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[ferd98bull]

Oceana Gold listening to shareholders
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By Dene Mackenzie on Wed, 10 Jun 2009
News: Business


Oceana Gold appears to be taking notice of its shareholders by examining options to provide more value for them both at corporate and operational levels.

Chairman Jim Askew told the company's annual meeting that the poor performance of the company during 2008, irrespective of the external inflationary and operating costs pressures it experienced, had resulted in a comprehensive review of all parts of the company.

"Complementary with operating improvements, we are reviewing options to reduce leverage on our balance sheet and increase the company's financial flexibility.

"We currently have high levels of debt and gold hedging structures which expire at the end of 2010. Both of these are out of favour with many investors."

Oceana Gold remained focused on those issues, in parallel with its core operating activities, he said.

Oceana Gold operates gold mines at Macraes and Reefton, in New Zealand. Its Didipio gold-copper project in the Philippines is on hold but the group has been re-evaluating the cost to complete the project.

The studies were ongoing and a market update was expected later this year.

Mr Askew said it was a "golden time" to be a significant gold producer. Gold had retreated after punching through $US1000 ($NZ1618.27 ) an ounce early last year, but the price remained strong and it had been one of the few asset classes to outperform over the past 18 months.

Of the producer currencies, the New Zealand dollar gold price had been bright, exceeding $NZ1900 an ounce during the first quarter of the year.

Also, supply and demand fundamentals continued to be "promisingly bullish", he said.

The first quarter of this year saw gold demand up 38% on the same period last year. The main contributors were coin demand and inflows into the Exchanged Traded Funds.

That was offset by decreased jewellery and industrial consumption.

During the same period, supply increased by 34% when compared to 2008 but that was mainly driven by a 55% increase in scrap gold returning to the market, he said.

"Actual mine production was up only 3%, which underscores the inability of producers to keep up with investment demand should the same trends continue.

"With demand outstripping supply, the future for gold looks bight, particularly for those companies with low geopolitical risk operations."

[swannmex]

FWIW, I got a good position established in both acct.s I manage over the last few days mostly at $1.15cdn.

Thanks Bobwins.

Good luck to all of us, Andrew

[Capone1947]

Had to get into this play, story is just to good to pass up. "Bobwins" thanks for the updates on this board, i find your posts very useful. Thanks

Capone life!!
_________________
Capone life!!

[Bobwins]

OGC.to/OCANF.pk +.06 to C$1.25

Ogc has been performing stronger in Australia. OGC is one of the few gold stocks up today. Volume is low.

[Bobwins]

OGC.to went on a little fishing trip. Came back to see that OGC.to went from 1.16 on Friday to 1.25 today. Up another .14 in Australia tonight.

With .12 cashflow in Q1, OGC should be selling for 10-12 times cashflow or somewhere in the C$5 to C$6 range if they can prove Q1 was not a fluke.

So lots of upside left here over the remaining months of 2009. Still need more excellent performance from OGC. Bobwins

[swannmex]

Thanks Bobwins. I just started a position at $.93cdn.

Good luck to all of us, Andrew

[Bobwins]

Bought some more this morning at .93 and .90. Chen is a friend of mine. I met him thru my Value Microcaps board. He is an excellent trader and stock picker. He has done well thru good times and bad unlike moi.

OGC is very unusual. A 300K/yr producer that is profitable and very cheap. Semafo was like this when I found it a year ago and did well. I expect the same for Oceana.

If they can monetize Didipio, buy back the convertibles or reduce hedges, that would be very positive for OGC. I would prefer they kept some portion of Didipio because it is a source of near term growth for them. OGC projects that they will produce 300K in 2009, and then drop off slightly to 290 and 280 for the following two years. Need some growth to max share price.

First we have to see if they can duplicate their fabulous first qtr for the rest of the year.

I would imagine they should attract a pretty talented CEO. There aren't many producers at this level with potential to move higher in the mining business. Bobwins

[Dorinho]

Hola BW!

FWIW, Chen Lin (who is a newsletter type associates with Jay Taylor's group) said this about Oceana. Chen shares your enthusiasm for this company.

All the very best!

Dorinho

"... OCEANA GOLD COM NPV (OGC.to/OCANF) announced the departure of its CEO Steve Orr on Monday morning Australian time. Its shares were hammered in the past 36 hours. I had a conference call with OGC management last night. I was told Steve left "with some mutual understanding between him and the board". He is planning to take some time off after he is done with OGC I was told. They wouldn't say if there are any disagreements with the board.

