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Minera IRL (MIRL.cse) hires Haywood (from IKN607)

The bit that went in this weekend’s edition of the weakly, fwiw

Minera IRL (MIRL.cse) hires Haywood

The news last week (14) that Minera IRL has (we quote) “…engaged Haywood Securities Inc. to act as financial advisor to Minera in support of the Company’s plans to finance the development of its Ollachea project and the repayment of balances owed to Corporacion Financiera de Desarrollo (COFIDE) as further described in the news release dated November 12, 2020”,  was useful in more than one way. First and foremost, it allows us to confirm our presumption of deceit and lies at the centre of MIRL throughout the extended negotiation period with COFIDE. In that time, one of the strategies used by MIRL to keep stakeholders (e.g. you, me) on the hook was incessant talk of late-stage financing deals on the table, all that we needed was to clear the COFIDE mess. Even after the weak deal with Cofide, MIRL continued late last year with its talk of two open CAs and late stages rounds of DD taking place, however last week’s message from MIRL was very different. A simple statement:

You do not go to the time and expense of hiring a full-service Canadian investment bank to run a financing or sale process if you already have either a financing or a sale lined up, Q.E.D.

MIRL’s hiring of Haywood is not a good signal, it tells us we’re no closer to a funding announcement than we were weeks/months/years ago. However, it does allow us once and for all to call its CEO for what he is, which brings the advantage of not having to believe a word that comes out of his mouth. This will surely help in the sales process started by Haywood for MIRL, because that brokerage would not have taken this company on for any equity raise. That would presume the current management would take Ollachea to production and, with the best will in the world toward the efficient on-site team at Corihuarmi, there’s no COO Minebuilder at Minera IRL, no procurement structure, no VP Exploration and no chance those roles are covered by a lawyer CEO who has done nothing for the company in the last two years.

Therefore, Haywood has been brought in to sell and the most likely buyer is Chinese capitals of some shape or form. Perfect business sense of course and Peru would not offer the type of political or diplomatic objection that did for the TMAC deal with Shandong, but it would be the height of irony to see the supposedly loving and caring President community head deliver his community into the hands of those lovers of human rights. Again, considering what we now know about Diego Benavides, it would not come as much of a surprise.

As for our investment, the Haywood engagement improves the chances of a straight sell-out of MIRL to the highest bidder and as the project is still there and as economically robust as ever (works at U$1,300/oz gold, please check the spot price), there’s no reason to suppose that with professionals now taking over we won’t get purchase interest. As there’s no reason to sell the position of ‘reluctant holder’ continues, underscored by the likelihood of nothing happening until mid-year earliest, but with a little more optimism about an eventual deal of some sort.

14 Comments

    What’s your best guess as to what it’s worth on a buyout??

    Reply

      Ollachea value +~ US 200 million@current POG..whatever that means for a potential buy-out.

      Reply

        I always figured about $1 CAD would be where it should run to. I presume we’re going to take a haircut from that. If I could get $0.50 now I’d be happy to never look back. $0.70 tomorrow though.

        Reply

    Diego Benavides is such a disappointment.

    Reply

      The lost opportunity is not just in our accounts. This is widespread damage and just a continuation of the business as usual cycle with S.American mining. The IRL story began as really doing something different and better.

      Reply
          Jack The center of the universe 13/01/21 8:31 am

          Thanks. I appreciate your feedback …..even if it came from the ‘shwa 😛
          Question: isn’t this the same management team they had in place after the cofide loan? They were prepared to build ollachea then right? What’s different now? Or could one of the parties doing their DD have made a buyout offer and that’s why they hired Haywood?

          Reply

    New presentation and newsletter coming out soon. More disappointment

    Reply

    I’m looking for a great biotech tipsheet.

    Reply

    Making an analogy, the MIRL story is like the story of Alice in Wonderland: Ollachea is the never-never project … I have the perception that there is a strong internal discrepancy between the main shareholders and while that is not resolved the project It would be that: just one project … MIRL is going to see the train of history go by with gold at these levels and without producing a gram in Ollachea … we are the losers: the small shareholders …

    Reply

    I have to say that, increasingly, African nations support Chinese investment over American. I wouldn’t worry so much about their treatment of local folk… which appears to exceed local labor regulations wherever they go, in addition to, living up to their promises of building roads, schools, housing and everything in between. The issue lies in that we got hosed by promises never delivered on, in part because of your DD that we relied on as a local.

    Reply

      If you’re a subber, you’ll know my opinions on all the above already. However, I’d be interested in knowing exactly when my DD hosed the trade.

      Reply

    Financing or buyout: there is a very good chance for at least a tripple from todays price. Within 6-9 months. Fintwit should be all about it.
    That on the other hand gives an idea what could have been.
    TBF: Diego to me never mentioned anything else than after COFIDE we need 6 months for financing. I ask myself what made everyone loose their interest? There still is a shitload of money to be made!

    Reply

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