In July 2012 Santacruz Silver’s (SCZ.v) CEO, Arthur Préstamo, explained to us all that its San Felipe project was, and I quote, “…a significant and major asset of the Company“.
At the end of 2013, San Felipe was valued by the company as $28m of its total of $33.6m in exploration property assets.
Later and even after a hefty impairment, according to its latest Year End financial report San Felipe was still worth $18.68m (out of a total of $26.3m carried in exploration assets). Which is even funnier when you realize SCZ spent $11m of the company’s own cash on the project development.
Late last year SCZ tried and failed to sell it for $15m. That even after the rebound in the price of silver.
Today, after selling it on for $7m in order to pay down debt, we note that in the NR announcing the sale San Felipe had been demoted by CEO Préstamo to a “non-core asset“. Funny dat, innit? Préstamo said he was pleased with the deal too, bless his heart.
Consider this a quick lesson in where your money disappears to when you hand it over to people who don’t have the first clue about mining.