Member Info for Helpful

http://www.dentonsmininglaw.com/use-of-dispute-financing-in-the-mining-sector/

https://www.investegate.co.uk/prairie-mining-ltd/rns/prairie-secures-a-18m-litigation-funding/202006300730014965R/

https://www.rpc.co.uk/press-and-media/uk-litigation-funder-war-chests-hit-record-high-of-2bn-up-46-percent-in-a-year/

I see our friend Zumore has been making stuff up again. If he is so clued up, ask him what was the order granted in the VUP v Gecamines/Glencore hearing this week in DRC?

What he didn't know that there was a hearing?

A few things that need to be recognised here:

In DRC, VUP is suing Gecamines and Kamoto (Glencore) for $15mil being the unpaid part of the $20mil is says it surrendered Musonoi and the other two licences for.

RRR is neither a defendant nor the plaintiff but it is an interested party. As an interested party it has been recognised by the Court. The Court has granted the DRC version of a Garnishee Order (https://www.checkmyfile.com/jargon/garnishee-order.htm#:~:text=A%20Garnishee%20Order%20is%20a,to%20following%20a%20court%20order.)
This means that the $15mil is frozen and cannot be paid to VUP by Gecamine/Glencore, even if they wanted to.
Separately, RRR has secured an order freezing Kamoto's bank accounts in the DRC and secured a lien on its assets.
The Court has accepted RRR's standing and issued protective orders. VUP will now have to prove several things to the court, including that it could dispose of the assets in the manner that it said it did. It will be difficult for them to do that, since they do not have the authority to do so. By prove, I mean produce the relevant documents.

As to RRR's cash position there are two completely separate matters: 1. The $20mil in the DRC and 2. Tortious Interference in the UK. The first relates only to the $20mil and RRR's position will be that if the transaction is recognised 50% belongs to RRR. That does not expunge RRR's claim for tortious interference. The claim would be for the loss to RRR. The loss would be based on what revenue the asset would generate over its life: the starting point would be here https://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/209771/red-rock-resources-proceeding-to-completion-for-cobalt-and-copper-assets-joint-venture-in-the-democratic-republic-of-congo

Having established the legal position in the UK ie., taken advice from Counsel. RRR then needs to get advice on quantum. AB quite clearly says that we were given Musonoi on the basis that there was at least 375,000 tonnes of copper there and about 24,000 tonnes of cobalt. RRR would need to do a DCF and then make adjustments. However you calculate it, it is a big number.
You need to note that a claim is not the same as a settlement or compensation. All of this is standard in these types of cases.

So far so good. We should know more by back end of next week.

DYOR

JB the problem you have is bias. You don't know the assets, you don't know the terms, you don't know the reason for the "delay", you don't know the proposed work programme and you don't know pretty much anything but you have a firm conclusion.

The problem with picking up more assets in the US is that the price has gone through the roof. On my private stuff we picked up a small field in Osage for $30,000 plus the P&A about May last year. The guys on the ground now think (prior to today) they can get rid of it for $200k/$250k. We have spent a bit and done some work but nothing to change the valuation that much: it is just that the environment has changed.

ML has indicated that he has been in discussions about other assets in the US (a bit similar to Caballos Creek) but the price has gone up or previously willing vendors now no longer want to sell.

The other issue is scale plus costs. Larger oil companies are pulling out of jurisdictions and as a consequence, decent assets are becoming available to small oil companies on terms that they could only dream of a few years ago. It also much cheaper to get stuff done in this jurisdictions, although it might take longer.

No way could NTOG get hold of US assets similar to Tunisian assets. It would simply not be doable for NTOG even if you could find assets with similar scale in the US.

If everything goes through on Tunisia, I think NTOG will do very well. But until it is done it is not done. So it could still end up that nearly 2 years work is wasted.

If Tunisia does go through, the US will not be neglected.

DYOR

Perhaps if you read my posts more often then you might be able to disagree with them from a fairly reasonable position.

I have criticised him on here with regards to a few things and I have told him so directly. Obviously, he has a different point of view on each of them but that shouldn't detract from what is going on in Texas.

I never liked the Mesquite asset, I thought the wells were too expensive, too risky and too big a bet on one activity. I also thought the returns weren't there even if it all worked out. From a practical point of view there were too many parties involved in the land and lease package and it turned into a nightmare where getting anything signed was near enough impossible.

On the Egyptian asset, NTOG should have done a deal before it went to arbitration. Why go to arbitration when you don't have a leg to stand on? On paper Egypt looked okay but I have been in other ones invested in Egypt and it was a nightmare to get paid but UOG seem to be doing okay.

Tunisa is fine and if it all works out, NTOG will do fine. The fact that it is difficult to do business there helps us get assets that we otherwise wouldn't get.

Anyways, fingers crossed.

DYOR

JB

Not desperate. Desperate is one of the insults the Trolls throw out all the time to avoid analysis. Q3 was good and in my view Q4 will be better. It looks like the average oil price will be higher for Q4 than Q3 and that average production will be higher. I did the numbers for you a little while back. I reckon that pre central overhead and capex that NTOG is seriously cashflow positive: somewhere between $300k and $400k pm.

You don't know my trading history here because I haven't disclosed it. All you need to know is that I am very happy with the investments I made and my trading to date plus I have a lorra, lorra warrants.

Unless we have a major stock market crash or the oil of price collapses, NTOG is set fair.

What we need to hear is that all the work that can be done on Pine Mills is done and that all the workovers/reconnections were successful. I have always liked Pine Mills and, in my view, ML should have put more effort into it and not got distracted by the Mesquite nonsense. I wouldn't be surprised if NTOG can get somewhere between 200 bopd and 250 bopd out of Pine Mills with everything up and running.

