I have heard from Mr. Jason Reid, CEO of Fortitude Gold Corporation. Attached is his unedited response. Please note there is a personal issue contained in the response. Mister Reid told me the issue is common knowledge. I would hope one will act accordingly when addressing the issue.
Dear Mr.
Thanks for the email.
The entire mining space is under pressure, not just FTCO. Most mining companies entered 2024 at 52-week share price lows. Case in point, one of the largest mining Company in the world Newmont was at or near a 52-week low entering 2024 and has since made new 52 week lows recently. Mining is an unloved investing space right now. While FTCO outperformed our peers the last few years, we are not immune to the market pressures on most all miners and share prices.
A more thorough update on many of your questions will be addressed in the conference all next week.
As stated in the preliminary production press release, we await BLM permits for numerous items including mining the high-grade gold deeper in the Isabella Pearl pit and for the County Line permit. We reached the permitted pit bottom in Q4 but continue to mine the Civit Cat area of the deposit while we await regulatory approval to mine deeper at the pearl zone. That permit could drop in any day.
The BLM continues to be understaffed and we see and hear from many of our peer mining companies that permit timing is less transparent and efficient under this Federal administration. We believe we will get the permits but the timing of which is unknow, hard to predict, and out of our control. We are ready to build County Line as soon as we have permission.
We hit the mid-range of our production target in 2023, not the low end you state. Even if we had hit the low end that would be executing on our goals and a success.
As for stock sales, my position in FTCO changed as a function of a brutal personal divorce. In court documents my ex’s written statements noted the intent to sell her large FTCO position awarded in the decree. I don’t know if that happened but could be adding to the share price pressure.
A more thorough update will be provided in the conference call.
Best,
Jason
