60 mm was just my guess - and it's hard to guess as there isn't a lot of precedent of gold mines being on the auction block. Tri-Valley auctioned off two properties several months back - I think it was the Shorty and the Richardson in Alaska. Mind you, these were drilled but not as well developed. They went for 200k. I met the people that got it - they were shocked that was all they had to pay - as I've said before, it's not a strong market. I guess sixty because I believe the secured debt is 50 and there is another 7 or so of DIP tied to Hollister - I could be wrong on those numbers by a little. It wouldn't go for less - the secured lenders would credit bid to that level. So my guess is 60, but I wouldn't be surprised at 70 or 80. Given that we now know Waterton won the auction, as opposed to Barrick and Newmont having gotten into a bidding war, I would be surprised it it was higher than 80. The problem with the Nevada properties is that you esentially have a mill without a mine and a mine without a mill. They are 280 mm apart - the only reason GBG was trucking it that far was because technically it is a trial mining project for now. Not having a mill in proximity to Hollister wouldn't be a problem for a Barrick or Newmont as they have existing mills in the Elko vicinity. Waterton doesn't - which means there is significant capex that they would need to do here, and huge lead times given permitting requirements. In this environment, it's a real stretch to hope they would pay up for value. I personally don't see it, and the above is basically why. You have plenty of operating mines that are currently valued at EVs of 10 to 15 buck an ounce in the ground - with an onsite mill, and doing much more than the 600 oz a week that Hollister is doing - at a loss, even when gold prices were 200 higher than right now. I halfway suspect that Waterton was as equally interested in the Esmerelda Mill as it sits in the Borealis District where they already have almost complete control of Gryphon's mine, it's just a few miles away - and that project desperately needs a mill. But noone else would have much use for the Esmerelda - which isn't a great situation at auction. So that's the basis behind my opinion. What's the basis behind yours?
(BTW, Esmeralda Mill sits in beautiful country - probably no more than 30 miles due East of Yosemite as the crow flies (not as the car drives, not easily anyway). I was there back in July - you could see the GBG trucks throwing up huge dust clouds in the middle of nowhere - the people there all talked about how they must be crazy to drive ore 280 miles, even good ore. The District is the same one where Samuel Clemens worked for 2 years as a gold miner - he wrote 'Roughing It' about the experience - good book - free to download to an e-reader on Amazon)
AI