The next easy one is the Permian Basin Farm In. Hopefully, they are on with that now. The work should take about a week and then they need to flowback the well. The flowback takes a while but we should know something before Xmas.

You never know, we might hear something as a little Xmas pressie.

Thanksgiving Holiday in the US today and so pretty much everything will be stopped now for a couple of days.
xx

DYOR

Do you want play a game of higher or lower? One of us can guess the current production at Pine Mills and then we do higher or lower. NB you will lose because you will always guess too low.

As I said a few weeks back, I reckon that the Q4 ops update will look pretty good.

In case you missed it:

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/NTOG/operations-update/15202654

DYOR

Evening Trolls.

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2021/11/23/goldmans-currie-the-ultimate-impact-of-the-spr-oil-release-will-be-miniscule-at-best.html

Looking better.

Fingers crossed on Luanshimba.

The AGM won't be till late January/February.

Funny. You Trolls need help. The point of investing is to make money. It is nothing to with luck.

Check out the news on Musonoi for RRR. That story has been going on for three years and it's time has now come. It was always a seriously valuable asset but the Trolls wouldn't have it.

NTOG is in similar situation, the house cleaning has been done and now things look pretty good. News from the Permian Basin and Tunisia very, very soon.

The penny will drop soon.

DYOR

Do the numbers....

https://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/209771/red-rock-resources-proceeding-to-completion-for-cobalt-and-copper-assets-joint-venture-in-the-democratic-republic-of-congo

https://twitter.com/graddhybpc/status/1450042930429894656?t=gO7oXCCXz8L23xeuendptA&s=19

Looking better.

Luanshimba news next please. Confirmation of a commercial copper Cobalt discovery would go down nicely.

DYOR

https://www.complianceweek.com/anti-corruption/swiss-ag-latest-investigating-glencore-for-corruption/29102.article

This reputable Glencore or another one?

https://www.ft.com/content/4ecf86da-2cc1-4c7e-a5fd-7b2da1efe3f9

DYOR

Robins you need to read stuff or listen to stuff and then remember it so you can then place it in the chain of events.

AB confirmed that GC was in communication with RRR re Musonoi in late 2020 and then suddenly DK'd us. As did VUP.

VUP is suing Kamoto (the relevant GC subsidiary in DRC) and Gecamines for the unpaid $15mil. If VUP surrendered the license back to Gecamines, why is VUP suing Glencore? Why has $5mil been paid over but not the full $20mil. RRR has had a garnishee order issued freezing the $5mil plus the $15mil which prevents Gecamines paying the $15mil to VUP. Why would the court grant the order? Well because in VUP's court case it stated that it did a deal to surrender the license back to Gecamines, who would then sell it on to GC for $20mil and Gecamines would then pass the $20mil on to VUP.

Why did GC not just deal directly with VUP? Well because they had already been in negotiations with RRR re the VUP JV and already knew what the situation was. Doing a deal with the VUP JV through RRR was going to be more expensive and so they cut us out by going the back door route.

Unfortunately for them they fell out and VUP has put chapter and verse in the DRC court suing for its $15mil. RRR would not have secured the Garnishee order so quickly unless it was clear and further RRR has frozen Kamoto's bank accounts and secured a lien on Kamoto's DRC assets.

Both GC and VUP have a serious problem but the big cheque for us is GC.

I have some legal training and am familiar with some of these issues so it makes it easier for me. But get hold of the hard points and then it makes sense.

https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/5-382-9829?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true#:~:text=Interference%20of%20Contract-,Related%20Content,in%20damages%20to%20the%20plaintiff.

RRR is now getting Counsel's opinion in the UK and then it will need advice on quantum.

The claim should be sufficiently large so that a legal funder would take it on.

DYOR

PS

we have two claims:

The first against VUP in respect of the $20mil and the second against GC for depriving us of the asset.

The interesting one is the latter. The claim is against GC is not 51% of $20mil but the economic loss to RRR of being deprived of the asset. This has been going on for a while and GC's actions and conspiracy prevented us taking steps to procure a JORC and monetise the asset; RRR had to do a number of fund raises at prices lower than otherwise be the case and RRR had to turn down deals it otherwise would have proceeded with if Musonoi had been properly valued on the Balance Sheet.

Remember we orginally farmed into the partnership in respect of some tailings: these went elsewhere and the three licences in the VUP JV were compensation. They were supposed to be equivalent to the lost tailings plus some for our trouble. Gecamines reckoned that there was 200k tonnes of copper and 24k tonnes of cobalt at Musonoi. Any claim would be based on 51% of that loss over the next 10/15 years. A good case can be made that the claim should be for between $500mil and $1bn.

RRR was in discussions with GC till late 2020 about Muonoi. No way can GC claim that they did not know RRR's position. They cut us out to get the deal cheaper than otherwise would have been the case.

DYOR

but never creates value for shareholders.

Not true. There is a difference between the SP and creating value.

1. GC have just paid over $20mil to cut us out of Musonoi. That is not zero value. The true value of the deal had it bbeen done properly and legally would have been higher.
2. Migori CPR 700k + oz of gold should be minimum value of $30 an ounce. That CPR will be getting upgraded as the drill results come in on the current programme.
3. The RRAL/NBGC listing will be going ahead shortly. That should be at least $5mil for RRR's stake.
4. Luanshimba results out shortly. RRR has already disclosed it is a discovery, the next step is to confirm that it is a commercial discovery. We should get the update any day.
5. Elephant Oil should list January and that should be a decent amount for RRR.

And so on. Loads of value in RRR but the market isn't pricing it in.

DYOR

By accounts, he means Glencore's bank accounts in DRC have been frozen.

https://youtu.be/sZEjO1VT60w