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PS George has a PhD in engineering from Cornell and a background in finance at Wachovia and Morgan Stanley, so definitely isn't a 'trader' in the barrow-boy/loadsamoney sense of the term !
AFAICS
There's a little more detail in his profile on Champion, a GLEN iron ore mining project in Canada
https://www.championiron.com/corporate-profile/our-board-of-directors/
I'm not sure about his current role : his linked-in just says he's a trader at GLEN; at the time of the Glasenberg exit/management re-shuffle Mar 2021, there's this :
.."Following the departures, the zinc and copper trading units will be merged and run by Jyothish George, who will take responsibility for trading refined metals, and Nick Popovic, who will lead concentrates trading. ..." later on the article concludes
.."Earl Melamed will replace Nagle running Glencore’s coal assets, while Peter Hill will replace George as head of iron ore trading..."
Champion Iron DOES have possible read-across to any Zanaga deal : GLEN's involvement includes an offtake agreement underpinning the project early finance :
https://www.canadianminingjournal.com › news › iron-ore-champ…
.."Montreal’s Champion Iron has secured conditional financing of $31 million from Glencore International for its Bloom Lake iron ore mine reopening. As part of the deal, Champion and Glencore will enter into an off-take agreement with fixed terms for 10 years..."
My heart nearly stopped when I read this press release, though !
MONTRÉAL, May 17, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - Champion Iron Limited (TSX: CIA) (ASX: CIA) (OTCQX: CIAFF) ("Champion" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a definitive purchase agreement (the "Purchase Agreement") for the acquisition, via a wholly-owned subsidiary of Champion, of the Pointe Noire Iron Ore Pelletizing Facility located in Sept-Iles, Québec (the "Pellet Plant"). Additionally, Champion announces that it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (the "MOU") with a major international steelmaker (the "FS Partner") to complete a feasibility study to evaluate the re-commissioning of the Pellet Plant and produce Direct Reduction Grade Pellets (the "Feasibility Study").
Wrong Pointe Noire, alas, but the pellet plant and DR proposal are an uncanny echo of what ZIOC has been proposing for some time.
Ho hum. HTH.
Does anyone know much about the Head of Iron Ore at Glencore, George Jyothish. He is also on the Jumelles board so must be a key figure if Zanaga is to progress.
I understand the frustration as shareprice has dropped and no real news. This has always been a very risky investment and we were all aware as there is no product to sell so no revenue and all the value is in the ground in Africa. On the other hand the award is so massive if they are able to kick this off, that the current drop in share price on low volume does not really bother me so much. I believe there are interesting things being discussed and happy to hear that we are still infrequent contact with Glencore. My hope is they are close to find some kind of agreement with investor to kickoff the the small scale or sell the hole lot. Also I dont think current value of ZIOC will have any saying on a selloff. I think we are lucky to have GLEN taking these discussions as they are know as a brilliant negotiator and live by doing trade. Without GLEN I would not have invested as much as I have in this. Time will tell, but I have trust that most of the waiting i over and with other activity in congo, this could very well be included into the planning.
Not intended as a criticism ! Just to suggest Elphick has more 'skin in the game' in $$$ terms, apart from the other reputational considerations....
ATB
Thanks Extrader, I must have noted that down incorrectly.
Retraction :
I earlier wrote : .."Elphick has been quite combative in the past, IIRC, at any suggestion that his are not a ‘clean pair of hands..."
On re-reading, this didn't come out quite as intended : I meant to say and convey that he'd been quite protective of his status as 'a clean pair of hands' etc.
Understandably so , he has a background and connections with the S African establishment worth protecting : "In 1988, Elphick was seconded to E Oppenheimer & Son from Anglo American to be Harry O’s personal assistant and became MD of the family firm two years later. Harry O died in 2000 and Elphick left the firm in 2004, to found Gem Diamonds the following year. He holds a BCom and BCompt Honours from Wits. Apart from his mining background, Elphick is also celebrated as the developer of Plettenberg Bay’s first polo estate. The sport now generates over $40m in revenue a year for the area..."
https://www.miningmx.com/rainmakers/profile/26
Thanks from me too, Veteran10.
