Stefan Bernstein explains how the EU/Greenland critical raw materials partnership benefits GreenRoc. Watch the full video here.
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Driving I sincerely hope so, if not I will buy you a pint at the bowls club mate
But this time really does feel different.
We should at a minimum get news on the glencore loan, and subsequently shard placement news, as well as a update on project progress.
Want to wish all of us good luck that this project finally gets going after so many false starts.
A big week ahead & hoping for some fireworks!
We must be close to news now, I have been here for so long , i am just hoping I am not here long enough to find myself wearing elastic waisted fawn trousers, stinking of wee up at the bar in the bowls club.
Depeches has followed up its recent report on rising electricity 'load-shedding' [ great euphemism, btw : makes it sound like there's too much bad stuff !], with a report that the same failure is evident in the capital's water-supply :
DRINKING WATER
Taps running dry in Brazzaville for weeks
In almost every district of the capital, not a single drop of water comes from the taps. Crowds are gathering in front of
boreholes and other drinking water points.
The Congolaise des Eaux (LCD), the company that produces and distributes drinking water is silent about the situation, which which is having a serious impact on household and businesses".
Borehole managers now employ supervisors to prevent overflow. "People rush in, arguments break out to the
to the point of brawls. A 25 litres costs 100 FCFA. I instruct the supervisors to make sure that everyone has
five cans," says Pierre, owner of a borehole.
People of goodwill are offering free water to the population. In this case, the difficulty lies in crowd control.: "I have guards who, from time to time watch over the facilities . The population is free to draw water at any time of the day. At night, the guards turn off the taps", says Dominique.
The lack of drinking water is becoming a recurring to the point where some residents are getting their water from rivers such as the Djoué and Djiri rivers, with the risk of diarrhoeal disease. The time has come for the public authorities, who have invested colossal resources in the sector, are tackling this situation, which is only set to continue."
I'm faintly surprised that Depeches gets away with unfavourable reporting like this.
GLA
Hi Jiving,
If there are any health concerns re Big Den ( the C-B opposition have referred to his UAE visits" to his bankers and his doctors", I'm pretty certain Abu Dhabi (and the Chinese?) would know about it . They probably know more than Big Den himself does ;-<
.."IRH/IHC is the investment vehicle of Sheikh Tahnoun, UAE national security adviser..."
This from 3 years ago :
ttps://www.intelligenceonline.com/government-intelligence/2021/01/27/abu-dhabi-s-spymaster-fashions-local-palantir-20-with-chinese-help,
.."Spotlight | China, Israel, UAE
Abu Dhabi's spymaster fashions local Palantir 2.0 with Chinese help
Group 42, the AI company controlled by Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan has all sorts of connections with Beijing. [...]..."
ATB
Hmm, rich or disappointed maybe. Wouldn't surprise me if we get a statement saying things are progressing well bla bla rather than shafted. Surprisingly for AIM this isn't a leaky share but I would have expected news by now if it was going to be the 1000% RNS we are all hoping for. Life goes on. Your health is the most important.
Is a week of destiny for Zioc shareholders.
Either we get rewarded for years of patience and belief.
Or we get shafted.
Hedging their bets, I'm reminded that Jindal Group also picked up Vale's coal assets in Mozambique, recently...
https://www.clbrief.com/indias-jindal-group-buys-vale-coal-mining-assets-in-mozambique/
as well as these
https://www.jindalafrica.com/operations/chirodzi/
If you buy the argument that the West wants to disengage from China (in so far as possible), India might well be a beneficiary : not as good as 'on-shoring' or 'near-shoring', maybe the next best thing ?
Geography works in its favour, in a way that it doesn't for China (shipping chokepooints), as does legal system and 'embedded' diaspora ......quite apart from the better demographics.
Ho hum
And yet more 100,000+ trades going through again. What for - to pay negotiating/legal expenses prior to a deal or to repay the Glencore loan before maturity - very different implications? With 4 working days to go before our Q1 deadline, yes I am concerned that we LTH might be let down by Elphick/Glencore - yet again.
Hello Extrader, I got that from Iron Ore News
https://deal.ig.com/web-platform/#/tearoff/news/20240319-nL3N3FT26D ...19/03/2024
India's steel majors to invest billions to meet buoyant local demand
19 Mar 2024
By Neha Arora and Manvi Pant
NEW DELHI/BENGALURU, March 19 (Reuters) – Leading Indian steel producers, including JSW Steel Ltd and Tata Steel Ltd , are expected to invest billions in a record capacity increase to benefit from rising domestic demand in one of the world's fastest growing economies.
A spurt in economic activity and a revamp of broader infrastructure have drawn steel makers from around the world to India, where demand is rising. In Europe and the United States, it is falling.
