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Having "an interest in 51%" is not the same as "owning 51%". All they have (had) is an option to own 51% by entering into a new JV which also comes with spend commitments. They are refusing to do so which means the Exploration Agreement is now terminated, and should have been terminated in Jan'23.
The problem we have is that our BOD are not acting in shareholders interests, they are letting MMA do whatever the hell they please to OUR detriment.
Starbright - you are wrong. The contract is on sedar, the link was posted before.
Starbright the key statement in your post is the words "After Phase 1, Newmont may elect to form a JV”, this is the part that admits THEY ONLY HAVE AN OPTION to take 51%, an option which it appears they are not exercising, but trying to suck something back from OMI when in reality they own nothing and need to either press on with P2 (and spend $20m on Anza), or f off.
Starbright, I would advise reading the contract and not OMIs largely incorrect interpretation. I have read it so many times I am not digging it out again but will summarise. Lets say a new JV company was created for P2, which would see MMA own 51% and OMI 49%, (Jebs, this has not happened yet), the Anza licence would then be transfered to the new company. Now, can MMA just sit and do nothing? No, because if MMA do not spend another $4m each year the contract gives OMI the right to take "managerial control" of the project. This means that OMI can spend the $20m and send the bill to MMA. This is why I say the 51% comes with further obligation to spend $20m, after which MMA will own 65%. It is all there in black and white.
Karl, OMI own 100% of the Anza licences at present. As such, there is nothing for MMA to hand back. What is needed is a clear statement of intent from MMA that they do not intend to proceed with P2 and that they forgo all rights and options, and have no further obligations, under the Exploration Agreement. i.e. the Exploration Agreement has ended.
This should have been done in Jan'23 and pressure put on them when they started C&M nonsense.
Jack/Chicken, the $2m payment was part of the P2 conditions. In my view it should never have been paid if MMA did not wish to progress to P2 but I can guess what happened: MMA lawyers would have been aware of the 90 day option period and suggested that the $2m should be paid to try and keep that option alive.
OMI should give them back the $2m and walk away. JV over, OMI retains 100%.
And if it is not fraud, it is incompetence of the highest order. Imaging buying back a portion of something that you already own on a 100% basis! I might contact Brad and sell him a few bridges while he is at it.
Maybe they are pretending that MMA has "earned 51%" rather than the "right to acquire 51%", so they can paint the return of full control to OMI as a significant win? I do not know but this thing should have been resolved a year ago, if MMA do not wish to progress then a simply letter saying so is all that is needed.
Worst case, MMA are trying to get OMI to "buy out their 51%", which would be the dumbest thing ever given OMI ALREADY HAVE 100% ownership.
i give up on this dog now, my view is that we have been de-frauded. why do i say this? because the facts are that mma have not earned 51% of the project. they only earned an option to obtain a 51% stake if they sign-up to spend a further $20m on phase 2. an option, that is all they earned with their p1 spend, and the option should have been exercised within 90 days of p1 completion, which would have been by january 2023, a full year ago.
if they do not wish to spend a further 20m then they have nothing. they walk away and omi retains 100% of the anza licence, which is in fact the case today.
i am now severely ****ed off but do not have the time or energy to sue omi despite shareholders having a very strong case. ******* outright fraud in front of everyones face. an utter disgrace.
I am still highly suspicious that OMI mgt can get a good deal for Option 4 (MMA walks away and OMI retains 100% of the project). This Option was always there, MMA can stop at the end of Phase 1 with no further costs or obligations. Quite why they would instead pay $2m to do nothing is quite baffling to me, unless they want to press OMI for some type of exit payoff? MMA have earned nothing unless they enter into P2 but I see from the presentation (and previous correspondence from OMI) that OMI does not see things this way.
So what is it going to take for them to clear off?
What did we miss? I was in late work meetings so could not join.
Capital is flowing into mining stocks since the Fed pivot notification yesterday. Of course, not OMI.
On 13x normal volume. Sounds impressive until you realise normal volume is practically dead, avg 6k shares traded per day.
"I think we all agree that us getting back control is the best outcome", so the "we" is OMI and MMA but I would be much happier if he did not caveat this with the words "I think". At this stage you would hope he would KNOW that this is what is being worked on, as he goes on to say "question of how and what the details are" which has been the case all year surely so what progress has been made really?
