RE: Wheres Alchy13 Dec 2019 13:02
mike29
Here is a post of mine from a few weeks ago which sets out my views and may answer your question.
I think the EPO and JV have to go hand in hand and the paperwork covering this will have been already complete behind the scenes and is conditional on the EPO being signed. The Mining Affairs Board Criteria For Recommending EPO Applications requires that the applicant is a fit and proper person to obtain an Order and is of adequate financial standing to undertake such operations under an EPO (i.e. to take the area through DFS and on to production). I don't believe PREM, on its own, would have the financial standing to be able to pass this test. Hence why the JV is required. I assume the Mining Affairs Board will have needed PREM to demonstrate they have the financial standing and given GR's background and the current share ceiling the only way PREM would have been able to satisfy them is to provide documentary evidence that the EPO being granted is the sole condition on which the formation of the JV would be conditional (i.e. the EPO when granted would force the JV and the parties have signed up to that already). There is of course a question about whether this would require shareholder approval but I believe shareholders would not have any other option. I still believe there is a risk PREM doesn't get the EPO and it is given to a much larger organisation, though that would be the worst case scenario. This is all my personal opinion though I am rarely wrong. GLA Bickmaster.