>Bolivar Gold Konfektglas wächst
Kurz vor dem 2. Geburtstag ist Bolivar Gold dabei, 140.000 Unzen in diesem Jahr zu produzieren und mehr in den nächsten. Das setzt die Firma in ein Konfektglas für Firmen, die Wachstum und Reservenlebensdauer beobachten, obgleich das Potential durch den streitsüchtigen Präsidenten Venezuelas, Hugo Chavez, überlagert wird.
Künftig werden 180.000 Unzen mit Cash Cost von nur 175 USD produziert.
Gold Fields hat Anteil von 11%. Wg Chavez und Fokussierung auf Essakan joint venture (OreZone) und Cerro Corona in Peru möglich, daß Gold Fields verkauft.
Die gesamten inferred Ressourcen betragen 3,5 Mio Unzen. Seit Beginn des Jahres sind die Aktien um 70% gestiegen, von 1,75 auf beinahe 3 CAD.
Politische Risiken durch Chavez, der z.B. im letzten Oktober für mehrere Exxonprojekte die Abgaben ohne Vorwarnung von 1% auf 16,6% erhöhte. Und in der Vergangenheit wurden ohne Zögern mehrere Anlagen nationalisiert. Bolivars Präsident ist jedoch nicht besorgt, das Bellen sei lauter als das Beißen, im Minensektor gabs noch keine Probleme, gleichwohl sind höhere Nutzungsgebühren an die staatseigene CBG zu zahlen und das soziale Investitionsprogramm muß erhöht werden.<
Bolivar Gold Sweetspot is Growing
By Ben Abelson & Tim Wood
09 Mar 2005 at 09:55 AM EST
NEW YORK & TORONTO (ResourceInvestor.com) -- Several months shy of just its second birthday, Canadian-based Bolivar Gold [BGC.TO] is already set to churn out 140,000 ounces of gold this year, with more to come in following years. That puts the company in a sweetspot for companies eyeing growth and reserve life though the potential is overshadowed by the bellicosity of Venezuela president, Hugo Chavez.
Having consolidated the prolific El Callao district, Bolivar has just poured its first gold from the Choco 10 project. That will eventually provide 180,000 ounces of gold per year at a cash cost of just $175 per ounce.
South Africa's Gold Fields has first dibs on Bolivar through its 11% equity investment in the junior which supplemented by joint ventures on several other properties. Gold Fields has achieved a good return which might incline it to sell, compounded by sovereign risk that Chavez keeps at boiling point. The South African has also set its priorities with the Essakan joint venture (OreZone) in Burkina Faso and Cerro Corona in Peru.
So the prospects for an off market transaction to snag the Gold Fields stake in Bolivar ahead of an acquisition might be considered above average.
Also, Bolivar has explicit support from America's most successful commodities money manager in recent times, Frank Holmes of U.S. Global Investors.
Holmes mentioned Bolivar as a pick earlier this year in an interview with Resource Investor. Readers who took the advice are up more than two thirds in less than one quarter, sweeter still for Americans who traded greenbacks for Loonies to access the Toronto listed stock. It's also a company that looks increasingly ripe for an interlisting and such access to U.S. investors would likely provide considerable uplift. Moreover, Holmes is integral to the Canadian capital market circus and could provide impetus to a deal involving, as an outside bet, Goldcorp.
Lately, Bolivar's shares have been buoyed by its February announcement of a 1.7 million inferred ounce discovery on a separate zone of the Choco 10 property - bringing its total inferred resource base to 3.5 million ounces.Since the start of this year the company's shares have climbed about 70% - rising from C$1.75 to nearly C$3 on March 8.
The lead lining on Bolivar's cloud are the unique challenges of mining and exploring in Venezuela. The ruling party's oil-fuelled aggression has resulted in dodgy decisions that wreck the risk profile. That includes Mugabesque land reforms, regional power games, and repeated tweaking of America's nose.
To date the true impact on mining has been modest, mostly confined to a bureaucratic parade that jams up permitting processes and, to outsiders, often appear arbitrary and capricious.
Sometimes they are. Last October, for example, the country without warning hiked a royalty tax on several Exxon Mobil projects from 1% to 16.6%. And in the past, the country has unhesitatingly nationalized various assets.
When asked about Chavez's "reforms" during the recent BMO Nesbitt Burns Global Resources Conference, Bolivar President and COO Miguel de la Campa didn't appear concerned.
"We actually think his bark is louder than his bite. We haven't seen any problem in the mining sector," he said.
Still, De la Campa also noted that the company was going to be paying higher royalties on Choco 10 to state-owned development company CBG, and would also likely have to increase its social investment programme by $300,000 to $400,000 per annum.
Bolivar was formed in 2003 from the rubble of energy explorer TecnoPetrol Inc. after that company acquired a 70% interest in Choco 10 through the purchase of Venezuelan holding company Carisma Corporation AVV Bolivar later acquired a 99.8% interest in the property by diluting the minority stake of state-owned development company CBG after that company failed to fund its share of costs.
The company imported nearly its entire management team from fellow Venezuelan-miner Bolivar Goldfields Ltd., which had sold off its mining assets to Crystallex in 2000.
http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=8611