Member Info for extrader

Only just seen this, from 16th March
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/latest-news/glencore-completes-changing-of-the-guard/46451708

"Jyothish George and Nick Popovic have been appointed joint heads of the combined copper and zinc trading department, focusing on refined metals and concentrates respectively. The merged ferroalloys and nickel trading unit will be led by Jason Kluk, while Peter Hill will take over as head of iron ore marketing. ..."

Jyothish has tended to be GLEN's board rep on its iron ore assets (Jumelles, Champion etc), I wonder whether he'll hang on to those responsibilities or also pass them to the 'marketing' man , Peter Hill ?

You can't sell stuff that you're not producing....unless you have an off-take agreement in place.

". I’d be very happy with ten over the line which for me is proof of concept."

Absolutely ! If AZ has any smarts, he should offer the first companies 'mates rates' and charge the difference to SYME's marketing budget.
With an extra discount if they agree to be named/used for publicity purposes.

And Africa Intelligence seems to think GLEN is or was in talks with C-B re ITS oil pre-finance loans

CONGO 04/03/2021
Sassou Nguesso banks on IMF thaw to gild his re-election
With three weeks to go until the presidential poll, the Congolese government is working hard to clinch a debt rescheduling agreement with Glencore and get the IMF to resume lending. [...]

Ho hum.

Here's the source https://www.lesdepechesdebrazzaville.fr/
download (telecharger) today's date

More interesting is a full page article 'Towards a new Sino-African paradigm' that runs through a potted history of China in Africa, its support for economic development , its more recent support for Covid PPE etc, ie lots of 'hearts and minds' stuff.

It then talks about COIDIC and its role in a more integrated approach to investment by China, making 3 x interesting references :
.."most African governments including that of Congo Brazzaville, are gradually opening up to investment, energy sectors, urban transport and services, allowing investors to enter projects through multiple funding models such as than BOT, BOOT and PPP. The objective of COIDIC is to move from the simple export of labor to the export of labor, capital, technology, standards as well as management.
(1) As such, we can highlight in this new situation, the entry of the China State Construction Engineering (CSCE) in the capital of the Congolaise des Routes, after having been the builder. This concession of 27 years, will allow this company in association with EGIS International and the Congolese State, to maintain and manage a corridor of more than 1200 km, which goes from the Port of Pointe Noire to the world-class iron ore zone, from the Nabemba Mountains, Avima and Bandondo in the Department of Sangha in northern Congo.
(2) Still talking of this mineral, this time in the southern part of the Congo, we can point out the agreement between Zanaga Iron Ore Company Ltd (ZIOC) and COIDIC, relating to the acquisition of a stake in the latter in the capital of ZIOC. Anticipating the involvement of COIDIC in the realization of the ZES of Pointe Noire, both parties hope that the infrastructure planned in this area will be in line with their objectives of participation in the management of infrastructure for one and profitability for the other.
(3) This model will also be found as part of an almost 60-year-old project, namely the hydroelectric dam of Sounda in the Kouilou. Estimated at over 2 billion USD and for which the Congo had chosen the IFC, subsidiary of the World Bank, as facilitator, it is ultimately China Railway Group Corporation which will be the developer in the part of a concession contract.
In conclusion, we can say that the prospects for a new course in Sino-African relations are emerging with a more pragmatic vision backed by a more realistic legal, commercial and social environment. Africa integrated within the AfCFTA intends in the long term, to promote its industry and to consume what it produces. .."

It's probably all a poorly-understood re-hash of 'old news', but (1) is a land route for export of the 3 recently sequestered mines (2) suggests COIDIC taking an equity stake in ZIOC (NB : not Zanaga or Jumelles) and (3) is 'refreshing' an old project for the Sounda dam, which is IFC/World Bank (and not China)-backed, maybe hoping for some spin-off from recent progress with the IMF.

Watch this space ?
ATB

From today's depeches de Brazzaville leader (extract) :

.."Because we are all living at a turning point in our country's history, we must now observe with the greatest attention to the decisions that will be taken in the field of public governance by the head of state that the people have just confirmed for five years .
They could, indeed, include some big surprises for us. "

'Watch this space ' ?

Funnily enough, when I google 'what are human challenge studies' I get an immediate hit
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_challenge_study

HTH

My bad ! You want the ability for YOU to delete an entire thread. Got it !
Not sure how that would fit in technically with the posting history facility, which is quite useful : your proposal might delete (for everybody) otherwise useful posts where the poster had contributed to the thread you're unhappy with....

Hi 1Mozi,

Be careful what you wish for !
The facility to delete entire threads is already available to admin.

The problem is that - particularly on 'rampier' threads - a good factual post can be 'disappeared' along with the dross, indeed it can be abused as a mechanism for censoring 'inconvenient truths'.

The filterbox is a compromise and - like most compromises - is less than ideal, but probably the way to go, IMO.

HTH

..If you are going to "quote" something, basic form is you provide your source..."

The Prospectus, where else?

;->

I'm with BC.

CF is a serial entrepreneur, he may stay with ORPH beyond his lock-in if it suits, but at some point he'll want to cash his chips and move on to something else.
He's done stockbroking, oil sector and now pharma.
What next ?
Who knows ? But if he needs some shareholders for his new venture, as things stand I'd be happy to recycle some of my ORPH, wouldn't you ?
The more he makes for me, the more I'll be minded to put in.......

PS Hope you're taking note, Cathal.

.."Hmmmmm what use would an AGM be to present accounts that related to the previous incarnation Abal?.."

Apart from a financial update and approval of accounts, an AGM also serves to ratify appointment of the post RTO Board of Directors.