Clifford's holding is approx 27%, ie 80+m, not 27m, from the 'Investors' page on website :
Shareholder Number of shares % of share capital
Guava Minerals Limited(1) 80,252,592 26.14%
Keith Everitt 17,270,000 5.62%
Julian Higgins 13,755,298 4.48%
(1) Clifford Elphick, the non-executive Chairman of the Company, is indirectly interested in these ordinary shares, representing 26.75% of the issued share capital of the Company, by virtue of his interest as a potential beneficiary in a discretionary trust, which has an indirect interest in these ordinary shares.
As an aside, I wonder what Keith and Julian think is going on....if anything ?
;->
There is nothing to stop KP2 teaming up with an interested minor, this would surel get the ball rolling
Veteran 10 thank you for sharing this with us. The most promising note is Glen are prepared to keep the lights on and more.
There is no doubt this asset will be developed l, just wish it would hurry along.
Thank you Veteran for that excellent write-up.
I assume AT will be receiving shares instead of salary. Its never been mentioned how many he has accumulated, but my impression is that a successful outcome for Zioc would be life-changing for AT, as well as for Clifford - and possibly many of us too.
On the points others have raised about KP2. I also do not think their infrastructure will be of any great use to Zioc. However the key for me with KP2 will be a major mining project in the ROC getting major finance for (as far as I know) the first time.
In my view KP2 getting off the ground would increase the confidence of third parties investing in Zioc. At present nobody seems to want to take that risk at all, despite the huge potential of the asset.
Thanks V10. That conversation pretty much sounds like the one I had with AT 3 years ago. It's all very uninspiring TBH.
I'd really love to know how many hours he actually works for nothing to achieve nothing.
Excuse my negativity but I'm not overly impressed by the lack of "real/any" progress.
Thank you veteran for taking the time to share.
Had a discussion with AT today. Have to say I feel somewhat embarrassed for having a go at him about the lack of news and progress etc. He remains determined to do a deal or start small scale production at Zanaga and is working many hours with no salary to achieve that. Having a go at AT is shooting the messenger. He does understand the frustration at a perceived lack of news and the current share price though.
Obviously he could not say too much given we can only discuss things in the public domain. I get the impression small scale production is perhaps more likely than a takeover at least to prove up the resource and quality before a takeover further down the line. I raised my concerns about lack of cash and delisting. He does not deny it's a high risk investment and you should not put more in than you can lose but he stated if they pull something off shareholders could see a much better share price than the current one. Again he cannot speculate as to what figure share price. He also said Clifford has 27m shares so a deal could set him up for life and he is not giving up. There are ways ZIOC could raise money if they wanted to but they do not feel they need it currently and are mindful of shareholders.
AT believes the loan from Glencore shows they are keen to do something with Zanaga and when i asked how often Clifford or himself speak to Glencore I was told every week. Not much response when I said I cannot understand why nothing has happened then. Regarding the loan, he did not seem worried that Glencore could pull the rug and said there are various protections for ZIOC. I asked specifically if we are on the list of 13 Glencore assets for sale, no real answer but I asked AT if Clifford can make sure he asks on his next call with Glencore! I definitely got the impression as people have stated here that Glencore won't proceed with something unless they are happy it's a good deal and at the right time / iron ore market sentiment. AT doesn't believe the ZIOC market cap will impact a potential deal value. Glencore would be happy for a strategic investor to take majority control of the project so that doesn't seem to be an issue.
Covid hasn't impacted work on the ground and I was told there are still people on the ground maintaining the site, doing ESG and looking after roads. However covid has impacted having any potential interested parties being able to visit the mine. It is also still not possible to travel to China for in person meetings.
I asked why we didn't get an RNS to say discussion have ended with COIDIC. He said because they have never officially ended their interest though he admits they have had changes on the COIDIC side and I got the impression not much if anything is or has happened on that for some time.
In summary, I am encouraged work is still going into achieving a good outcome for shareholders and the communication with Glencore is still regular. I think it will be a 7am bolt from the blue if something happe
AIUI - v limited understanding, from a quick scan - KP"'s potash is intended to be barge-transported out to larger vessels offshore, which seems inefficient/costly.
