WAF - West African Resources

WAF almost recovered from that blip. All seems to be on track with production and Kiaka development.

In the back pages they note that production was 6% less than last quarter and AISC per ounce of US$1,296 was 12% higher than the previous quarter reflecting 5% lower gold sales in the quarter and 4% higher AISC on an absolute basis.

Not sure if that matters due to the higher prices for gold.

Hopefully this recovery sneaks me back up the list in the years comp.

Yes it's in Mali and it's Barrick Gold but I'll put it here because it's Africa, another Junta and of course next door to Burkina Faso. The thugs are encouraged by how far they can go in bending over the colonialist miners and how easy it is to invent pretexts for confiscation.

Mali accuses Barrick Gold of breaching agreement, miner denies claims​

Reuters | October 24, 2024

Mali has accused Barrick Gold of failing to abide by commitments made in a recent agreement, charges the Canadian miner denied on Thursday, saying it did not accept any claims of wrongdoing.

Barrick, the world’s second-largest gold miner, announced on Sept. 30 it had agreed with the government to resolve disputes over the Loulo and Gounkoto gold mines, days after Malian authorities briefly detained four Malian staff working for the company

But in a joint statement dated Oct. 23, Mali’s economy and mines ministries said Barrick had “not honoured the commitments to which it subscribed in the agreement.”
Without sharing further details, the ministries said the breaches included those relating to environmental and corporate social responsibility and foreign exchange rules.
They said there were “serious risks to the group’s continued operations in Mali, one of whose operating licenses expires at the beginning of 2026.”
“The Malian government has decided to draw all legal consequences arising from the actions taken by Barrick Gold,” they said.
In response, Barrick denied the allegations and said since Sept. 30 it had been actively engaged with the government to reach a settlement that would include an increase in the state’s share of economic benefits from the Loulo-Gounkoto complex.
“While Barrick does not accept any claims of wrongdoing, it has chosen to act in good faith as a long-standing partner of Mali,” it said in a statement, adding that the company had paid the government $85 million in early October in the context of ongoing negotiations.
Earlier this month, three sources told Reuters that Mali’s military government was seeking at least 300 billion CFA francs ($512 million) in outstanding taxes and dividends from Barrick.
Asked to comment at the time, a Barrick spokesperson said the company was still in the process of negotiation.
The demands on Barrick follow an audit of mining contracts last year and a subsequent push by the junta to renegotiate existing agreements with foreign mining firms aimed at channeling a greater share of revenues into state coffers through a new mining code.

On the cusp of a gold boom, this miner’s world collapsed – now it wants justice

• Sarama Resources claims its Tankoro 2 permit in Burkina Faso was expropriated by its military government in 2023
• Last week the company secured US$4.4 million in litigation funding to take the case to international arbitration
• ASX and TSX miners have won hundreds of millions in damages for claims in recent years as resource nationalism rises across the globe

When Aussie mining executive and geologist Andrew Dinning wrapped up a successful stint as director and president at Moto Gold Mines in 2009, selling its stake in the Kibali gold mine in the DRC to Mark Bristow’s Randgold Resources and South Africa’s AngloGold Ashanti via a US$578 million takeover, Burkina Faso was the place to be.

The emerging West African country that captured a portion of the 7Mozpa Birimian Shield seemed the logical place to repeat the success.

From 2010, Dinning led the exploration of the Tankoro prospect, part of the broader Sanutura project near the town of Hounde in south-west Burkina, turning a greenfields discovery undrilled for 50km on either side into a 2.5Moz gold deposit after sinking US$80 million of investors’ cash into the virgin ground.

“We went to West Africa because of the geological opportunity,” Dinning said.

But a succession of coups in 2022 turned the land of opportunity into scorched earth and his gold explorer Sarama Resources (ASX:SRR) instead became a cautionary tale about the rise of resource nationalism.

Almost one year after the installation of then 34-year-old military captain Ibrahim Traore as president, the company announced on September 6 that its rights to the Tankoro 2 permit had been withdrawn.

“Instead of putting out a feasibility study that shows an internal rate of return of 100% at US$1800/oz, not US$2800/oz, you can imagine what it would be now,” Dinning told Stockhead.

“Instead of doing that we put out a news release saying the government’s taken the permit off us and killed the project,” Dinning pauses … “for pretty invalid reasons.”

Originally listed solely in Canada, Sarama’s shares closed at 19c on their first day trading as CHESS depositary interests (CDIs) in Australia on May 6, 2022, midway between two separate military power grabs on January 23 and September 30 of that year.

By the time the now C$8m-capped explorer reported the expropriation, its Australian CDIs were worth just 3c, closing as low as 1.7c in March this year, the upheaval consuming 91% of their value.

Now, Sarama is ready to fight back.

Action afoot​

On Thursday, Sarama announced a litigation funding agreement with Locke Capital II LLC, which will provide a four-year non-recourse loan valued at US$4.4 million to cover all fees and expenses related to its pending arbitration claim.

The request for arbitration is expected to be filed soon with the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, a Washington-based court of international arbitration that is seeing an increasing caseload with many disputes related to resource nationalism.

From an email
Long full article at stockhead

I think we all need to keep our eyes and ears open for the next West African scare campaign that causes a stock to be smashed for no good reason and recover back to where it started. I'm not saying this would happen every time, but there's been several examples of this over the past few years that when looked at through Harry H, were brilliant trading opportunities, if you had the balls. Me? No. Loser.

Sean K said:

West African scare campaign

Click to expand...

Scare campaign?

finicky said:

Scare campaign?

Click to expand...