At any rate, Steve Orr is the miner builder. He came to OGC in 2004 and brought two mines into production and almost finished Didipio. He will be the strong vote to bring Didipio into production and finish his legacy in OGC. However, it will require financing and we can see how dilusive it can be in the recent AGT financing. OGC need to present its plan of Didipio to the Philippine government in June, so I think his departure could be related to that.

I feel Steve's resignation is a good news. It signals that OGC will not pursue the aggressive growth policy that was disastrous to its share price in the past. OGC may continue to put Didipio on care and maintenance or JV it or sell it. I asked the management about it, they wouldn't comment on that. These are some of my suggestions I sent to the management, of course they have no comments on these,

1. Sell all if not most of Didipio. They can probably fetch 100-200 million from it even with today's economy. Since they spent 100 million in it and it is fully permitted. Then they can use the money to retire the outstanding convertibles. These convertibles are trading at 30-40c on the dollar. I think they have more than enough money to get rid of the convertibles maybe retire some hedges as well. Then OGC will be debt free low cost producer based in NZ. I see its share double or triple on the news.

2. Sell 50% of Didipio and ask the partner to pay for 100% of rest of the costs. At the current copper price, Didipio will producer gold for almost free. 50% of 100-150 K oz/ year starting 2010 will is a very nice number. I see OGC stock jump on the news.

In conclusion, I believe the news actually is positive to the stock. That means OGC board will have a free hand to get some deals done finally. I have been adding it on the weakness in the past 36 hours and will continue to do so.

Regards,

Chen


P.S. This is the recent subscriber comments, you can see OGC is a lot cheaper than all the explorers and producers the authors can find. What an incredible bargain OGC is!

Great picks....Love OGC ( High 5)...Check out this article(below) and it's number 1 #pick...

Junior Gold Producer "In Situ" Valuation Analysis

Regards,

Chen ... "

[Bobwins]

This Australian news story covers the CEO leaving pretty well. Not necessarily a negative event. Probably a difference of opinion on which way to go with their big partly completed project.

Bobwins


http://business.brisbanetimes......-bkun.html

[Bobwins]

Ok, that's it. Somebody sold this morning for .82 ! A mere .24 haircut from Friday's close. In Australia, where they likely know a bit more than we do about Oceana, OGC lost .03.

I will admit, it is odd that the CEO is leaving without more of an explanation but seems like an overreaction. Wish I had some cash, I would buy more. Currently at C$.97, with a big sell order at .98.

Bobwins

[swannmex]

May see a slight dip on this for those looking to buy.
Thanks to Bobwins for this one.

Good luck, Andrew

OceanaGold CEO Steve Orr leaves

Monday, 25 May 2009, 12:08 pm

Article: Businesswire

OceanaGold CEO Orr leaves, Askew to be executive chairman in interim


May 25 - OceanaGold Corp., owner of New Zealand’s largest gold mining operation at Macraes, said chief executive Steve Orr will leave at the end of June.

The gold miner gave no explanation for Orr’s departure, thanking him for five years in the role, during which OceanaGold built two mines in New Zealand and increased annual production to 300,000 ounces, making it the fourth-largest producer in Australasia.

The company has begun a search for a new CEO, with a short-list of candidates under final review, it said in a statement, During the transition, chairman Jim Askew will assume the role of executive chairman.

The company said its Didipio project in the Philippines has been redesigned to benefit from changed market conditions. “The improved capital cost estimate is prospective for recommencement of construction in the future,” the company said in a statement.

Shares of Oceana Gold slipped 1.4% to NZ$1.44 on the NZX, giving the company a market value of NZ$494 million. The shares have soared 95% in the past three months.

Gold last traded at US$956.85 an ounce.

(Businesswire)

[Bobwins]

OGC.ax +.05 to A$1.135

I think last minute big jump in OGC.to today was either a market order or some tape painting by a long holder. So I expect a selloff in the AM and then hopefully OGC.to will crawl back into positive territory before Friday is over.

[Bobwins]

+.20 to C$1.09 Should show up on biggest gainer lists after today!

[Bobwins]

Oceana doing ok but volume is minimal at 31.575K. Shows how unknown OGC is in Canada. How many TSX miners produce 300K gold/yr? Not many. And the ones that do at a profit don't sell for C$.98.

But I need to be patient. The company is hitting their production targets, cashflow is increasing and gold is rising. Oceana will have it's day in the sun with high volume and higher prices. Bobwins

[Bobwins]

OGC.ax +.14 to A$1.065 on 1.2 million shares. Oceana is way up in Australia after gaining .05 in Canada today. Gold is up a bit more to $941.70. Hoping that OGC.to does something similar in Canada tomorrow. Bobwins