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Miagi, does he? How do you know that NM isn't sitting beside him writing his scripts?
"Quady, old bean, you will post this now. Failure to do so will see you in front of the firing squad at dawn".

By the way, despite the rules not obliging him to do so, NM will inform the market of the initial approach.
He'll do this so that the sp reacts accordingly and sets a much higher benchmark for negotiations. BHP will be pished off, but there's nothing they can do about it.

how it will go:
At some point in the coming weeks BHP will initiate conversations with NCM, CGP and BR. They will establish what value they attribute to their respective shareholdings and whether they are sellers (we know the answer to that already) BR will say, yes we may sellers, but the price has to be right and we aren't going to tell you what that price is.
Having agreed something with NCM and CGP, BHP will then pick up the phone to NM. "Right, Nick, we want to buy SOLG and our initial valuation is x. We've based that on y value for Alpala and we've thrown in a few bob for the rest"
NM will say, thanks, but you're nowhere near an acceptable offer. Go away and have a re-think.
BHP will have anticipated that response and will return in a few weeks with an improved offer, which NM may, or may not, take seriously.
BHP will, at this stage, mention that CGP and NCM are on side, so it's best for all concerned if you do listen carefully to what we've said.
Negotiations will then start in earnest and an acceptable offer will be recommended to shareholders.
Exciting, eh?!

zoros, I agree that they will have decided their strategy internally, but, as you know, they have not been able to discuss the matter with the three key players i.e NCM, CGP and BR. That will take a bit of time.
Of course, it's possible they've broken the agreement, but I very much doubt it - why bother? we aren't going anywhere until they play their hand.

Pad, this fella gets it - but he's saying no more than many of us on here having been saying for a very long time.
The one thing I may take issue with is the suggestion that the 15th may see things kicking-off. I'd be hugely surprised if anything happened and am anticipating a delay of several months while BHP get their ducks in a row.

Q, oh, I do understand; a great deal as it happens.

Quady, I jolly well hope he has got a Machiavellian plan and isn't just stumbling around in the dark. The fact is, he's far too clever not to be aware of all of the permutations and I've no doubt he has rehearsed the responses to all of them. What he isn't doing is sitting at his desk endlessly repeating the mantra "we're going to production"...no CEO in these circumstances would do that. That's not true - some would...the useless ones.
Your approach is coming to resemble those poor foot soldiers of the First World War; blindly following orders as they stumbled towards oblivion. "Don't worry chaps, all you need to do is follow my commands, walk slowly towards the enemy and ignore the machine gun fire"

Q, that's just the half of it. We also have a raft of other advisors/lawyers on the payroll to assist us in the CGP bid and defence against any bid approach.
Over the past four or five months, these appointments are a very clear demonstration of what NM is anticipating.

Colonel, I think you misunderstood my point. It makes our situation more attractive to CGP holders and, by definition, our offer. And, as you say, by virtue of their existing shareholding, they benefit in the same way as the rest of us.
So, yes, it does have something to do with CGP and is a useful tool for NM...which is why he's making these announcements.

schlemiel, as I said, I ain't complaining - far from it, but this is not a coincidence. The announcements are important both as a defence mechanism, but are also important in the CGP situation and will be used in two ways; 1) to prove to the CGP shareholders what lies in store for them if they accept our offer and, 2) ammunition to ward off the criticisms of the CGP board that NM has been sitting on his hands. The changes in board composition were also forced on NM by CGP.
All of this is good, in my opinion.

It's very gratifying to hear that things are really beginning to move, but an RNS for the arrival of a rig? The motivation for these announcements is clear, understandable and to be welcomed and I'm most certainly not complaining, but I'm sure we all know why they're appearing.

Rolaw, you are correct.

Rich, yes, strange, isn't it? Nothing to do with the 15th...

WRN shareholders were granted "gift" share in Whetstone Capital. Great promises were made by Mr Earley and retail punters were lured into the shares on a totally false premise. Eventually Whetstone was de-listed from the tin-pot exchange they traded on and the directors behind the company resigned. Management was transferred to some strange outfit on a Slough trading estate (hence my comment) and nothing has been heard since. The whole thing stinks, which is hardly surprising. The great mystery was why anyone believed the stories of "$2bn assets, all lined-up and ready to go" and why no one seems remotely interested in what happened to their money or the assets Whet supposedly owned.

They don't trade anywhere.
WRN is in liquidation, but for some reason hasn't been de-listed yet and WHET has disappeared down a black hole on a trading estate in Slough, and I imagine Ricky Gervaise is now CEO.

It's also interesting to note the massive gap between the top 4 and the rest. It just goes to show how rare finds of this size are.
I'm as guilty as anyone by focussing on BHP, but I wonder if Codelco will ever feature in our story? They, probably better than anyone else, understand operating in that part of the world, particularly as it relates to the politics.

Surprised none of you guys appears to have mentioned the claim against KPMG, which was launched last week. This relates to their wholly misleading audit of 2013; the one in which they failed to draw attention to the scam and was responsible for thousands of investors being totally misled. Let's hope they get their arses nailed to the wall.
Of course, this is all ancient history now and hopefully people have recouped their losses elsewhere. However, justice remains to be done, and the more of those people who were responsible face the consequences of their actions, the better. But we are still waiting for the main players to have their day in court.

Optimus, there's no way of knowing whether BHP have had any discussions yet, my suspicion is not - but that's just a guess.
As I guess you know, my view is that this will fall to BHP, but the point I was making in my original post is that I feel greater shareholder value could be accrued by the "prove it and flog it" model, although I recognise the difficulty with achieving this.
In any event, this has, so far, been a great week. Fortunately, the delayed PFS came as a surprise to no one and the price did not react in the way some people thought it might . This was followed by tremendous news and an interview with NM that didn't sound as if he was bored rigid and on the point of narcolepsy. For what it's worth, I think someone had leaked the news about Porvenir and hence the sp held up well. (good tactics)

Morning copper, of course all of our opinions are equally valid, it just happens that I see the route described as being the best way to maximise shareholder value. It's a kind of best of both worlds approach.

was the most interesting and upbeat I think I've ever heard from NM - even his budgie sounded excited.
As the discussion progressed I couldn't help but feel the best way forward would be to sell Alpala and concentrate on proving-up the other concessions. I understand the difficulties with this, not least the potential damage it may do to our relationship with the government. But the ability to provide an immediate return to shareholders and to have cash to cover all of our exploration costs without the need for dilution or expensive funding packages, is enormously tempting. I'm sure if we were in any other part of the world, this is the route we'd take.
p.s I note the Orange One has the virus. I suspect this may hit the markets today (although it's of no real relevance to us - other than in a broader market sense)