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Decision disappoints

The Chronicle-Herald
Voice of the people
Published: 2008-02-09

As longtime yearly visitors to Nova Scotia, my family and I have been wildly applauding the designation of the Ship Harbour Long Lake area as protected land. This was such an enlightened, responsible decision that we have been singing the praises of the Nova Scotia government to all who will listen.
We now find ourselves deeply disappointed in this same government’s giving permission for open-pit mining right beside the parkland. There is no shortage of research on the long-term environmental devastation that open-pit mining brings to an area. Please say it isn’t so.

Dr. Judy E. Turner, Toronto



Mining as a toxic issue
RALPH SURETTE
Chronicle-Herald
Published: 2008-02-16

THERE WAS an editorial in the New York Times on Thursday describing a fight over uranium exploration permits just outside Grand Canyon National Park. The permits were granted with little public notice and no formal environmental review, provoking widespread outrage. It was done under an 1872 law, of which, said the Times, the "worst feature by far is that it elevates mining over all other uses of the land."

This introduces us briskly to Nova Scotia, where we don’t even need antique laws to elevate mining above all other uses of the land. We have an antique political culture to do that.

A case in point is the newly authorized Moose River gold mine, promising a five- to seven-year burst of 100-plus jobs, then leaving a toxic hole in the ground. To read the government’s announcement, full of praise for the controls and sensitivities of modern gold mining, you’d think this was actually a joyful day for the environment.

But the key here is that the company was allowed to hire a consultant to do its own environmental assessment. The kid glove approach was noted by none other than the Bilcon company, which had its Digby Neck gravel quarry turned down after being raked over the coals by a stiff formal review. That will be part of its argument before the secret panels of NAFTA, where it will be complaining of unfair treatment and suing for compensation. Its question is a logical one: If this gold mine can get away with it, why can’t I?

According to the Eastern Shore Forest Watch Association, which was instrumental in getting the province to protect the Ship Harbour-Long Lake wilderness area – the top lake (Scraggy Lake) of which borders the mining project – what the gold mine is getting away with is this: The company’s assessment was "limited to the mine site, completely ignoring the risk of environmental consequences downstream if the mine effluent, carrying cyanide, arsenic and even mercury, accidentally spills into Scraggy Lake," potentially contaminating a 30-kilometre watershed.

Further, "the company plans to pump a huge quantity of water from Square Lake, on Crown land, pollute this water with cyanide in the gold extraction process, then dump the partly cleansed effluent into Scraggy Lake." Along with a pit "deeper than Bedford Basin" and a "rubble mountain over 35 hectares, the height of a 15-storey building," there will be a permanent toxic legacy which will require virtually "perpetual care."

A rather excited gold prospector was quoted as saying that this project will "raise the profile" of 60 other gold-bearing areas in the province. If one can be slipped in without proper review, why not 60?

Plus, there’s the business of a new quarry approved at Upper Granville over local protests. It’s 3.9 hectares, just under the limit to trigger an environmental review. Bilcon, had it understood us better, could have had the entire North Mountain range to itself had it only cut it up 3.9 hectares at a time. Plus, there’s strip mining for coal in Cape Breton and a controversial new gypsum project behind Windsor, and renewed pressure to lift the moratorium on uranium mining.

The point is this: We’re a small province, with no hinterland to speak of, and watersheds everywhere flowing to the sea, already compromised by clearcutting and other activities. Mining can’t be a wild west cowboy show. The review panel on the Digby Neck quarry proposed that all quarry projects on the North Mountain be put on hold until a proper policy is developed, and proposed that a coastal zone policy be created to guide large coastal developments. Others want us to tally our limited and partly polluted groundwater resources in this context. And then there’s the demand that the province simply respect its own environmental assessment guidelines. Why is this too much to ask – especially in view of the MacDonald government’s incessant bragging about its environmental prowess?

The answer is no doubt the need to be perceived to be "open for business" – having been forced to kill the Digby Neck quarry, the idea is to give the mining industry something to take home.

Indeed, there’s an argument going around that I have trouble with – the notion that we’re getting a reputation for saying "no" to everything. It started with opposition to obstructing view planes in downtown Halifax, then the nixing of the Commonwealth Games, then the Digby Neck quarry, and no doubt I’ll be accused of joining in by asking for a proper regulation of mining projects. There’s a kind of blackmail in this. We’re being asked to say "yes" just for form’s sake, no matter how problematic the project.

But it’s peculiar how being "open for business" is a message that is crafted overwhelmingly for the mining sector. Do people who invest in ports, manufacturing, forestry, retail or whatever need convincing that we’re open for business, considering the grants and other incentives we’ve lavished on them for decades? Being "open for business," then, means primarily this: Come and take us. We’re easy.

( rsurette@herald.ca)

Ralph Surette is a veteran freelance journalist living in Yarmouth County.
 