I do not think MMA are going to simply give the project back, which would be the best outcome as others have reported OMI has investors waiting for a piece of Anza if it becomes available, however, OMI in the driving seat with MMA paying the bills would be an excellent result. If they can also come up with a drill plan to start in 2024, then this will re-rate.
To provide some balance, while I have made my views clear on how this has been managed, I accept that there is more than one way to skin a cat, in fact it is likely that there will be some resolution of Azna in Q1 for the simple fact that even the most passive poodle must bite if he has no other option, OMI must start pressing MMA for SOME movement, in particular as fundraising is needed , which to me it is unthinkable that Brad would come with cap out without any movement at all on Anza. But who knows, he seems to have a brassneck regarding shareholders and the market, pity he does not have that attititude when it is so desperately needed towards our JV "partners".
I'll repeat again the legal argument mainly for those new here but also since DrR asked "how can they win". The case is simple, the P1 expenditure plus $2m cash payment simply give MMA a right to enter into a new JV vehicle under which they would own 51% of the Anza project, with further rights and obligations to be contained in the T&C of a new JV company. Critically, this option to enter P2 must be exercised within 90 days of P1 ending, by way of creation of the new JV company AND START OF P2. Simply paying the $2m does NOT give MMA a lifetime option to sit on Anza and do nothing, to the contrary, the licence is 100% owned by OMI and the P2 option has now expired so OMI should absolutely be pressuring MMA to get a bloody move on or get out. They have massive leverage and have refused to use it.
As I have posted before, I bet OMI have made some kind of representation to MMA that they would waive the 90 day term, which would be extremely dumb without putting a new term in place, but we will never know the inner communications, all we can see is the result, a contract breach which our board is unwilling to do anything about and which has cratered the share price.
"How can they win against two giant multi billion $ companies, who have paid there way in regards to spenditure until the middle of next year". Firstly, a uncorrupt court of law is a humbling equaliser, it does not matter who has the deeper pockets as long as the litigation fees can be paid then it all revolves around the rights and responsibilities that are in writing, and the actions of the participants.
Secondly, you are correct in that MMA have nearly a full year of carryforward costs I believe, which does not start until P2 starts. This makes every week of delay in starting P2 a further hammerblow to a small company that relies on positive newsflow/drill results.
And I bet the ongoing "care and maintenance" costs will be added to MMA carry-forward sum, and Brad and Louis the poodles will say "of course", however, according to the contract only P1 costs can be carried forward and P1 ended in September 2022! Who wants to bet that Brad and Louis ignore this very important fact also, to the detrement of OMI shareholders and to the benefit of MMA, odd that.
I should sell out tbh, it is not worth the ongoing anger caused in thinking of the stupidity, cowardice, or corruption on display here.
I stand corrected then, was just a suspicion since he said something odd about "you cannot put legally binding timelines in a contract as they could be impacted by external changes to government etc" which is incorrect and strangely that appears to be the position of OMI, to ignore contract terms because of external factors. No, I said it before and will say it again, a force majeure event would mean that an alternative has to be put in place, and ofc we are still stuck here with no new date set.
I'll go ahead and make my suspicions public, but I suspect AGEOS was Brad. Reason is that he had shared expert level geo insights previously, claimed to be a CEO who had experience dealing with JV contracts, but also displayed a serious lack of legal understanding of said contracts. Just like our man Brad. Also, he disappeared when the share price began to crash and questions were being asked of OMI BoD dereliction of duty.
This is just my opinion, I cannot prove any of it, but I don't think AGEOS will be back.
Impec, no mate, sorry, but there would be NO need for litigation, all that was needed was for OMI to put their foot down and tell our partners that there is no allowance in the time-boxed contract for the project to be put on "care and maintenance".
MMA would have been faced with a decision that if they do not progress OMI will end the agreement and retain 100% of the licence rights, as permitted due to failure to enter P2.
Now, this may trigger litigation from MMA, but not necessarily, they could just accept that they need to progress.
This should have all been hammered out with MMA as soon as they said "care and maintenance" but Brad the poodle did nothing and is happy to just let MMA do nothing while shareholders lose. At least then, if MMA had refused to budge based on a deadline set by OMI back in February we could stop all the other project nonsense and keep remaining funds for litigation if MMA decided to go that route. We could have entered into another JV with terms that our new JV partner will assist in defending litigation from MMA for example, which we would win as the contract is clear that P1 to P2 is 90 days.