"The Directors are responsible for carrying out the Company’s objectives, implementing its business
strategy and conducting its overall supervision. Acquisition, divestment and other strategic decisions
will all be considered and determined by the Board. "

If SYME hadn't changed the FYE date from September 20, it would by now have had an AGM.

Having changed the date to Dec, which triggered the 'audited accounts' technical breach nonsense, it may be that the BoD doesn't " technically" have the authority it needs from shareholders to agree the TradeFlow acquisition ?

Guess we'll find out soon enough.

From Guido order-order

.."After enduring months of baseless criticism and browbeating from the EU, AstraZeneca now reportedly regret selling their vaccine at cost price as a result of the reputational damage inflicted by European leaders, and wouldn’t replicate the strategy if another pandemic hits. What a surprise...

Quote of the day

Speaking on RTE News At One this afternoon, Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin slapped down Brussels for “counterproductive” sabre rattling vaccine nationalism:

“If you take the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, 280 materials go into making the Pfizer vaccine. There are 86 suppliers supply those materials from 19 countries around the world. You start putting up barriers, other countries may follow suit in terms of those vital raw materials that are required to make the vaccine.”

“These are not EU vaccines. These are vaccines paid for by other countries that are manufactured in Europe.”

Hope the UK keeps to the high ground and lets Martin fight our corner !

C-B is in the doghouse internationally, because of poor governance, corruption and opaque indebtedness.

It needs/wants an IMF bailout to improve its credit rating (maybe only enough to stop creditors impounding the President's aircraft, but still...).
IMF has offered funds in return for (1) better behaviour and (2) C-B sorting out /rescheduling its debt burden
This is complicated by (3) the murky bits (Trafigura and GLEN loans agst future oil) and (4) China debt, which is the opaque bit.
Today's news is progress on (2) and (3) - GLEN appears to be the hold-out.

No-one wants to put fresh money in if they think it'll go to the Prez (which is bad enough) but to pay off another creditor (which just leaves you looking foolish and maybe for a job).

IMF OK gives 'cover' to other potential lenders ('safety in numbers' ), see

..".."More IMF disbursements could help unlock another nearly $900 million in financing from the World Bank, African Development Bank and France who are all backing the rescue programme..."

which in turn allows access to /availability of MIGA political risk cover.
https://www.miga.org/what-we-do

ie all contributing to a 'virtuous circle' of 'improved governance' and encouraging investors.

IMO + HTH

There are various 'bones' AIUI that aren't MozGov - related that H could throw to us, surely ?

EPIC , O+M status, drill objectives and results, progress on the urgent items financed by CIMEC , etc.

And yet he doesn't. Not impressed.

;-<

C-B is sorting out its relationships with IMF and creditors :
https://www.reuters.com/article/trafigura-beheer-congorepublic-oil-debt-idUSL1N2LL1IA

in line with https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2021/02/26/pr2149-congo-imf-staff-completes-review-mission-to-the-republic-of-congo

"More IMF disbursements could help unlock another nearly $900 million in financing from the World Bank, African Development Bank and France who are all backing the rescue programme..."

which in turn allows access to /availability of MIGA political risk cover.

"More IMF disbursements could help unlock another nearly $900 million in financing from the World Bank, African Development Bank and France who are all backing the rescue programme..."

All good stuff.
Glencore seems to be the hold-out....for now.

Thanks for the link, STOK.

Ties in with conditions precedent for unlocking funds from IMF,
see https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2021/02/26/pr2149-congo-imf-staff-completes-review-mission-to-the-republic-of-congo

and, from your article
.."More IMF disbursements could help unlock another nearly $900 million in financing from the World Bank, African Development Bank and France who are all backing the rescue programme..."

which in turn allows access to /availability of MIGA political risk cover.

And seemingly puts Ivan /GLEN on the spot, if they're the 'hold-outs'....

STOK, any insights into the 'mood music' in Baar ? ;->

ATB

Hi Moonglow,

Thanks for the tip !
Having read the article I now get the gist.
Don't know the cost of the set-up but would hope that energy input was renewables and not part-negted by fossil-fuel energy.
C-B has lots of hydro potential, though....and DRC (Inga dam) eve more ...;->

ATB to both you and Starbuck911

Google brought me to this Dec 2011 article

CO2 Capture by Improved Hot Potash Process ZhiGang Tanga, Weiyang Feia, Yi OLiaaState Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China Elsevier use only: Received date here; revised date here; accepted date here
Abstract
Global climate warming caused by emission of greenhouse gas including CO2 is one of serious problems nowadays. In an effort to mitigate CO2 emissions, one of most effectively clean energy plan is to produce power from coal using the integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC). However, the cost of existing CO2 capture technologies is still too high. Utilization of large-solubility and low-cost absorbent for CO2 capture in IGCC can effectively reduce the electricity price increase caused by addition of CO2 removal unit. As it needs to trap CO2 before combustion under high pressure in IGCC absorption is considered to be a better choice.HPP (Hot Potash Process) uses aqueous solution of potassium carbonate as the absorbent. Compared to physical solvent absorption method Rectisol and Selexol, HPP has relatively low investment and relatively high CO2 recovery. Even in comparison with other chemical absorbent amine method HPP still has advantages as good chemical stability and low vapor pressure..."

Use of potash to 'improve' CO2 recovery from coal-powered IGCC power plants sounds a bit like 'greenwashing', frankly :
it talks of 'relatively' low cost and 'relatively' high CO2 recovery.
And there doesn't seem to be much news re large-scale implementation since then, with numbers for context.

And anything that increased demand significantly would likely affect cost of potash as fertiliser, which brings its own ethical issues : how much will folk pay extra for food vs for 'clean air'.

Pls advise if I'm missing something here.

Had to get up earlier for my run than usual , because of an outside appointment I couldn't shift.
The time for incontinence pads will come, I'm sure
;-<