My thoughts on the possible future problems:
1. I believe that K92 will have to pay Barrick 60 million if they mine 1 million ounces in 10 years. I can't find the exact wording of the deal despite looking through the old PR's. Does anyone else have this info?
My guess is that they will not rush to roll the ramp up on the mine and come in just short of this (108k per year, starting next year would still only be ~800,000 oz since they didn't mine anything for the first few years and are going probably only have 50k or less this year.)
I think they will really ramp up the exploration drilling since this can ramp their market cap up really fast without having to build additional processing plant infrastructure and pay that 60 mil out.
2. I think that the locals/landowners will continue to be a thorn in their side. I believe there are over 800 different languages spoken in PNG. My guess is every local tribe and group who has ever had some sort of contact with the property is going to try to get a piece of the action.
It seemed that the PNG government was supportive of K92 and the mining industry in general when they settled the previous problem. Hopefully they can work through these issues as they move forward. Wikipedia says "Mineral deposits, including gold, oil, and copper, account for 72% of export earnings." I don't think that the government will let the locals kill the golden goose.
3. Agree that management has been very liberal with handing out new options and warrants at market or slightly above the market prices. I think that they are all loading up on shares because they want to make a lot of money too. The good thing is that I suspect that they will do what is in their own best interest which is also in our best interest to make the stock prices start to rise. I like that Sluarchuk was heavily buying in the open market this winter.
Lets see if they can keep their word and keep dilution to a minimum.
4. Mine, exploration, and ore processing - this seems like the one thing that they have going really smoothly. They will probably hit some set backs and bottlenecks in ramping up the plant to 108k. The super high grades they are hitting and going to mine first at Kora North should help. Hitting a high grade or large porphyry target would be an awesome bonus to what we already know about the properties.
5. We haven't talked much about getting added to the GDXJ or GOEX or other such gold funds. I think that as we become cash flow positive we should be a very attractive stock to the institutional buyers.
GLTA here, I think if we are patient we will all be very happy over the next few years with our investment. I enjoy all the back and forth and sharing of information we find on the board here.
