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Comes with sadness that I’ve had to sell up after reading a couple of news articles 1 which talks about a review on concessions and is still available online (Although the concessions of the deposit are already given, on Tuesday morning President Andrés Manuel López Obrador declared: The Ministry of Economy is reviewing, but we are not delivering concessions. We are reviewing all this.) and the other about the license and if it was ever granted for mining lithium specifically which has since been deleted and also watching recent buys and sells. I’ve lost quite a bit here and didn’t want to sell up and still hope the best for everyone. If things turn around later I may jump back in but for now I’m out. I’ll provide a link which will need google translate and I’ll try and find the other one somewhere else which has since been deleted. All the best C
https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/mexican-government-has-not-given-concessions-for-lithium-exploitation
https://www.jornada.com.mx/ultimas/economia/2020/01/23/bacanora-confia-en-auge-de-litio-en-mexico-5318.html
https://www.en24.news/2020/02/bacanora-trusts-in-lithium-boom-in-mexico-economy.html
Sorry to see you go. That was a whirlwind, in 3rd Dec. , keen poster, out 29th Jan. Can't see any large sales going through yet.
The statements are a bit vague and probably needs some clarification from the company.
He is talking about granting future mining concessions,saw about about 5/6 articles about this last week,things also get lost in Google translations
https://www.bnamericas.com/en/features/consultations-key-to-mexico-mining-code-overhaul
https://cobertura360.mx/2019/12/27/el-presidente-de-mexico-conoce-el-plan-privado-para-producir-litio-en-sonora/
Afternoon all,
Having seen the post from Corvidae, I decided to run some further checks.
The enclosed copy of the PFS, pages 16-17, gives details of the 10 concessions held on and around Sorona. Page 17 detail a legal opinion from Melicoff & Asociados Abogados, issued in 2014 when BCN listed on AIM.
The opinion and the standing looks watertight to me.
The second document below is the guidance for the attainment of mining concessions and the process to needed to exploit minerals.
As far as I understand, the key document post the concession approval (which allows for exploration and exploitation) is the EIA (see page 23 onwards).
That was notified by BCN in their RNS dated 20th October 2017 (see below) and stated that it covered the current 35,000 tpa lithium carbonate operation at Sonora.
http://img.project.fdi.gov.cn/28/1800000628/%E4%B8%AD%E5%A2%A8/6.1.1%20-%20Investor%20mannual%20%E5%A2%A8%E8%A5%BF%E5%93%A5%E7%9F%BF%E4%B8%9A%20Part%201%20of%202%20-%20%E8%8B%B1%E6%96%87.pdf
http://www.cadenceminerals.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PFS_-_April_2016_-_Sonora-1.pdf
https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/BCN/environmental-approval-for-sonora-lithium-project-wq1g59c53b1r1cf.html
Lastly, the Q3 2017 management update from BCN (again see below), stated that ;
"The approval represents a major milestone for Bacanora as it grants the Company government approval to construct an open-pit mine and a large scale beneficiation processing facility at Sonora."
https://www.bacanoralithium.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/BACANORA-2017-09-30-MDA.pdf
There is always the chance that a wayward thinking president and his team could/would look to change this but as far as I can see, the statement (and I recognise the limited detail available in the links provided regarding the Mexican president's recent comments), is not supported by the facts, and any attempt to remove said concessions and approvals, would surely be on very shakey ground.
I do however recognise the existence of the articles and that if true, could be problematic for BCN. However, the statement is simply not correct in the case of BCN.
If the 35 thousand tons of lithium are produced annually, the objective of the English firm, it will be positioned as one of the most important in the world, since at the country level it would only be exceeded by Australia, where in total 51 thousand tons are produced annually. This mineral, being well above the second place, which is Chile with 16 thousand tons per year.
R7632
Don’t disagree with this I just foresee potentially a few hurdles that I personally didn’t feel comfortable with. Always good to share and let others make there own conclusions.
Thanks for the info Big Bite. I will sit back and watch for the moment.
Great information bigbitenow , When are you ready to come back in to Bcn ? As I recall about 9 months ago , you said you’d be back when the situation improves :-)
This article talks about 90 million hectares. But if you visit website, the sonora project is set over only 100,000 hectares. I know we own a huge amount more, which haven't been granted mining licenses, but they are nothing to With the current pfs.
I remember Kiran Mozaria from kdnc talking about it years ago, as they own 30% of the largest area, and he said that the area they already had was so huge, that they hadnt got round to applying for the licences, but it would not be a problem. This was when kdnc were a large shareholder. I can see it might be a problem now!
I think the article is talking about the whole area we have rights to, which probably is excessive, given the size of the tiny area we have based current operations on.
To add
Latest presentation shows permits all in place ready to go
Is it 40 staff members that have been there for 4 years working on the pilot plant ?
Below from Bacanora 2019 Annual Report.. plus we have been paying concession tax's for the last few years.
The Group owns ten contiguous mineral concessions in Sonora, Mexico. The Company through its wholly-owned
Mexican subsidiary, MSB, has a 100% interest in two of these concessions: La Ventana and La Ventana 1, covering
1,820 hectares. Of the remaining concessions, five are owned 100% by Mexilit - El Sauz, El Sauz 1, El Sauz 2, Fleur
and Fleur 1 covering 6,334 hectares. Mexilit is owned 70% by the Group and 30% by Cadence Minerals Plc
(“Cadence”) formerly known as Rare Earth Minerals Plc. These seven concessions form the “Sonora Lithium
Project” covered by the technical Feasibility Study released in the prior year.
@Derbyone I never truly left. I reduced down a while back having had a very good run but still have a good sized core holding that I intend holding through to production and beyond.
Reading through the evidence to date on this subject, it looks like the president’s comments have been at best misconstrued.
Removing legally backed concessions from foreign investors of the likes of Ganfeng, is a very dangerous path for any politician to follow.
Here’s an example of an article I have just read ;
If true then meetings between the Sonora government and Ganfeng to discuss battery plants and future investment, smacks in the face of concessions being confiscated.
https://southfront.org/all-sights-on-mexico-as-it-discovers-worlds-largest-lithium-deposit/