Hey all, i have no experience in bonus options (or any options for that matter) today i received paperwork regarding ATV bonus options. They have to be paid for (18 cents) by 30th Oct 2009. Not that i have any intention to, but for curiousities sake at what stage would i be entitled to sell these options. I know i can pay for them at anytime up until the expiry date. But im assuming they only become valid and saleable upon my payment is this right?
 
Springhill

You can sell them anytime you want.

Code atvo

Current bid is .025c , offer is about .085 from memory

If you are in no hurry, just hang onto them, if the share price of the fpo's (normal ATV) rises so will the atvo's

Here are a few things to consider, you got them for free, that don't expire until next year.

If atv is trading at 25 cents in the future, the options should be worth 7 cents plus whatever time value is left in them.

I am holding mine for a while as 18 cents could be cheap when the time comes, also you don't have to pay for them they will just expire.

Not advice, just trying to help.
 
Selling out of this one today, to be honest i think its a decent investment, but nothing more really.... average gold grades, some community resistance to the project, though it does have govt support. I hope this company does well but im tired of it goin nowhere at this point in time... moving the $$$ to GLX ahead of the relase of drill results. Good luck with this, those who hold
 
Since my sell out of ATV (@15c if i recall properly, thanks God for that!), this has possibly been one of the worst performing goldies on the ASX, considering the surge in gold price of the last couple of years. I'd love to see if any others have fared worse.

I honestly don't think they have progressed much in terms of ore reserves, or any other manner possibly, except for increasing the number of shares out there.
9.59 million tonnes @1.48g/t for 454,000 oz Au. Shares on Issue 450m - MC $22m.
Is this fundamentally undervalued?
 

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atv has 3 projects,

Torquoy,
Cochrane hill
and
regional exploration.

Regional exploration is a pure dice roll, so its value is likely to be small. Wally seems to have some kind of gut feeling that there are more ore reserves to be found, time will tell. I feel that the value of this is quite small compared to the value of Torquoy.

Cochrane hill has the following resource estimates.
Indicated Resource: 251,000
Inferred Resource: 298,000
TOTAL: 549,000

There has been no DFS done, so it is still uncertain if a mine will be profitable. Scorpio sold its 40% stake to atv for $1.6mill, implying that Scorpio thinks it must be currently valued close to $4million, including all the exploration so far.

We also know of the court proceedings......
Steeple thinks Scorpio should have sold CH to itself rather than to atv.

There is a chance that atv will be left with nothing (hopefully a refund of the 1.6 mill) and will have to take Scorpio to court hoping to get some $$ back for exploration expenditure. possible the ruling could be against steeple and we are left with 100% of CH, end of story. Time will tell.

Lets forget about atvs minor projects and concentrate on Touquoy.

What we know about Touquoy is,
Proved Ore Reserves: Ounces of gold 118,000
Probable Ore Reserves: Ounces of gold 336,000
Total Ounces of gold: 454,000

Also 100,000 ounces in Touquoy west with a higher grade (2g/t as opposed to 1.5). I don’t know how deep the ore is or how far from the main reserve is. Atv has not stated any intent to mine it. We also know;

Atlantic Gold as the operator and manager of the Touquoy Gold Project sole funds all capital and exploration expenditure. Once gold production at Touquoy has commenced Atlantic gold will receive 100% of the Touquoy cashflow until all these expenditures plus interest have been recouped. Thereafter Atlantic Gold is obliged to pay 40% of pre-tax profits from Touquoy to the vendor of the Touquoy tenements. A royalty of 3% is also payable, two-thirds of which can be purchased.

And the DFS stated,
These Reserves are defined within an open pit with a 2.6:1 strip ratio and having a 5-year mine life at a planned throughput rate of 2.0 Mtpa through a conventional on-site gravity/CIL plant. Cash operating costs (at July 2010) are estimated at US$505/oz with an initial capital cost of $115 million (C$123 million).

I am long term bullish on POG. If everything goes to plan for atv and mine opens in 2014 and runs for 5 years then I think the POG will generally be higher than AUD$2000/oz throughout production. If we use conservative values then profit for the 5 year period could be

Gold $1400/oz, cost $600/oz

Proved Ore Reserves: 118000*0.6*0.97*(1400-600) = 94.4mill (total)
Proved Ore Reserves: 118000*0.6*0.97*(1400-600) = 55mill (to atv)

Probable Ore Reserves: 336,000*0.6*0.97*(1400-600) = 260mill(total)
Probable Ore Reserves: 336,000*0.6*0.97*(1400-600) = 156mill(to atv)

Lets say initial capital cost + financing is $200 mill
Using these figures total profit to atv would be about $80 mill, 16mill a year for 5 years.
Setting gold at 2000/oz gives profit of,
Proved Ore Reserves: 160 million (total)
Probable Ore Reserves: 456million (total)
Which gives total profit of $40 million a year for 5 years till 2019, $200 million
ATV have stated that the bulk of the ore is a probable ore reserve, So the estimates above are still quite vague and the recovered gold is likely to differ from the stated amounts.

