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CRUDE CRUDE GAS •
SPONSORED ARTICLE
What happens when the world’s biggest miners run out of gold?
We already know.
We’ve already hit peak gold, and the only companies sitting on promising new reserves are
the junior miners.
The big miners are scrambling for more gold, and merger mania has taken hold.
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We know those juniors who have already been targeted for acquisition and micro deals, so
we’re looking for the next prospective bene ciary.
Based on a series of recent events that includes the announcement of a formidable new CEO
and a near-term production target of 50,000+ ounces of gold per year in one of the world’s
hottest precious metal venues, African Gold Group (TSX.V: AGG; OTC:AGGFF) could be on a
few radars. And that’s just the starting point: the company is evaluating the potential for an
increase in estimated annual production to 100,000 ounces per year.
Not only is AGG sitting on a potential 2.2-million-ounce mineral resource at its Kobada Gold
Project in Mali’s proli c gold-producing Birimian Greenstone Belt … but it’s also just
appointed a new CEO that will turn investor heads: Legendary mining nancier Stan Bharti.
Bharti has been in Mali for over a decade already. He’s proved he can turn a company
around for a 20X pro t.
He’s already done it once in this same venue. In 2008, Bharti’s Forbes & Manhattan acquired
Avion in Mali for $20 million, turned it around and sold it to Endeavour for $500 million in
2012.
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Major miners are gunning for junior prospects. The world’s central banks are hoarding gold
at a record pace. Talk about the Gold Standard is no longer just u . And major world
powers are making every e ort to disengage from the US dollar.
All of this has seen the world’s most precious metal make prodigious runs to multi-year
highs.
But Bharti doesn’t even need this perfect setup to make good on gold: The last time he did it
in Mali was in the middle of a global nancial crisis.
Here are 5 reasons to keep a close eye on AGG (TSX.V: AGG; OTC:AGGFF) right now:
#1 No Fracking Way
Even supported by higher gold prices, senior miners don’t have more gold to get out the
ground.
That means this is a junior game for the rst time in recent history, and the African Gold
Group (TSX.V: AGG; OTC:AGGFF) news ow is putting the company in a very strong position.
Junior gold-mining ETFs are blowing things out of the water. The VanEck Vectors Junior Gold
Miners ETF is up over 36% year to date.
Last year, Goldcorp Inc. Chairman Ian Te er called peak gold, saying production had nally
peaked after four decades of uninterrupted growth. Going forward, it’s extended decline for
the big miners.
And while fracking led to an unexpected surge in oil and gas supplies for the fossil fuels
industry, there's practically zero prospect of any unconventional methods or technologies to
boost our gold reserves becoming economically viable in our lifetimes.
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To add new gold to their portfolios, the big gold miners are entering into a phase of merger
mania.
The rst mega-merger was Barrick Gold’s $18.3-billion acquisition of Randgold last year.
That was followed this April by Newmont Mining’s $10-billion acquisition of Goldcorp, right
after Te er called “Peak Gold”.
There’s even more to this picture than peak gold and merger mania.
The once fantastical idea of returning to the Gold Standard is now being voiced publicly by
Trump, who thinks there’s “something very nice about the gold standard”, and by economist
Judy Sheldon.
Switching back to a gold standard would mean the US central bank would have to purchase
massive amounts of the metal to backstop every dollar.
And central banks the world over are embarking on massive gold-buying sprees already as
equity markets cool and as Russia, China and others are stockpiling the precious metal in a
de-dollarization frenzy.
Gold stocks are outperforming the equities market, and it’s never been a better time to buy
gold.
Stan Bharti knows this well: That’s why he’s behind African Gold Group (TSX.V: AGG;
OTC:AGGFF).
He also knows that not all junior gold stocks will come out of this a winner.
He’s targeting AGG for low-cost production and undervalued assets that are likely to yield
higher returns.
Mali is the third-largest producer of gold in all of Africa, and the Birimian Greenstone Belt—
the home of Africa Gold Group’s Kobada Project—is the motherlode of African gold with a
long history of mining that dates back to the 19th Century.
It’s a massive belt the spans 350,000 square kilometers of world-class gold deposits
stretching across Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire.
