Griffin Mining - golden future! http://www.basemetals.com/

GFM deserves a new thread after todays AGM. For the first time the venue was packed with shareholders, a tribute to the interest and support the company has for what the Board has achieved. For those unable to be at the meeting here are some of the points I noted which may interest folk on this BB.

Production: dry and wet testing now completed and zinc concentrate comes through the smelter next week. Zinc price on the LME is currently $1300/ton. GFM is being offered $1700/ton at the mine gate. This premium reflects the demand and difficulty local industry has in sourcing this basic metal ( As an aside the chairman reported that zinc is not easily and efficiently extracted as a recycled metal so newly mined zinc is always required). Cost of production is $595/ton ($700/ton if all depreciation costs are included). Labour costs are $1000/worker pa cf an Aussie underground worker of $130,000/worker pa. Apparently the 20m.pa worker migration from agricultural to industrial jobs means that there are queues of applicants wanting jobs at the mine; wage inflation is not an issue. 240+ employees on site to run the mine on a 24/7 basis.
Production can be increased w/o further investment for a throughput of 400,000 tons of ore pa; An increase to 500,000tons pa would require further investment of between $1m and $2m . All plant has been purposely over-engineered to ensure capacity can rise reliably and with back-up facilities (eg 3 boilers, 2 of which are back-up)
H&S is to world stds., setting an example to the rest of the Chinese mining industry which has a poor record currently because of the number of small private mines.

Reserves: 14.5years supply on current zone rising to 25 years in zone 3. Chairman showed an independent report which believes that the closure of many existing zinc mines is now producing a supply gap which will continue to improve the zinc price cycle to year 2012.

Profits: No problems known or foreseen to the repatriation of profits. However the chairman stated that the profits might achieve more for shareholders if the company uses these for further exploration and possibly buying back the companys shares. The latter move might help resolve the current shorting problem where it is thought that between 6 or 7 million shares are currently being shorted. This move could have a highly geared effect on increasing the share price and help deter the shorters/stock bashers from further activity.

Exploration: Chairman says company will be drilling a further 18,000m over the coming summer months and in his personal view he expects the company to steadily move towards becoming a gold mining concern, with some of the profits from the zinc smelting funding that work. An RC rig which costs 33% of the cost of a diamond drilling rig has been brought on to site.
Future exploration areas always being looked at + changes in Chinese Ministry of Land & Resources policy towards funding means that GFM will likely be offered many more prime government held assets in the near future.

Personal view is that GFM is a well and responsibly run mining company which is now likely to really grab a lot more attention as the profits start to flow as of next week. I am sure others on this BB at the meeting can fill the gaps where I have missed anything.

2nd August 2005


EXERCISE OF WARRANTS



Griffin Mining Limited ('Griffin' or the 'Company') has received notice of the
exercise of warrants over 75,000 new ordinary shares in Griffin at an exercise
price of 0.20 per share for net proceeds to the Company of 15,000. These
warrants were granted as part of an equity placing in August 2003.



Application has today been made for the new ordinary shares issued on the
exercise of the aforementioned warrants to be admitted to trading on AIM, which
is expected to occur on 5th August 2005. Following the issue of these new
ordinary shares, there will be 183,327,731 Griffin ordinary shares in issue.

Not much dilution there then. GFM still does not seem capable of sustaining the sp level; even though one can take a very relaxed view considering its medium term prospects, you would think that all the buyers who were in at sub 3p and wanted to take a profit would have done so by now. Difficult to see why anyone would want to sell at this juncture.

quite right have just bt in @ 37.98 results due 7th sept should make a difference....my usual incompetent operation having watched them on and off all the way from 12p...not to depress anyone by me buying, am showing profit this year.

Tipton11, Good decision. W/O wanting to appear to ramp, the outcome of the gold drilling should prove that you have still got in at a very, very good price. If it was only zinc we were considering here, there is still more to go on that front too, but proving that earlier high concentrate gold finds were not just one-offs is the real prize.

I think we've attracted a few daytraders in recent times but bearing in mind that we had a number of buyers at 39p+ on Friday its just a matter of time imo.
Hopefully we are just pausing for breath before the next assault.

While we get bored here can anyone shed any light on ETQ?

Does anyone on here also still hold Monterrico metals shares - if so, what are peoples opinions re. these with regards the future price, etc

Not a holder myself but a poster (Eman) over on Fillyaboots posts on them and is pretty bullish.

He is pretty level headed, thorough in his research and specialises in mining stocks. I had a brief look and they do look promising as does the future price of tungsten but I'm happy with my holdings at present.

A couple of meaty trades at the eod, the 175k t-trade is down as a sell but I can't see them getting 38p for that qty anytime today?????????

Up a touch again today, nice and steady does it....

Quite encouraging. RHPSG does not seem to update on them in their weekly newsletter on Thursdays. Surprising given the way this is heading. i still regard this as one of the best , and safest, plays in the AIM mining sector.

Thought it was going to be a quiet day, without any chance of breaking through 40p. But the 1,400,000 agency cross deal which has just gone through may change that.

Good luck guys - I'm out, cowardly I know but I've taken the money
and run like hell! LOL
If it drops I'll be back in, but I hope it doesn't, as it doesn't deserve to.
:>)

Stockbunny- good luck, I hope you live to regret it...lol.

Sharesure, thats quite a few X-trades now, I wonder if they all found the same home??

dibbles, maybe, alyhough yesterday's X transaction wasn't as significant as today's might turn out to be. 1.4m shares is a good chunk of stock.
On the negative side obviously either stockbunny, or if it wasn't his block of shares, felt it was time to move on. Like you, I am happy if they made a good profit, but I hope that they have mistimed selling as I think that the interesting, and less risky, time has now commenced and it should turn out to be the most lucrative.

Dibbles & Sharesure ;>)
By the way the bunny's shares are hers!
;>)

Well stockbunny, sorry to lose you. Was the 1.4m X trade yours? Still think this is not the right time to sell even though I've been in these since they were sub 3p. That might look greedy but if they do firm up on some gold finds the sp will go vertical; and if they don't find their intuitions/early drill holes are replicated over a wider area then they still have a world class zinc mine. What have I missed on the down side?

Sharesure - I doubt you have missed anything. Thing is it sounds like you
are a longer term holder then I am, I dislike 'paper profits' and tend to convert
them as soon as possible to actual cash. Unless I keep that 'flow' going I
am unable to then look about and re-invest elsewhere. Although not a day
trader, I am not a long term holder either.

1.4million shares! LOL
Oh I wish they had been mine, I trade much smaller then that and possibly more frequently it's just a very different style of trading. I was in these primarily because
they were mining zinc, the secondary gold side didn't interest me that much
as I like RRS and trade in and out of those for gold exposure.

So on balance and in answer to your question -
You have not missed anything on the downside, I've just done exactly
what I said in my first post today I've taken the cash & run.
:>)

I think Stockbunny as been spooked by EPD.