Investor Event11 Feb 2025 11:26
Rather unsurprisingly the Investor Event has been put back to a later date to allow for further public newsflow. My expectation is that it will be at least 2 communications. Now that power and port MOUs have been signed it makes me wonder what these news events could be. Perhaps a further power MOU related to hydro, or road infrastructure, which has been mentioned previously. It could be the pelletisation plant and pipeline or mine/processing infrastructure. Regardless, as the latest RNS communicated it will provide a “more fulsome update” which does bode well ahead of the rescheduled event as this could only be “good news” communications. The big announcement should be the cryptic Strategic Process. I take this to be one of two things, the first being that there is a Strategic Investor(s) and we hear about the process they and ZIOC have come up with or ZIOC outline their expectation of their Strategic Process and are still fishing for partners. I think it will be the latter as previous information has indicated that ZIOC were originally aiming to be a junior partner and their website speaks of development and training of personnel etc. The worry with this is of course is funding, a partner can come in and provide capital but ZIOC will need capital to become this junior miner and from what we can understand they are running on fumes and it will be disappointing to see a large fund raising/placing/borrowing/dilution of the share base to provide working capital. That said, why pay off and close the Glencore loan? We know that Shard still have in place a facility to raise funds quickly and efficiently. These recent announcements indicate that FEED is underway and from what we have been told this is a 2 year timeframe – to get it all rolling. We are all hoping the market eventually recognises the company should be moving from a large plot of land with mining rights, assessment of minerals etc (albeit only a fraction of the resource officially proven up – which again complicates matters as any partner will want to negotiate some sort of staged buy-in based on gradual realisation of remaining resource) to an actual FEED stage/infrastructure development/beginning to function mine. That will only happen with the release of news relaying real tangible progress and the necessary funds to develop and ship the resource. Disappointingly, as described on the other board, the capacity of the venue may be just 70, so probably not the celebratory press, investor and SI event some were hopeful for, rather most likely a similar update to the 2019 investor meeting – a string of progress updates. Although, as also pointed out on the comments boards, ZIOC is further down the line then it ever has been. Any comments or insight welcome.
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