African Gold Group (TSX.V: AGG; OTC:AGGFF) is right in the middle of this belt:
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The brilliant part here is that the mine holds a total resource of a whopping 2.2 million
ounces.
Even more brilliant: The Kobada project is a huge part of this. It’s 4 kilometers long and 12
kilometers wide and African Gold Group owns the entire license.
From a geological perspective, AGG could end up tripling its resource here.
It’s got three zones right nearby the already proven-up 2.2 million ounces in mineral
resources—and it’s all easy to drill because it’s all right near the surface.
The deepest hole AGG’s had to drill so far has been only 300 meters.
A 2016 feasibility study has already demonstrated that Kobada is simple to mine on a
technical level, and that’s music to investor ears.
This is an open pit operation with gravity separation and leach. That means it will be a low-
cost, scalable, free dig.
AGG puts average LOM cash operating costs at $557/Oz Au, exclusive of royalties, and all-in
LOM sustaining cash operating costs at $788/Oz Au.
#3 Payback Time
The economics are just what large-cap miners, and investors, are looking for: high early cash
ows from starter pits and a post-tax IRR of 43%, based on $1200 gold, or 55% based on
$1400 gold.
With a planned $45.4-million pre-production capital cost, African Gold Group is targeting a
1.5-year payback from the start of commercial production, and full payback in only 2.5 years.
The 2016 feasibility study shows that AGG can produce 50,000 ounces of gold a year and
build that to 100,000 ounces a year …
There are a lot of great projects out there, but many of them don’t see the light of day
because they need billions in funding to get them o the ground.
When it comes to gold miner pro les, it’s hard to beat Stan Bharti, who just took the lead for
African Gold Group (TSX.V: AGG; OTC:AGGFF).
On August 7th, AGG announced the Bharti had been appointed chairman of the board of
directors and president & CEO.
Not only is he an engineer, international nancier and seasoned entrepreneur who has
brought in $3 billion in investment capital for the companies he’s worked with, but he’s also
been behind dozens of turn-around success stories—including in Mali.
And the Kobada Project is the perfect setup for Bharti’s Toronto-based Forbes & Manhattan
(F&M). F&M is, after all, a leading rescuer of distressed assets.
The litmus test for the ideal distressed gold asset is lots of gold in the ground, plus a
substandard management team.
For Bharti and F&M, Kobada represented the next big turnaround.
Why?
- It already had a feasibility study with a resource of 2 million ounces that was going to be
easy to mine.
- It was in one of the most proli c gold belts in Africa
- The previous management wasn’t able to deliver
F&M took it over and brought on a new board, including Stan Bharti as Chairman, President
& CEO. Now it’s time to get to that gold.
Bharti’s track record on turnarounds speaks for itself, but there are other AGG board
members and managers to be excited about here, as well:
The Honorable Peter Pettigrew is a former Canadian Foreign Minister who’s had access to
the President of Mali.
Sir Sam Jonah is the former CEO of Anglo Gold Ashanti, one of the two major gold companies
operating in Africa in the 1990s, and one of the most highly respected African gold veterans
on the planet—and elsewhere, too: He’s been knighted by the Queen of England.
There’s also Bruce Humphrey, former COO of giant Goldcorp, the second-largest gold
company in the world.
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John Begeman, the CEO of Avion—the Mali-based gold company that he and Bharti built up
from $20 million to $500 million.
AGG also has a full local management team on the site with a very connected and powerful
country manager when it comes to obtaining permits.
And now, AGG can boast another big name: Daniel Callow, a 12-year veteran for
trading/mining giant Glencore’s African copper operations, whose just been made African
Gold Group’s COO.
This is a company that owns a low-cost proli c gold asset with the potential to bring many
times over returns, thanks to “Bharti e ect”.
To recap:
We’re looking at a production starting point of 50,000 ounces per year. But that’s just the
beginning. AGG is evaluating the potential for an increase in estimated annual production to
100,000 ounces per year.
Until now, the news ow was dominated by a brand new board of directors with its nger on
the trigger of distressed assets sitting on massive mineral resources.
Now, the news ow may change to the gold itself because they’re targeting a completion
date of December 2019 for an evaluation for 100,000 ounces per year.