Well, let's just wait for the next one and see what happens.

@debtfree WAF was a bit affected by the RSG issues as you'd expect but not as much as I thought. Must be tough for West Af companies at the moment. They all must be crapping themselves that the Juntas are just going to randomly choose them for a bribe.

I sold my RSG today and bought more WAF.
WAF is not in MAli where RSG and Barrack are, has not had to pay any bribes(yet), is still generating some significant amounts of free cash, and will continue for some time.
There is a risk, but its a risk I am prepared top take.
Mick

Just checked in to my 2024 stock picks to make sure I'd ranted about something but nothing in WAF which has been one of my best. Sold out a little while ago to lock in some decent gains and on the back of some shenanigans going on in Coup Central. Who knows what happens next. Even PNG have taken the hint and started charging 'back taxes' to western miners raping and pillaging the earth of unsuspecting backwaters still living in mud huts burning dung for fuel. Not sure if this is going to help my chances of a podium finish in the yearly comp, mostly due to KNG crapping on my parade, well supported by China destroying the graphite market.

WAF finished the 2024 year in the upper end of gold production.
Nice going team.
Micl

mullokintyre said:

WAF finished the 2024 year in the upper end of gold production.
Nice going team.
Micl
View attachment 190713

Click to expand...

Yes, very nice. And, I've got no doubt they're going to get Kiaka in on time and budget, they seem to be very good operators.

The crocodile in the room remains the Junta Factor. Anything could happen.

Not Burkina Faso of course, but next door and the anti-colonialist kleptocrats are singing from the same hymn book it seems to me. The hypocrites. I strongly regret being levered out of this otherwise execellent long term investment. Can't think of a gold mine building crew I'd prefer to WAF. But it's worth it to me to be out rather than fuming at the ongoing unfairness and added uncertainty. Good to see a big operator arcing up.

Not Held

Excerpt from a longer article at the link:
Barrick halts operations in Mali after $245m in gold seized
Cecilia Jamasmie | January 14, 2025

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD)(TSX:ABX) followed through on Tuesday with its threat to suspend operations at its Loulo-Gounkoto complex in Mali after the military-led government moved gold stocks to a custodial bank over the weekend.

The Canadian mining giant described the decision as “regrettable” but necessary, emphasizing its commitment to resolving the dispute.

“Barrick remains committed to constructive engagement with the Malian government and all stakeholders to find an amicable solution that ensures the long-term sustainability of the Loulo-Gounkoto mining complex and its vital contribution to Mali’s economy and communities,” the company said in the statement.
The Toronto-based miner did not say what amount of the precious metal had been seized and transported by helicopter to the state-owned Banque Malienne de Solidarité (BMS) in the capital Bamako. Reuters reported on Monday the value of the gold taken by the Malian government is estimated to be around $245 million.
Barrick’s shares remained relatively unchanged, trading at $15.45 as of 10:10 a.m. in New York and at C$22.32 in Toronto. The stock has dropped over 20% since Mali initially issued threats against the company in October.
The suspension follows months of escalating tensions between Barrick and the Malian government, which claims the miner owes it $512 million in back taxes. The division of economic benefits from the Loulo-Gounkoto complex, which produced nearly 700,000 ounces of gold in 2023, remains an issue after Mali revised its mining code in 2023 to give the state higher stakes in projects.

finicky said:

Not Burkina Faso of course, but next door and the anti-colonialist kleptocrats are singing from the same hymn book it seems to me. The hypocrites. I strongly regret being levered out of this otherwise execellent long term investment. Can't think of a gold mine building crew I'd prefer to WAF. But it's worth it to me to be out rather than fuming at the ongoing unfairness and added uncertainty. Good to see a big operator arcing up.

Not Held

Excerpt from a longer article at the link:
Barrick halts operations in Mali after $245m in gold seized
Cecilia Jamasmie | January 14, 2025

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD)(TSX:ABX) followed through on Tuesday with its threat to suspend operations at its Loulo-Gounkoto complex in Mali after the military-led government moved gold stocks to a custodial bank over the weekend.

The Canadian mining giant described the decision as “regrettable” but necessary, emphasizing its commitment to resolving the dispute.

“Barrick remains committed to constructive engagement with the Malian government and all stakeholders to find an amicable solution that ensures the long-term sustainability of the Loulo-Gounkoto mining complex and its vital contribution to Mali’s economy and communities,” the company said in the statement.
The Toronto-based miner did not say what amount of the precious metal had been seized and transported by helicopter to the state-owned Banque Malienne de Solidarité (BMS) in the capital Bamako. Reuters reported on Monday the value of the gold taken by the Malian government is estimated to be around $245 million.
Barrick’s shares remained relatively unchanged, trading at $15.45 as of 10:10 a.m. in New York and at C$22.32 in Toronto. The stock has dropped over 20% since Mali initially issued threats against the company in October.
The suspension follows months of escalating tensions between Barrick and the Malian government, which claims the miner owes it $512 million in back taxes. The division of economic benefits from the Loulo-Gounkoto complex, which produced nearly 700,000 ounces of gold in 2023, remains an issue after Mali revised its mining code in 2023 to give the state higher stakes in projects.

https://www.mining.com/barrick-halts-operations-in-mali-after-245m-gold-seized/

Click to expand...

Yes, good Barrick have the balls to do this. Lucky they have the balance sheet (I assume) to do this and confront these short sighted morons. Will only be bad for the local communities. And, once reality of the free money coming in hits the juntas they will start reassessing. Maybe. But, still bad news for WAf explorers and developers in general. The discount to SP / value just dropped another 10%, or more.