Analysts and company data showed major mills were planning to increase capacity by at least 22 million metric tons in the fiscal year beginning April 2024.
Jindal Steel and Power is expected to add 6 million metric tons to existing capacity of around 9.6 million metric tons and Tata Steel said it was adding 5 million tons to its capacity of 21 million tons.
JSW Steel, India's largest steel maker, has said in results reports it aims to increase capacity to 38.5 million tons by 2024/25, up from 27.5 million tons domestic capacity now.
None of the companies has said how much it will be spending on capacity, although analysts, who said the expansion was unprecedented, predicted it would be billions.
"We expect JSW Steel will spend $2-$2.2 billion a year towards brownfield expansions, scaling up its iron mining capacities in Odisha, raw material efficiency projects and downstream projects," Hui Ting Sim, an assistant vice president, Moody's Ratings in Singapore, said referring to the eastern Indian state.
Together with Japan's JFE Steel, JSW Steel said in February it would invest 55 billion rupees ($662.85 million) in an Indian joint venture to produce grain-oriented electrical steel, used in manufacturing transformers.
Tata Steel meanwhile, is expected to spend between $1.21-$1.51 billion in 2024/25, Lakshmanan R, head of South & Southeast Asia corporates at CreditSights in Singapore, said.
Anshuman Bharati, an analyst at S&P Global Ratings in Singapore, meanwhile, expected India's steel consumption would grow between 8% to 10% in 2024/25.
During April-January, India's steel consumption rose by 14.5% to a six-year high of 112.5 million metric tons.
($1 = 82.97 rupees)
(Reporting by Neha Arora in NEW DELHI, Manvi Pant in BENGALURU; editing by Mayank Bhardwaj and Barbara Lewis) ((neha.dasgupta@tr.com;)
...Guinea - Zogota, ex Niron...Mick Davis (AT's boss) vehicle; and
- Cameroon - talk about a power plant and steel mill at Kribi ( a long time back), using Mbalam-Nabeba....
Never mind 'recycled steel'....the industry seems to attract an awful lot of 'recycled' projects !
GLA
Hi Yogiananda
Do you have a link, pls?
Jindal Group AFAICS has the most advanced would-be 'green ' steel plant in the Gulf (Oman) and has been sniffing around W Africa looking for a supply of ore...Guinea mainly, so far, IIRC.
TIA
IRH/IHC is the investment vehicle of Sheikh Tahnoun, UAE national security adviser; 'power behind the MBZ throne'; and Chairman of ADQ, the entity behind the recently- announced US$ 35 Bn investment in Egypt....
A 'serious player' , in other words;-> !
GLA
The Zambian Mopani deal that UAE/IRH undertook, is noteworthy as Glencore were the previous mine owner & this is a complex deal involving Zambian debt forgiveness & Glencore retaining some offtake rights. Which makes it a significant transaction involving Glencore & the UAE working together in a major African mining project.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/zambia-selects-uaes-ihc-unit-new-partner-mopani-copper-mines-2023-12-01/
NEW DELHI/BENGALURU, March 19 (Reuters) – Leading Indian steel producers, including JSW Steel Ltd and Tata Steel Ltd , are expected to invest billions in a record capacity increase to benefit from rising domestic demand in one of the world's fastest growing economies.
The IHC unit's interest is spurred by an aggressive push by cash-rich oil majors United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to secure critical metal supply in Africa, as they bid to diversify their economies and engage with energy transition.
Middle East investors are pitted against Chinese companies in Africa, including state backed firms, also aggressively pursuing deals in Africa to strengthen China's grip on minerals required to power a rapidly expanding domestic electric vehicle manufacturing sector.
EMR Capital's binding deal agreed directly with JHCX technically precludes it from entertaining any new offers, one of the sources said. Still, EMR is aware that IRH is interested in buying the assets and that the UAE firm has officially informed the Zambian government and ZCCM-IH of its interest, two sources said.
While its interest is now widely known within the Zambian government circles, the UAE firm hasn't presented a formal offer to EMR on the Lubambe stake, one source said.
EMR declined to comment. IRH and IHC didn't immediately respond to emailed questions.
IRH has gatecrashed once before. It staged a last minute buyout of a 51% stake in Zambia's Mopani Copper Mines last month, its first mining deal in Africa's second-largest producer of the metal that is key to products from power lines and industrial machinery to electric vehicles.
The Abu Dhabi firm became the Zambian government's preferred investor for Mopani mines ahead of Sibanye Stillwater and China's Zijin Mining Group , which had been short listed for the assets after a protracted selection process.
Some useful links & comments Extrader. I note we have 4 working days left of Q1, nearly 94% of Q1 having now passed.
