Stefan Bernstein explains how the EU/Greenland critical raw materials partnership benefits GreenRoc. Watch the full video here.
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The accounts of Zanaga imply that it has zero employees. There are 3 non-exec Directors and 3 non-employees. I suspect that each non-employee will have their own personal companies (what you would call self-employed consultant here). Obviously the bulk of persons employed on the project will be employed by Jumelles.
Hi 99icecream,
Thanks for confirming my guess re Harris.
But now you've got me puzzled re the other two : I got the distinct impression (maybe that was the intention) that AT was one of the other two. If he was, how would he be a non-employee individual ? By providing his services as self-employed company ?
Any further detail would be (mildly) interesting.....esp. if it turns out that he DOESN'T have 'skin in the game'.
TIA and ATB
Ask yourself why Zanaga does not have brokers publishing "research" stating that the Zanaga project is worth £ X pounds * a share on unrisked basis and £ Y pounds * a share on a risked basis if they intended to develop (rather than sell).
Ask yourself why those non-employees, and employees like AT would take share options instead of a salary. They could walk and get work elsewhere with any number of companies. They stayed and took shares instead of cash. That's enough of a reason for me to stay in.
In August 2019 the Group entered into a new incentive plan which granted share options in the Group to
two non employee individuals and Harris Geoconsult Limited
---- Harris Geoconsult is Colin John Harris
GGG and Extrader.
Excellent summaries as usual. It has always been (and still is) a puzzle to me why Zanaga is not a higher priority for China than Simandou. It is after all a lower capital cost project with a much shorter timescale to bring to market than Simandou.
It must be complications within the ROC government that is holding China back. I had hoped interest from the Oz miners might speed things up, but as you say, maybe they have realised the ROC will only go with China.
With Glencore's legal issues elsewhere in Africa as regards kickbacks, they cannot afford to get involved with anything dodgy - and after their results yesterday would probably now be willing to give up any commodity trading rights in favour of a lump sum buyout to pay down their debts.
So perhaps it is a case of China greasing the right palms in the ROC. What is annoying though is, after three years, none of us still do not really know what is holding this project back.
Hi extrader, nice to hear from you as always. Agree with your thoughts - All part of the new 'great game' that we've discussed on this forum previously. If China can get their port and rail links in ROC up and running with gov.t support then they'll wield an immense amount of influence over most of West Africa, which we know is home to untold, untapped resources. It's a shame that geopolitical investments take so much time to come to fruition.
Hi G_G_G,
Agree your assessment of possible/likely scenarios, the only thing I would throw into the mix is 'location, location, location' : PN /the SEZ is a credible deepwater port covering the Southern Atlantic seaboard and is a short distance (in Africa terms) from the (hydro) powerhouse that could be Inga, in DRC; it's also a gateway (potentially) to the interior of the Continent.
Guinea by contrast has serious constraints re offshore coastal shelf (as in, it hardly does shelve) and it's 'oop North', relatively speaking.
I'm sure China's interest isn't/won't be purely commercial.
ATB
AT is of no real importance when it comes to decision making. His job is investor relations, which could be confused with him being the person to make or attract a deal, but he's really just a mouthpiece with some options as an incentive to get the word out on Zanaga. He's also the son of a well known commodity exec, Tony Trahar.
Zanaga is a huge play with geopolitical consequences. It's also the future source of a huge amount of kickbacks for Congolese officials. So it's not as simple as putting up a 'For Sale' sign. China hold the keys. If they want it, and they're willing to pay a fair price for the resource (and pay off the right Congolese officials), then they'll have it. The asset is only for sale to Chinese interests, which is why Rio, BHP, Vale, Fortsecue etc. haven't come knocking. They don't have the connections, influence, or freedom to bribe like the Chinese state. Remember the project is just one part of the puzzle. The owner still needs rights for the slurry pipe and port just to get the stuff out of the country. Lots of opportunity for Congolese kickbacks, and the local bureaucrats know it. The difference with Simandou was the Guinean gov.t put up the for sale sign, which meant meant the highest bidder won, and no future gov.t hurdles.
So the blocker isn't Glencore as some have alluded to previously. They've publicly stated Zanaga is 'option value' and they don't intend to develop the project. They also need to pay down debt, which $2bn would do nicely. And they don't want to get caught up in another bribery scandal, which they know is part of getting things done in Africa.
Reality is we could still be sitting here in another 3 years talking about the ridiculous value in the ground. But I imagine the Chinese would prefer to be half way to extracting another 30m tonnes per year of high grade ore from another West African owned mine (and port), rather than paying crazy amounts for lower grade Australian ore, and having to deal with Australia's throwing **** at them. AIMHO, HTH.
This is not good at all.... getting tiresome !