ZIOC's offshore floating system was intended to handle iron-ore slurry, was it not ? I don't know the handling requirements for potash, but IF the ZIOC system was in place, that might be an alternative/additional user : I seem to recall there was talk/aspiration of the Chinese using the system to handle bauxite shipments....
KP2 infrastructure does not help Zioc. Even KP2 which is far down the road to go ahead and construction is very much under the radar still and massively undervalued. Also, KP2 has a very desirable product at record high prices currently. Alas, KP2 is a superior investment at this point.
Are KP2 investing in infrastructure close by our asset, if so surely this will provide an interest for investment in Zioc ?
Another possible consideration is that ZIOC is essentially ' Elphick + mates'...and he may wish to maintain the public quote for their sakes / at their request, so that everything remains above board.
As Lenin said ' Trust is good, but control is better'.
My ‘cautiously optimistic’ take is that the loan ( peanuts for GLEN) avoids potentially serious dilution for ZIOC if the alternative is a fundraise : the remaining Shard 3m would raise barely £60k; and keeps ZIOC as the original promotor formally in view in any discussions (‘have to take our partner’s concerns into account’) ie publicly on-side, whilst making it clear to anyone interested that GLEN is the party in the driving seat.
The other, more cynical, is that it’s arguably more attractive to ZIOC /GLEN than ZIOC de-listing, which would give the authorities a pretext - and maybe even som e right, eg a ‘change of status’ provision - to revoke the concession.
Also, of course, ZIOC remaining a publicly quoted party in any development, however unattractive, is probably better for GLEN from a ‘transparency’ perspective, which is probably quite a consideration for the new CEO and BoD :
Elphick has been quite combative in the past, IIRC, at any suggestion that his are not a ‘clean pair of hands.
‘Dum spiro, spero’ : while I breathe, I hope….
Who knows ? As others have said, it’ll be interesting to see what AT says, if anything….and how he says it. Through the salary concessions and LTIP etc, he should still have a useful holding if any deal is done.
Ho hum
I wasn’t expecting the Glencore loan to happen. It’s had the cogs in my brain going all weekend. Why are they doing it? How long for? Are things moving and it’s just a short term loan till something happens?
Hopefully you’ll get some answers from AT in your call this week.
Veteran, good to hear, I still haven’t had a response.
Please could you ask him of the “terms of the loan with glencore”, if you don’t mind? I, as I’m sure other holders would love for you to share any feedback
Thanks in advance..
That sounds more than interested,Veteran. Hopefully your chat with AT will take place, and hopefully too he will give you permission to report a few things back to the forum. I seem to remember Extrader did something similar after speaking to him late last year?
Either way, anything you are wiling to share would be gratefully received by many, I'm sure!
Have actually received a message from AT and will hopefully speak to him in the week. I cannot deny I have been very critical of the blanket silence and new job but would be happy to apologise if it transpires I have been too rash. Let's hope all is not lost here. Any kind of news and we can rocket to 20p in days still.
"Overall though, we are in for a very dull and depressing year or so as regards news, with only speculation about whether AT is still there to keep us amused." Come on! Anything could happen which is why everyone should own ZIOC shares in their PF. Currently listening to Bob Dylan's Christmas CD which probably shows how depressed I am! But I speak as a man who has a pink Christmas tree on display in his lounge 365/24/7. My PF plunged 13% this week - its worst week since March 2020. Thank you BEN! I remain confident. Thank you Northern Monk!
Two interesting things for me in what is otherwise an "as you were" update (otherwise known as "nothing is happening"):-
1. As others have mentioned, the Glencore loan is interesting. I might be wrong, but I think that is the first time such a loan has been actioned. I would hope its an indication that Glencore still have hopes for Zioc, even if the loan is just to tide things over until something (anything) comes out of...
2. "Increased engagement underway with other mining project developers in RoC to explore potential collaboration opportunities, especially in relation to logistics solutions and alternatives for upgrades to existing infrastructure"
This does make sense, especially with KP2 supposedly close to getting finance settled later this year, and also needing infrastructure for a route to market
The mention also possibly shows that an EPC is still in ZIOC's mind, even if Chinese/COIDEC interest is seemingly long gone.
Overall though, we are in for a very dull and depressing year or so as regards news, with only speculation about whether AT is still there to keep us amused.