Member Info for Castaway

2 decent buys just saved us :-)

Thanks I will bear that in mind

LSE doesn't like Google translate ;-)

�ți �mpărtășesc sentimentul tău Sandy

�ți �mpărtășesc sentimentul tău Sandy

I think we will have both - acquisitions as AP has stated will be generally near term revenue providers i.e. Eureka - Zagra may be a few years off but that was a special case again to show there is nothing stopping VAST being granted licences, and it is huge. We can have our cake an eat it - the new acquisitions will not hold up revenue from existing projects, only increase it VAST has experienced mining people in both jurisdictions, we have now been mining for 3 years - AP stated he is not a technical mining guy, he is a deal maker, but he is building an experienced mining team - he acquires the mines and raises the finance - the team then develop them - it's a great business model and with the opportunities in Rom and Zim currently - the sky is the limit!.

Yeh VAST :-)

John Teeling again from 2012 - Marange is from 25:30 - very interesting! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wstSdwsRyDA

John Teeling interview a year ago - near the end of the interview he says: "I would love to get a proper opportunity to look at Marange diamonds � but it will take some time before that happens and certainly if you could be sure of getting any kind of serious tittle, yes, I would go back to Zimbabwe." The "serious title" is interesting - that's a licence. http://www.rough-polished.com/en/exclusive/107286.html

I agree Jay the ZimGov will want a JV with the diamonds as it is so big, BOD offer the expertise and we have the licences. There will need to be a big money backer as Marange will be expensive to exploit. BOD already have a JV with the second largest diamond miner in Alrosa (in Botswana). Alrosa are gig enough to do Marange for sure and have had recent talks with the the ZimGov about diamond mining I read recently.

Pepco, you make an interesting point they would not bother to start to form an SPV unless they had been given the nod from the ZimGov that VAST's Marange licences will be considered to be once again legal and held by us, or they were to issue further licences in other areas - there is more to this or there is absolutely no reason for the MOU.

We all were Badge :-) It will be worth the wait IMO, I am still confident we will get it soon - so that's the same way for 2 years! - but it feels different now all the things are in place that we have not had in the past

I did ask him about it a while ago watcher - I thought like you and was concerned that Baita SA had been paid and we still didn't have the association - AP confirmed they would be paid when we got the association and not before. So they are incentivised to let us have it.

watcher if you read that RNS carefully it states we got a loan from SSGI to pay the $1.6mil, but does not state it was actually paid. As I understand it it is held in ESCROW until the association has been granted - AP wasn't born yesterday ;-)

As per RNS's we pay Baita SA $1.6 mil when the association is signed off - over the past 2 years we have not always had the cash to hand at the right time, or a BoD committed to Romania - we now have both now.

Sorry jeffa not Pepco was saying AP was promising it soon for the last 2 years - which I agree is correct but I think we need to understand the position he was in not being on the BoD etc.

thirdman - we all probably feel the same. To understand it you need to think how the RomGov are and their previous experiences of foreign investment which have largely consisted of foreign companies using them to get their S/P up and not actually investing anything or basically buying their mines and running them into the ground again without investing anything (as was the case with Manaila). Now AP is actually in control of the company (remember this has only been CEO for 4.5 months) the minister has a fellow countryman who can deliver on promises, has access to large amounts of capital and has proved he can make a privately held mine work in Rom. You cannot blame the RomGov for wanting to make sure VAST has the capacity to deliver production at BPPM, I feel this is part of the delay. Everything is now in place and I can see no reason why they would not grant the association. Pepco mentioned that AP has always said the licence will be "imminent" etc. but not until this year has he been able to control the situation there have been times in the past when I believe we could have got the association or the main licence, but for various reasons beyond AP's control this didn't occur. Anyway IMO we should get it soon and I will be relieved when we do as it will finally get the monkey off our back and I for one am sick of talking about it :-)

thirdman - the ESM licence is like our Zagra licence and completely different and more straightforward than BPPM which is in effect an association of the mining licence for BPPM held by Baita SA. The history of this licence is complex and it was transferred to the state owned Baita SA when Mineral Mining (which VAST acquired in liquidation) was placed into liquidation. AP has stated he is not allowed (by the RomGov) to update us as to exactly where the sign off by the minister is up to. This process has never been done before in Romania and is sensitive for various reasons that are nothing to do with VAST. As we know Andrew is highly confident we will get this licence soon and it will be worth the wait as BPPM was acquired at very low cost and when running and profitable will have only cost around $5mil - AP has stated the infrastructure and equipment would cost $60 mil to build now so we are getting a bargain. Bear in mind ESM have spent 10 years already on their proposed mine and will have another few to go. The licence process for them is simple and laid out in law - as will ours be with Zagra. If we had got BPPM as a greenfield site it would cost us $60 mil and would be many years before it was productive - as it is we got it December 2014 and it will be mining this year IMO - so within 4 years - BPPM is a total bargain and you need to remember this when you think about the timescales. It should pay for itself in the first 18 months. However he won't be commenting on the licence association directly until it is signed off, which could be any time soon presumably.

I think that's correct gem, but the letter I got stated that larger accounts would get a haircut - presumably there was cash or assets held directly by Beaufort in these accounts - as I understand it shareholders who used Beaufort as purely a broker should get all their shs back eventually as the shareholder is the beneficial owner even if they are held by proxy..

Dodge as I understand it's only larger accounts with Beaufort that will receive a haircut and those with shs only are (hopefully) immune and will get all their shs back (eventually). So let's discuss AP's "overpromising" - BP licence - he has a letter saying we should have got it in December - not his overpromising then is it - it's delays with the RomGov for whatever reason. He did say lots on news in April we got upgrade on JORC at Manaila, Eureka and on 1st May the MOU re the Zim diamonds - for any other AIM co that is lots of news! Andrew is so enthusiastic it is infectious and we all expect more but IMO he has delivered so much since the start of his tenure and I expect so much more this year. We should understand that as a CEO he has many things to juggle - keep the shareholders happy is only one of them - I said to him a couple of weeks ago "don't worry about the day to day share price that is not your job, your job is to build a successful company". He is totally in tune with our needs, he is a shareholder but more important he owns part of BPPM directly and has put years into it and lots of his personal cash and reputation. Basically he wants the BPPM licence more than any of us and that gives me confidence. Let's face it all we care about is the share price, AP has much more to consider, but I am 100% confident he will deliver many multiples of the current s/p in the near term, whether investors have the patience to stick around is up to them, but VAST is and will be for a few years my main investment.