Mako Mining – A Review of 2021 Financials, Q1 2022 Operations, And The Upcoming Exploration Plan
Akiba Leisman, President and CEO of Mako Mining (TSX.V:MKO – OTCQX:MAKOF), joins us to review the 2021 and Q4 financials and the Q1 2022 operations and production numbers at the San Albino Gold Mine in northern Nicaragua. With an average blended head-grade of 7 – 9 g/t gold, and an All-In Sustaining Cost of $830, the revenues and net incomes are quite robust coming out of San Albino.
We ask Akiba to unpack how the production profile will be expanding from 500 tpd to 1000 tpd, and where that growth will be coming from at San Albino, Las Conchitas, and eventually regional targets like La Segoviana, to essentially double the production rate in 2023. The company launched a $17 million exploration plan for 2022 with the goal of drilling 110,000 meters at near mine and regional targets, and there will be coming exploration news in the months to come.
If you have any questions for Akiba about Mako Mining, then please email us at either Fleck@kereport.com or Shad@kereport.com.
Click here for a summary of the recent news out of the Company.
I disagree with the assumptions and opinions of that site, which we had discussed in the past as simply a gripe site when it was brought up then.
I was personally invested with Marlin Gold and did quite well trading it a few years back, and then rotated the funds over to Sailfish when they spun the royalty assets out of Marlin, and exited that Marlin position. I’ve also done quite well in Sailfish Royalty since that time. Now, I did rotate back into Marlin towards the end of their journey for a bad trade, but that was on me and not anyone’s fault. I also got back in again though, and experienced the merger with Golden Reign to form Mako and have been very pleased with how things have developed and have traded around a core position in Mako, increasing and decreasing it periodically since then, but have been in for the rerating as they moved into production, and now that is playing out.
Look, Akiba worked with Wexford in the past and maintains a good relation with them, and all companies involved with openly showed Wexford as key stakeholders. Akiba and Cesar at Sailfish were always very open and candid about their partnership with Wexford as an anchor stakeholder, and it would be no different than having any other institutional holder like Sprott in as a cornerstone lender.
As mentioned, at the tail end of Marlin, when the mine was getting low on material and all that was left was development and exploration projects they did struggle and the market sold them off some for their last year or so, and if people were involved during that period, then they likely did lose some money, but that isn’t unique to Marlin. Keep in mind they struck the deal to merge Marlin with Golden Reign to combine assets and form Mako Mining, and then spun out the non-core assets (like La Trinidad that they sold to GR Silver who had more use for it than they did). That was a shareholder friendly merger, a good value creation, and displayed solid management execution.
The deal to form Mako from combining Marlin and Golden Reign made a lot of sense (as covered in the initial interview we did on here with Akiba to introduce Mako), and is clearly proving to be quite successful, as shown in the Q4 financials and Q1 2022 operation reports discussed in this interview. This company is generating revenue, has a 110,000 meter drill program underway, and is one of the highest or the highest grade open pit mine on the planet. For a small mine they are quite profitable already, and their plan is to double production to 1000 tonnes per day by 2023, at a similar grade, so it is easy to roughly double the expected revenues if gold prices stay in the range they are in.
There was not any favoring other deals or doing sweetheart deals for Sailfish or Golden Reign as that author asserted, and that persons clearly didn’t pay attention to news releases at that time, what shares were sold on insider SEDI filling to be able to invest in the new entity, and the updates that were released from all companies. Bottom line, that person just sounds like a disgruntled bagholder that had an ill-timed trade and Marlin, and was looking to point the finger of blame, instead of looking in the mirror at their own poor trading. That’s my opinion on it, and I’m not going to waste Akiba’s time on it.
There are gripe opinions like that on all companies… the good, bad, and the ugly…. Look how many people whined and moaned about Great Bear being taken over by Kinross. It was one of the most successful exploration to merger stories of the last 2 years, and there were still dozens of people writing hate-mail about how management screwed them, how they killed shareholder value, and people threatening to lawyer up…. and almost every shareholder involved MADE MONEY on the transaction. Every company and every successful person has people ready to throw stones at them, and that site seems to be filled with the very people casting the stones. I give those kinds of forums very little of my attention, but to each their own.
Here is the link to the initial interview Cory did with Akiba (where I was also on the call in the background but just hadn’t started coming on with Cory during the interviews yet).
Akiba outlines the merger of Golden Reign and Marlin starting at the 6 minute mark.
Then at the 13:20 he discusses the relationship with Wexford Capital as key stakeholder.
I’ve listened to this podcast before and it doesn’t deal with the accusations made in that ripoff report.
I’ll avoid MKO for now even though the story sounds good.
The accusations made by the whining bagholder are the actual ripoff.
Yeah, that’s fine, our job is simply to report what the company is actually doing and their actual results which are stellar, and while most small producers are struggling to make a dime, Mako is generating very healthy revenues with about $1000 margins. You don’t see that very often from a smaller-scale miner on path to double their production output in about a year.
There are plenty of companies to pick from and if investors don’t like a revenue generating gold producer, with healthy margins, growing resources, and a massive 110,000 meter exploration program, then they can pick another one. To each their own.
I came across this last week. Akiba Leisman should be given an opportunity to explain what it is all about.
https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/akiba-leisman/vancouver-bc-v6c-2t6/akiba-leisman-marlin-gold-mining-wexford-capital-akibal-leisman-pump-and-dump-fraud-va-1455981