Denis. The absolutely last thing we need is for Denis to leave the scene & we are plunged straight into a West African succession struggle. The last civil war ended only some 25 years ago with Denis allying with the Angolan army & elements from the Hutu militia. Potential successors have good reason to fear Denis senior, less so Denis junior. As ever Elphick & Co need to stop prevaricating & get signatures on contracts asap, frankly they have had enough time.
AD Ports. What is the status of UAE in the Zanaga development, at one stage last Easter it looked like they were working together with the Saudis, now who knows? If they don’t get a slice of the mine equity/offtake will they go ahead with their port development? If not then, maybe the Chinese.
Glencore. Last financials were messy, dividend cut, share buyback stopped. They need to find substantial funds: to pay for Teck’s coal assets by Q3 & then they need further funds to recapitalise both companies emerging from their proposed demerger in 2025. I suspect by necessity they are sellers of equity stakes in non-core companies like ZIOC, provided they can obtain a NPV related price. Potential secondary purchasers would be Nippon Steel & possibly UAE - particularly if the Saudis emerge as the single strategic investor of the primary stake from ZIOC/Zanaga.
And Big Den is looking a bit doddery in this clip of 11 hours ago...
https://twitter.com/brazzanews
As the caption says, 'No comment'.
GLA
Meanwhile, Little Den has just tweeted about his meeting today with Brazil's Ambassador to C-B, ..."to discuss bilateral relations ...and... the different avenues to explore to energize our partnership and give it new impetus.
At the end of this fruitful hearing, we agreed on a set of concrete actions to be implemented in the coming months. The objective is clear: to intensify our exchanges in all promising areas, whether it is the economy, education, culture or even health...."
Thanks for this!
.."UAE-based companies have focused primarily on Africa’s better-developed economies where strong infrastructure and economic expansion are stoking demand for energy, according to Sandile Hlophe, head of government and infrastructure at EY Africa.
They include Egypt, Morocco, South Africa and Kenya, which in February became the sixth country to sign a special free-trade agreement with the UAE, following economic heavyweights like India and Indonesia..."
C-B doesn't meet the first condition (better-developed economy - au contraire, with current news of 'load-shedding' and other signs of mismanagement), but it DOES appear to meet the second - 'special free-trade agreement' - if that's what the recently-signed CEPA amounts to.
https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/economy/2023/12/28/uae-and-republic-of-the-congo-finalise-terms-of-cepa/
AD Ports certainly needs to find SOMETHING to do with its PN port concession.
GLA
Whilst we wait for the kettle to boil, I had a look at GLEN's latest thinking on emissions, as reflected in its just-released 2024-2026 Climate Action Transition Plan, see
https://www.glencore.com/publications
It's already dropped Zanaga from its Resources reporting, per last A/R. On the assumption that any change in stake in ZIOC is likely to be downwards - if not out - that exclusion will presumably continue.
In this report, it specifically excludes 'third-party' emissions caused by anything it sells to others...and it's 'too early to say' anything about the implications of what it might be producing if/when the latest Teck Resources acquisition goes through.
So , all in all, pretty much of a 'nothing-burger' , you might conclude.
The only bits of interest that I saw were (1) its differentiation between thermal and steel coal; and (2) its (implied) view of rate of take-up of 'green ore'.
The relevant bits are :
(Speaking of Teck).."When assessing the merits of the transaction, we acknowledged the important distinction between thermal coal and steelmaking coal. We concluded that while not a metal, steelmaking coal is an important transition-enabling commodity as it is an essential input into much of the world’s steelmaking in its current form. Steel is necessary for constructing transportation and infrastructure such as ocean-going vessels, rail, bridges and buildings, as well as energy transition infrastructure including wind turbines. ....
.....In the event the demerger does not proceed, we will assess how best to integrate the EVR [ Ed.: Teck] assets into our climate transition strategy, recognising that THE TRANSITION AWAY FROM STEEL-MAKING COAL for steel production will be slower than thermal coal, given the important role steel is expected to continue to play in supporting the construction of transportation and renewable energy infrastructure, AND THE EXPECTED LIMITED AVAILABILITY IN THE MEDIUM TERM OF ALTERNATIVE STEEL PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES THAT DO NOT REQUIRE COAL."
GLEN's view appears to be sceptical about the short-term impact of hydrogen - whether green, blue , grey or black - forcing mills to 'up their game' in the interim by looking at the other way of reducing emissions materially, DRI with high quality ore.......
On the face of it , then, no adverse implications for a ZIOC/Zanaga deal, AFAICS, if anything some cautious optimism.
GLA
Has beardozer hacked your account? 😅🤣
Or has anyone else got a bad feeling about this?
I do hope I'm wrong 🤞🏻
ATG; when this comes good, I dont think I shall need to be on these boards again....but for now as usual...alwayshoping :-)