Stock price when the opinion was issued
There is a rumour that Goldcorp (G-T) might take them out. Goldcorp failed on the Osisko takeover, but Rubicon would have to finish the Phoenix project. Doesn’t expect this is going to happen within the next year, but are likely looking at the next 18 months. Just on its own, without a takeout, he could see this doubling as a producer multiple, and could be beyond that on a takeover.
Owns this in one of his specialty funds, but doesn't own it in his normal resource fund. It is going through the process of finishing the mine with production expected in the 1st half of 2015. It is fully funded, and he doesn't anticipate any errors or changes in terms of capital spending. This is a hard one to tell. As long as gold remains at around $1300, it will probably do well, but it just might take a little longer than people anticipate.
They were very loud saying “I’ve got a million ounces”, etc. and then went ahead with the mine without the real deep science and engineering behind it. It is in such a mess that they really don’t know what the consistency of the asset is. Somebody has to come in and fix it. It all has to be reworked from scratch.
Not going to be a take out candidate. This is a disaster. The mineralization is very erratically distributed in structures. Even within those structures, the gold mineralization itself is very erratically distributed. It is difficult to put together any continuity for a mine plan. He thinks they are going to stay broke.
Hold or Sell? He doesn’t think this is going to go back into production. This was put into production on a prefeasibility study, and the deposit wasn’t rolled off as well as it should have been. There is too much non-mineralized material in between the ore chutes and he doesn’t think it is going to work.
Capital footprint is not in the billions and would be a good acquisition for someone like G-T