Gordon Stein, CFO of CleanTech Lithium, explains why CTL acquired the 23 Laguna Verde licenses. Watch the video here.
Ed had two choices - immediate fire sale or take a little time to put lipstick and a bow on the pig before taking it to market. The lipstick has been applied, next comes the bow; that will likely be a favourable court ruling. I’m fussing Ed’s time has been spent assessing the likelihood of a win in court, making the “the ore’s great, we’re going to mine it” plan look feasible and opening discussions with potential buyers from a less weak position. He’ll be hoping not to have to raise more funds by having a deal tied up before mid 2024.
Interesting article, Eric. Boden, between Lulea and Jokkmokk, about 20 miles from the former and 85 from the latter. A good place to put a steel plant if you wanted to use iron ore from up the road or imported by sea or both. It’s very good news for the value of the iron deposit at Jokkmokk, whoever’s going to dig it out.
To be clear, Prof, I wasn’t suggesting Eric should sell. With only 1.5p to lose I agree there’s not enough to lose to make it worthwhile. When I said mentally divest I meant stop causing himself anguish over what will happen next. Personally I’m hoping they might make 4p a share when they flog the assets BEM has, but I’m not going to agonise over what might happen every day until then.
Eric, I don't agree with everything (much) of what llbj says, but you would be better off mentally divesting of this share. Ed is here to put lipstick on the pig and take it to market. Call it a review, perhaps, but there isn't - never was - the skillset or finance to turn BEM into a miner. The company overreached its capabilities, so they've brought in a deals man to salvage what they can. Don't expect too much by way of news beyond what's legally required and a bit of vague window-dressing until the news of the Board-recommended (done)deal comes through some time in the next 4 or 5 months. Good luck.
Eric, the em thing with a Compromise Agreement is that it is only binding if the subject (Kurt) has independent legal advice even if he’s happy with its terms. So BEM would have to have Kurt visit independent lawyers who “investigate” what has happened and advise Kurt of the effects of the Agreement, one of which is that he agrees he won’t sue for (technical) unfair dismissal. The dismisser always pays the legal fees of the dismissee.
Suzy, everything Kurt said about what has happened was written for him by BEM and forms part of the Compromise Agreement. He’s in breach if he doesn’t stick to the party line. All done so that there isn’t a toxic stink. Kurt says the bastards sacked me unfairly and he loses his options. Kurt’s says marvellous business, I wish them all the best and will help my successor etc and he keeps his options.
If the resources were ever going to be mined by BEM they’d have appointed a miner. They haven’t. The deal-maker and financier of mining projects is with us, is going to take 6 months having a good look at throngs and then let us know. Yeah, right. It’s a sensible change of direction and there’ll be calls and hustling going on from day 1.
Bannor, you’re right it’s impossible to know, but having seen a few of these situations before it’s not unusual that the outgoing CEO is pulled into a room, told what’s happening and some gracious (mealy-mouthed) quote is given to him/her as the outgoing statement of good wishes etc. Better that than washing all the dirty laundry in public which doesn’t help anyone. I could be wrong but as you say JMO. We’ll probably never know for sure.
I’ve written off my investment in BEM so I don’t bother checking in very often….so I’ve only just heard the Kurt news. The abrupt nature of his departure and the fact his Linked In profile says he “is on sabbatical” indicates a push rather than a jump. I’m not surprised. Sad for Kurt as he seems a decent person, but he’s been taking Beowulf down a blind alley for longer than the powers that be have been able to tolerate and I’m pleased they’ve put an end to that. I’ll pop in a bit more often now in the hope a change of direction is indicated. The sooner the impossible ambition of opening a mine is dropped and some sale/JV negotiations begin the better.
I think you may have missed my point Suzy. I’m not talking about the value of the tiny exploration company, I’m talking about the more typical pathway a mining exploration company takes to sell on discovered assets to a mining company or at least to enter into an agreement to work jointly on the process to lead to a sale. We all know Kallak is a very valuable resource, but it’s not going to valued nearly as highly by a miner that buys it out of a failed exploration company that bankrupted itself by trying to become something it had no realistic hope of achieving.
Greentea, you’re spot on. Never in my wildest nightmares did I expect KB to attempt to turn a ten man exploration company that’s never mined anything into a full on mining company that has expertise, infrastructure and equipment needs beyond its capabilities. If he brings it off it’ll be beyond a miracle. All the potential buyers will be laughing up their sleeves waiting for BEM to go bust so they can pick up the assets in a fire sale. Our only hope is that one of them blinks and makes an offer that triggers a bidding war to drive the SP up to 3p. I sold down as the price rose last year so I recovered 85% of my original investment but I’m so pee’d off at the missed opportunity here, all down to KB’s hubris thinking his tiny explorer was a competitor to LKAB or Rio.
So the RNS concerned the fees charged for underwriting the recent fund raise. This is the fund raise that didn’t need the underwriters to do anything. And yet the option was left with them to take cash or shares. I’d have preferred to see a deal where the option was at BEM’s discretion if the underwriters were called upon. The end result is the better outcome (albeit not totally as one underwriter took some cash) but in the negotiation beforehand I hope the approach was that if underwriting services weren’t required BEM could choose how to pay the fee. Maybe it wasn’t achievable, but I hope we tried for it.
Hoped to raise up to £9.1m, actually raised £6.3m. Using Primary Bid in the UK obviously didn’t help, only £1.3m came from the uk, just over 1/4 of what was raised in Sweden. My SIPP broker didn’t even bother to mention the opportunity to buy more shares. This was clearly the last time BEM can tap up the punters for more funds. Eventually the message comes back, ok, just kill the hostage if you like.