Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
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thats diplomacy for ya.....
gullible and dispicable .....answer please...
chisler
It is a bit strange that our non-executive Mr joy liked a tweet from Amnesty International that appeared to criticize the Moroccan officials for a deportation decision on a Uyghur national to China. Considering we are about 6 months behind in receiving a vital permit from the govt in Morrocco does not seem to be the smartest thing to do . Still waiting to see what material difference this guy is making to the company so far.Just a mere personal observation..
I only spotted the potential significance of this press release, when I finally read it through today:
https://www.h24info.ma/maroc/gouvernement-signature-a-rabat-de-la-charte-de-la-majorite/
It does lose a little in the translation, and waffles on like all these types of announcements, allowing an opportunity for the leaders of the coalition parties to say what a wonderful deal they have struck etc.
But WFP Secretary General Abdellatif Ouahbi does make a statement that suggests greater cooperation between central and regional authorities:
He said on the Majority Charter, ‘that this document establishes, for the first time, a close link between the government's decision at both the central and regional levels, "being aware of the need to strengthen the attributions of advanced regionalization and to accelerate development projects at the regional level"’.
Hopefully this augers well for whatever processes there are that still need to be followed - even though I believe that the coalition does not have an overall majority at the regional level covering Khemisset , it is close.
Thank you Mr Jinx, every dog has his day, as they say, but I cannot take all the credit as if Hillview1 hadn't felt the need to vent his understandable angst and frustration at the current, apparent snail like pace of the regional authorities, I wouldn't have been moved to look again so soon.
I have also been monitoring the top 30 local Moroccan newspapers and about half of them are reporting on Emmerson’s announcements and in a positively way, but the transparency on local and even central government decisions is almost non-existent. Which isn’t to say that decisions are not being reported, it’s just that very little in-depth information is presented on the finer details of the decisions. Here is a rare example of a follow up article giving an extra breakdown, but still not giving a breakdown of the money being spent within a region:
https://fr.le360.ma/economie/commission-des-investissements-13-projets-approuves-pour-2-milliards-de-dirhams-249929
https://fr.le360.ma/economie/commission-des-investissements-voici-la-repartition-par-secteur-et-par-region-des-projets-approuves-242534
Tantalisingly. 'In terms of the geographical distribution of approved investments, the Rabat-Salé-Kenitra region has the largest amount of investments', which is 39%, but unfortunately there is no breakdown of sectors within the specific region. What it does seem to tell us though is that ‘our’ regional committee is busy dealing with these spending decisions in some shape or form.
Personally though, I believe that the newly elected regional committee members are dragging their heels on the ESIA approval because of the extreme importance of water usage in Morocco and the failure of previous mining projects dealing effectively with the issue of localised pollution caused to the area surrounding mine sites. As a result I’m sure the committee members are going to be reading through the paperwork quite thoroughly.
Thankfully though there must be some pressure from above, as the PM must be fully aware of the Khemisset project and it’s EISA approval status, from his previous Ministerial position. So whist his Investment Committee are in overdrive, he must be requesting regional committees to expedite all matters requiring investment decisions, particularly those involving job creation, as soon as they can. Obviously though this is all just conjecture on my part.
Not a bad post that OOSM…for you! ;)
good morning only one share, nice to read your informative and articulate post unlike the other childish post made by an utter comedian which held no substance nor relevance. Enjoy the rest of your day and hopefully, some concrete news will I dare say it be"imminent".
Contined from the previous post……
I found on the site under the mining section/OTHER PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT, there are four projects now listed, which were not there 7 days ago with the interesting one being:
Khemisset potash project: under development by the British company Emmerson PLC which acquired the property of Moroccan Salts Limited (MSL). Emmerson PLC is preparing to start construction of the plant by the end of the year. The British firm, listed on the London Stock Exchange, has confirmed that the entry into production of the largest potash mine on the continent should take place in 2023.
Emmerson PLC has raised £5.5 million to accelerate the development of the project. The initial production targets have even been revised upwards while the feasibility study has forecast an annual production of 750,000 tons of potassium muriate (MOP).
I don’t know about you Hillview1, I personally wouldn’t expect an official Moroccan Government website to be featuring Emmerson so glowingly, if the Ministry was being briefed that the Khemisset ESIA approval, whilst not yet complete, was actually in jeopardy?
Hello once again Hillview1, as you are aware, unlike you I’m not an expert on anything in particular, but I can see that you are clearly unimpressed by our newly signed up strategic investors purchasing 81,818,182 shares at 6p each, without their being unduly concerned about our delayed ESIA approval. Even though, Emmerson no doubt had to share with them the sort of confidential information, which allayed any worries they might have had on that front.