This is potentially one of the best discount gold stories of recent times. AGG’s proved up
resources of 2.2 million ounces alone are worth billions in revenue at today’s soaring gold
prices. They’re worth billions even at yesterday’s prices.
And that 2.2 million ounces of mineral reserves is only what’s been proved up so far. This is a
4 kilometer-long and 12-kilometer wide stretch of prime gold that could contain triple the
resources.
But what makes the company potentially worth even more is the fact that the big miners are
on the hunt for just this type of junior they hope can replenish their declining reserves in the
only way possible.
This Canadian mid-cap miner has assets in Europe and Brazil and has managed to cut cost
per ounce signi cantly in recent years. Though its share price isn’t as high as it once was,
Eldorado is well positioned to make signi cant advancements in the near-term.
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In 2018, Eldorado produced over 349,000 ounces of gold, well above its previous
expectations, and is set to boost production even further in 2019. Additionally, Eldorado is
planning increased cash ow and revenue growth this year.
Eldorado’s President and CEO, George Burns, stated: “As a result of the team’s hard work in
2018, we are well positioned to grow annual gold production to over 500,000 ounces in
2020. We expect this will allow us to generate signi cant free cash ow and provide us with
the opportunity to consider debt retirement later this year. “
Yamana, has recently completed its Cerro Moro project in Argentina, giving its investors
something major to look out for. The company plans to ramp up its gold production by 20%
through 2019 and its silver production by a whopping 200%. Investors can expect a serious
increase in free cash ow if precious metal prices remain stable.
Recently, Yamana signed an agreement with Glencore and Goldcorp to develop and operate
another Argentinian project, the Agua Rica. Initial analysis suggests the potential for a mine
life in excess of 25 years at average annual production of approximately 236,000 tonnes (520
million pounds) of copper-equivalent metal, including the contributions of gold,
molybdenum, and silver, for the rst 10 years of operation.
The agreement is a major step forward for the Agua Rica region, and all of the miners
working on it.
Canadian based gold producer, Agnico Eagle Mines is an especially noteworthy company for
investors. Why? Between 1991-2010, the company paid out dividends every year. With
operations in Quebec, Mexico, and Finland, the company also is taking place in exploration
activities in Europe, Latin America, and the United States.
Agnico is a company with a lot of exposure to gold, letting investors take advantage of long-
term price movements.
Though the company joins a long list of gold majors that reported losses in 2018, but its cash
ow de cit is largely attributed to its growth in production and new projects coming online.
Wheaton is a company with its hands in operations all around the world. As one of the
largest ‘streaming’ companies on the planet, Wheaton has agreements with 19 operating
mines and 9 projects still in development. Its unique business model allows it to leverage
price increases in the precious metals sector, as well as provide a quality dividend yield for its
investors.
Recently, Wheaton sealed a deal with Hudbay Minerals Inc. relating to its Rosemont project.
For an initial payment of $230 million, Wheaton is entited to 100 percent of payable gold and
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silver at a price of $450 per ounce and $3.90 per ounce respectively.
Randy Smallwood, Wheaton's President and Chief Executive O cer explained, "With their
most recent successful construction of the Constancia mine in Peru, the Hudbay team has
proven themselves to be strong and responsible mine developers, and we are excited about
the same team moving this project into production. Rosemont is an ideal t for Wheaton's
portfolio of high-quality assets, and when it is in production, should add well over fty
thousand gold equivalent ounces to our already growing production pro le."
Kinross Gold Corporation is relatively new on the scene, founded in the early 90s, but it
certainly isn’t lacking drive or experience. In 2015, the company received the highest ranking
for of any Canadian miner in Maclean's magazine's annual assessment of socially
responsible companies.
While Kinross posted a signi cant loss in the fourth quarter of 2018, the company is making
strong moves to turn around its earnings, including the hiring of a new CFO, Andrea S.
Freeborough.
“Andrea’s successful track record at Kinross and throughout her career, including accounting,
international nance, M&A, and deep management experience, will be an excellent addition
to our leadership team,” said Mr. Rollinson. “We have great talent at Kinross and succession
planning is a key aspect of retaining that talent for the future success of our Company.”
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