So if Touquoy gets up and running with few surprises than it looks like a conservative estimate of profit for atv will be between 20 and 40 million a year for 5 years, total of $100M to $200M. How much would you be willing to pay for that???

to get Touquoy up and running atv needs to sort out the following

Formal application to Nova Scotia Environment (NSE) for Industrial Approval, the last permit to be issued, will be submitted when legal access to all required surface titles has been obtained.

The Company now owns 90% of the 315 ha of privately held land required for the mine site. A further 262 ha of Crown land is required and this has previously been offered, and accepted, for lease. The remaining 10% is held in 13 unmarketable titles as per announcement (18th Novemner 2011)

Atlantic Gold expects that completion of the acquisition of land titles for the Touquoy Gold Project, with the assistance of the Nova Scotia Department of Natural resources, will be substantially completed in first quarter of 2012.

And finally project financing.....

In the absence of CH and regional exploration is $20mill a significant discount to the true value of Touquoy?

I feel atv should be currently valued somewhere from 30 to 50 million and hopefully jumping somewhere upwards of 80 million after industrial approval is issued. And then up again to over $100 mill the day before production (i.e. after financing and mine and processing plant constructed)
 
When will the next cap raising be?

$3 million cash at 30/09/2011- all cash from AU and SPP already received.

Estimated spendings for Q4 2011= $1.25 mill, as per estimate stated on announcement

Estimated cash at end Q4 2011 = $1.75mill

Estimated spend for Q1 2012 =??????

On Regional exploration, “The program is ongoing and is progressing well, and is anticipated to continue through to at least the end of 2011.” – likely not to be too much spent in Q1 on exploration.

Then final 3 marketable titles are under negotiation. And I also assume as per Touquoys post that cash for the unmarketable titles will be put aside. So how much will be spent in Q1 and Q2 on land titles. We also have running the business and maybe the last of the exploration in Q1.

Estimated cash at end of Q1 = $1.75mill-outflows in Q1.

1 million to be paid in may2012

Estimated cash at end Q2= $0.75mill–outflows in Q1 and Q2…… uh oh..............uh oh.

Looks to me like there will be a cap raising before/during May.

We are still awaiting results from the CH drilling in November and the results of the regional exploration program. Fingers crossed these are super super important!!!!.

I feel that if these results are good then we will see a cap raising soon after. I assume that if CR is not done immediately we risk a drop in SP due to added risk of not having property issues sorted prior to May.

If the share price does not rise after drilling results, then I guess the cap raising will be after property issue is sorted but must be before final payment for CH.

So if the drilling results do not bump up the share price and the titles issue is not sorted before May there looks to be a good chance of a cap raising at a scary low level. Ask yourself how low this stock could be under these conditions. Beware the risk of dilution!

It also looks like there will be no further regional exploration and no further development of CH until after a cap raising.

The question is,
Do we attempt CR to pay for more exploration or do we halt all further exploration until we see cash flow from a mine at Touquoy.

I think this all depends on whether we have good drill results and have the property issue sorted before May. If share price is low further exploration will result in big dilution and may not be worthwhile. How much could atv spend on exploration after CH is paid for to seeing a cash flow from Touquoy?????

ATV is not without risk
 
akkopower said:
Thank you minister Parker,

http://www.gov.ns.ca/news/details.asp?id=20120615002
Click to expand...


Hi akkopower, are you a holder in Atlantic?


That link finally provides some good news for those holding or with an eye on ATV.
The ASX version of the anny here.
http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20120618/pdf/426w9lxhpwtngb.pdf

Plus a court decision going in their favour.
http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20120529/pdf/426jxgpzmxctn0.pdf

Some of the uncertainty around ATV is starting to clear and the chart is showing it.
 

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Purchase of Cochrane Hill Gold Project to close imminently


Atlantic Gold NL (ASX: ATV) wishes to report on progress in closing the purchase of the Cochrane Hill Gold Project in Nova Scotia, Canada.
It was announced on 29 June 2012 that agreement had been reached with Scorpio Gold (Canada) Corporation (Scorpio), the vendor of the Cochrane Hill gold property, to extend the latest date for closing the purchase to 31 July 2012, pending resolution of outstanding issues relating to Scorpio’s title to the Cochrane Hill gold property.
The major title issue has now been resolved; that is, the removal of a caveat lodged on title by Steeple Holdings Ltd, the aggrieved party whose claim against Atlantic Gold’s purchase of Cochrane Hill from Scorpio following exercise of its pre-emptive rights was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia last May. Atlantic Gold expects to close the acquisition of Cochrane Hill in accordance with its agreement with Scorpio in a matter of days.
The final instalment of C$1.0 million, provided to Atlantic Gold under a third party bridging loan, has been forwarded to the Company’s Halifax lawyers for release to Scorpio upon receipt of usual closing documentation.
 

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