Thursday 30 September 2010

Rather a selling opportunity?

Novagold reached a new two year high yesterday trading up to $9.20 intraday. Is it a buy or a sell?

All considerations

Pro's:
  1. + NG quotes at $8.94 at close yesterday Sep 29, an impressive gain over last few weeks, but it stays well below half the November 2007 price level. So there might still be room for further gains?
  2. + Back in November 07 we had a gold price of about $800/oz, while we’re over 60% higher now: sure if NG catches up the territory lost on the rise of bullion, we’re in for some nice gains.
  3. + After the capital raises (private placements at $5.5 in early spring) investors continued bidding up the price. Apparently they were ready to pay an extra just to be on the same boat as Soros and Paulson. This definitely raises confidence.
  4. + NG needs counting on its rich resources, not on operational results. The resource base is interesting for partnerships and new investors all the same. Eventually one of the partners may launch a take-over bid.
 Con's:
  1. - Not a single project resulted in a operating mine. Even ‘Rock creek’ where most investments were completed, has been put ‘on care and maintenance’. Geologists are not competent mining engineers nor production managers apparently.
  2. - Reviewing the feasibility study (implying higher costs) at Galore creek triggered the suspending of the project and directly resulted in the NG price shashed in half by the end of 2007.
  3. - Debt financing the start up of Rock Creek proved detrimental in November 2008 as NG ran out of cash amidst technical problems to get the mine started. The share price dropped below $0.50. Refinancing and raising new capital with new shares sold at $1.20 and warrants at $1.50 dramatically diluted existing shareholders, as the number of shares rose by 80%. By now, the number of shares more than doubled.
  4. - In order for Donlin creek to become a working mine, up to 4 billion $ are needed: for NG to maintain its 50% interest in the project, it needs finding 2 billion. The capital raised earlier this year was $175 M: we’re not yet there. Two billion is close to the market cap at the moment.
 Conclusions are all yours.

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