Haywood Securities, Laurentian Bank Securities Inc. and Roth Capital Partners, LLC (collectively, the “Agents”), for an at-the-market equity program (the “ATM Program”).

The Distribution Agreement will allow the Company to distribute up to US$50 million (or the equivalent in Canadian dollars) of common shares of the Company (the “Offered Shares”) under the ATM Program. The Offered Shares will be issued by the Company to the public from time to time, through the Agents, at the Company’s discretion. The Offered Shares sold under the ATM Program, if any, will be sold at the prevailing market price at the time of sale.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of any such sales under the ATM Program to fund the exploration and development of its mineral properties, to fund future acquisitions as may be determined by the Company, and for working capital.

And with Wainwright and Roth in The USA, wouldn’t you know? The second act is to wait for a day when the Canadian market isn’t paying attention, for example Canada’s Victoria Day holiday when GLDG trades in The USA but its GOLD.to ticker is closed for business. The third act is to seek out, find and pay a bunch of souless social media influencers, the vomitworthy whores who’ll do anything for money with their channels on YouTube, Twitter and suchlike, to pump the stock to a bunch of unsuspecting fools who have more money than sense. That’s where you come in, sucker.

Add in the latest chapter in corporate engineering, in which GOLD plans to split its mediocre asset book into North America via a spin-out (free shares!) and you have a recipe to exchange worthless paper for United States Dollars. And to cap it all, once GLDG insiders and management have siphoned off all they can via exorbitant G&A and other fee items, they’ll use the proceeds to prop the other highly overvalued company in its stable by buying shares in Gold Royalty (GROY). As we pointed out in this recent post, the shady financial tricks being played in the background of this company are almost too blatant, but as the target audience for this scam wouldn’t even know where to find the company financials, let alone read and understand them, they fly straight over the heads of these greenhorn fools.

Worthless shares in a worthless company with worthless assets, pumped by worthless people to idiots with sequins in their eyes, a mining company is specifically set up to rip off social media and prop up another creaking edifice of over-valued paper. Pure and unadultered malevolent greed, with Amir Adnani the scumbag at the centre of it all. Rick Rule must be proud of his protege, a real chip off the ol’ block.

IKN679 has just been sent to subscribers, a beacon of realism in a sector of make-believe. And to save you a click, that’s Saint Leodegar, also known as St. Leger (of the Doncaster horse race), who had his eyes gouged out and tongue cut out by his sworn enemy as part of his martyrdom and was eventually beheaded in 679AD.

Four lives down, five to go? The last time we met Gatos Silver (GATO), in the post “Electrum swings the axe” on April 7th, we said goodbye to Stephen Orr as CEO, Roger Johnson as CFO and Philip Pyle as VP Exploration. As from tomorrow Dale Andres becomes interim CFO as well as being the new CEO, with Roger Johnson’s notice period up and no replacement yet. However, the new news is to say bye-bye to Chief Admin Officer Adam Dubas, effective May 31st.

The headcount from last month’s screenshot is thinning out:

The same as the other three, Mr. Dubas has also been there since 2011 and has also been quietly shuffled out the back door, via a late Friday NR filing that just kind of happens to mention the fact. Probably just coincidence.

I was in a taxi this week and this came on. It was like hearing it for the first time:

The studio album version is the best version. Leave the Nicks/Buckingham backstory aside, fret not over the lyrics and their deeper meanings, just tune into that guitar lick and how Mick Fleetwood’s drumkit lifts, carries and drives the track from the back. If it weren’t for the 70s production fade-out you’d never think it was 45 years old. YouTube here.