Replies to post #60560 on Medinah Minerals (MDMN)

[Krakatoa_Dean]

funny because with an NDA in place, the jv finalization timeline is the only thing of importance to shareholders. What you do control is the guidance you offer, and we all saw what happened to your bell curve. But as all things medinah, we've gone from set dates to a prayer and a hope, for good things "coming soon". ROFLMAO

[Pocho69]

Looks like Volcan is in trouble
I hope they still got some money to get us going.

Volcan Compania Minera Downgraded To ‘BB+’ From ‘BBB-’, Off Watch Negative On Revised Criteria, Outlook Stable


Standard & Poor's — 11 December 2013 8:21
- Standard & Poor's Ratings Services published its revised corporate ratings criteria on Nov. 19, 2013.
- Ratings on Peruvian mining company, Volcan, reflect our assessment of its "fair" business risk profile and "intermediate" financial risk profile with neutral impact from modifiers.
- We are lowering our ratings on Volcan to 'BB+' from 'BBB-' and removing them from CreditWatch with negative implications.
- The stable outlook incorporates our expectation of increasing zinc and silver production amid negative to no free cash flow generation and declining cash reserves through 2016.

SAO PAULO (Standard & Poor's) Dec. 10, 2013--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered its ratings on Volcan Compania Minera S.A.A. to 'BB+' from 'BBB-' and removed them from CreditWatch with negative implications, where we placed them on Nov. 26, 2013. The outlook is stable.

The downgrade primarily reflects our assessment that modifiers have a neutral impact on Volcan's anchor which is 'bb+'. The anchor and ratings reflect the company's "fair" business risk profile and "intermediate" financial risk profile.

Under our previous corporate criteria, we used to assign one-notch uplift to ratings due to Volcan's formerly "strong" liquidity, its very conservative capital structure, and our expectations of the company's diversification of its metal portfolio by expanding its copper output through 2016, while keeping its very conservative financial stance.

Following the revised criteria, neither of those factors are robust enough to support one-notch uplift. Moreover, we now don't expect positive prospects for the company's product diversification, so the comparable rating analysis is also neutral. Main factors behind our less optimistic view are a more conservative price scenario for silver, which accounts for about 47% of the company's EBITDA, the uncertain prospects for increasing copper production before 2017--as its completion of the copper project Rondoni is delayed beyond that year—and a limited ability to generate free cash flow through 2016.

Our assessment of Volcan's "fair" business risk profile is due to its exposure to volatile metal prices, especially silver, its asset concentration in a few mines in Peru, and overall limited business scale. Its adequate, though volatile, operating efficiency is a partly offsetting factor.