Back in April 2012 when Bad Crooke bought El Cubo from AuRico and paid U$250m (!!) for the pleasure, IKN had exactly and precisely this to say about the deal in the title of its pithy and topic post which went into the numbers of the mine (I’d call it “asset”, but…y’know…)
And yes, that was our call in 2012, but Bad Crooke insisted to the world that he’d be able to re-work El Cubo, make it a leaner and more profitable machine etc etc ad infinitum. Then in January 2013 Crooke said this about El Cubo…
“Our strategy to acquire under-performing mines in historic districts
for their turn-around and expansion potential does entail a certain
amount of ”short term pain” but our track record shows it can create
exceptional ”long term gain”. I would like to thank our shareholders
for their patience during this turn-around period at El Cubo.”
…and oh how we laughed.
Today we hear this from EDR:
“…we plan to mine the accessible reserves this year at El Cubo and have
suspended investments on exploration and mine development there until
metal prices improve. That means El Cubo will see a steady decline of
production through the year until it goes on care and maintenance in the
fourth quarter.” Continues here
All the pain, none of the gain. And to think that before buying El Cubo EDR was a $750m market capper, AFTER buying it it was a $1Bn (with a B) market capper and today, its market cap is $129m. What’s really funny is the way that just this week Bad Crooke got called “legendary” by sycophantic coverage in Palisade Radio that’s then picked up by Kitco. Legendary at pissing shareholders’ money down the toilet, it probabl means.