Anyway, as you have quite rightly said, when you have 2.5M reasons to be as keenly interested in some concrete information on the subject as you are, possibly more so than the rest of us shareholders, but perhaps not by much, it does leave us anxious for actual news. Obviously though like everyone else on this BB, I’m not in a position to provide the conclusive facts that we all desire, but I have just spotted a tantalising snippet of information that hopefully indicates the direction of travel on this matter.
To cut down on the blather, I was trawling through the Regional Investment Center Region of Rabat-Sale-Keni website - which presumably will be taking the lead in approving the Khemisset ESIA. As usual the site hasn’t been updated since before the recent elections, so no new updates under the mines section. However on this occasion, I did follow the link to the Ministry of Energy, Mines, Water and Environment, Department of Energy and Mines
http://www.mem.gov.ma/
Which finally does have some new content, other than just a picture of the new Minister, the first being her handover speech on the 8th of October, where this excerpt is interesting:
Mrs. Leila Benali appointed as Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, as part of her speech, ‘She also stressed the enormity of the responsibility incumbent on everyone to move forward in the implementation of the various projects in the fields of energy, mining and the environment and to overcome the constraints and challenges, including the repercussions of the pandemic and the record prices recorded on the energy markets, with the aim of progressing towards the development desired by our country’.
But of possibly much more significance, I found on the site under the mining section/OTHER PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT, there are four projects now listed, which were not there 7 days ago (Sorry this is continued in the next post).
I skipped this one. More rumour, turn away if offends.
Indian Samta announces investments of nearly one MMDH in Morocco.
“NWe are committed to investing more than $ 100 million over the next five years in the development of mining and mineral processing activities in Morocco ”, indicates the Indian group in a press release.“
https://new.in-24.com/News/366931.html
Hillbilly, Alt.. delete second name you’re so obvious to spot, try and only own one account?
Given the next comment agrees, it’s just written in a different way, could you pick on another try keep a balance?
I did leave out covid, now there is a reason to delay.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/28/morocco-suspends-incoming-flights-over-new-covid-variant-omicron
https://moroccolatestnews.com/the-region-of-rabat-in-the-lead-with-23-contaminations-in-24-hours/
My understanding from Graham is that all paperwork has been submitted to the authorities and the additional queries have been answered by the company. It is a case now of waiting for the final meeting to take place - it has admittedly been like this for a few months now. The company hasn't provided a revised date. If I had to speculate, I don't think it is imminent as I think the company would have waited for the permit before finalising the recent equity deal, knowing that the granting of the permit would have raised the share price and allowed the equity deal to be done at a higher price. The board clearly thought they needed to progress the other workstreams including the debt finance discussions and couldn't afford to waste any more time if construction is to start in the middle of next year. I think the permit will come in the first half of next year - the good news is that I don't think the equity deal woud have been concluded if there were genuine concerns on this. It is just a matter of time now.
I tend not to do conjecture but deal in facts, not opinion. Xmas, the king. Ramadan, April why not chuck in the winter Olympics and the world cup in Qatar to get the full bag of reasons on delay, i would rather just hear from the company exactly what the delay is .
The permit isn’t a concern and could the company move any quicker? To get access to the site require access roads. The latest funding does allow that.
I suspect the new Gov administration are in no hurry as there isn’t a requirement? Also this project is managed by his excellency, it’s of huge significance and more so to the region. As xmas isn’t celebrated by muslims we may need to wait until new year cheer be upon us all? Worse case April or just before ramadan?
The issue of EIAS a mere formality.
Having spent considerable time in the region, I am familiar bureaucracy there is a big hindrance. If you want an official document approved, you have to visit several different buildings/departments in different parts of the city to complete it. I am just talking about personal official documents, never mind a mining permit.
I am afraid to say, this will take time, and i wouldn't be surprised if this became even more protracted.
Either way I'm Long, bring on 2022.
Hi Hillview,
If you look at the Operational Update RNS from 30th Sept, it is covered there (Operational Update: Khemisset Potash Project). Essentially, it seems there were asked for more info on the "water" side of the permit but the RNS suggests as of 30th Sept EML had complied with this too.
I share your frustrations on the permit side but if investors are prepared to commit $10m's without sight of this permit, surely they and EML have done due diligence on the likelihood of this being granted.
Good post. Hillview ..I think you said what needs to be said
Never thought for one minute that coming to the end of Dec 2021 that we are still here waiting on a permit, can anyone advise why we are factually still waiting and the reason behind it, the only reason this board and others are quiet on the matter is the small spike in share price a couple of months back has most small investors in profit. This is now coming up for 6 months after the infamous imminent statement. I am not interested in how 3rd party company pumped in £40 million or tenders for construction near completion, a simple answer on the permit would be nice as this is like groundhog day on the share price for the last 12 months and the soundbites every other day on social media re potash prices, food demand globally and every other aspect of this project does not hold any weight with me as the most fundamental part of this whole project is never mentioned.