Member Info for JimBL

We need answers to what we already know on this, not to start inventing new things.

Good find. Proves the info in the EITI reports is/was correct.

Those pits are at the Ogaro exploration site. Nayega has been proven to be feasible and profitable in its own right, with 15 years of production, and therefore licensing should not be dependent on Ogaro.

PC, thanks for finding that. I knew it was said but I thought it was from an earlier release. Anyhow, if the past is the past and there's no 'known' obstacles now, then let's hope this year is finally the year.

Chirp, and there lies the $million question to which we all want an answer to. If it's not the former MM agreement holding things up for 6 years - when Togo DGMG itself said in 2015 a renegotiation of that was required to allow us to exploit Nayega - then what is it?
Two choices - ongoing legal issues and/or sensitivity on not upsetting Togo/Gnassingbe. Simply saying everything is in order but they don't know why the delay continues is just not believable.

PC - we have never been informed of the MM agreement in any shape or form nor the efforts needed to address it. Clearly therefore, by design or necessity this has been purposefully kept quiet.

If I/we can finally dig this stuff up then how could it never have been part of company due diligence - be that by Southern Iron, SGM, or FRX/KRS?

I ask myself one question now. Would have I initially invested and continued to do so if I had been aware of this at the beginning? I know what my answer to that is.

It still begs the question as to how SGM were granted an exploration license in 2011 - by a former government on behalf of the State - before the DGMG decided in 2015 the MM agreement needed renegotiation to actually allow for that to happen. Considering KRS were expecting the actual mining license to be issued from around late 2014 (see that referenced in RNS's) then it has to be the case that this issue with MM has been the reason for dragging out the license approval for so long. Clearly, as the company has sought specialist legal advice then they were aware of the problem at some point.

However, the company made a statement suggesting they "knew of no other impediment to the granting of the license" some time after the 2019 decree was made - I just can't find which RNS / Presentation it was in to link it here. Here we are entering 2021 and we still don't have it. Is it rocket science to believe this remains an ongoing obstacle?

I also correct you in that the exploration license was granted to SGM BEFORE FRX took the 85% stake - all be it by only 1 month. This formed part of the AIM admission RNS of July 2011 "The SGM Option Agreement is conditional on the granting of a licence over a manganese deposit in the Nageya region in Togo. Further details of the ************** Agreement are set out in paragraph 11.7 of Part V of the Admission Document."

The only facts we need to know of now is IF the MM agreement has indeed been renegotiated (or is no longer deemed valid), allowing us to actually legally be on the Nayega/Ogaro plots and to mine it and be free to be granted the license. Silence on the matter and allowing shareholders to keep trying to find their own excuses for it (covid. government changes. mining conventions etc) is now well past sell-by date.

I don't currently put much/any faith in a former bunch on Ministers from the last government granting us a decree to mine, when this very problem was created by earlier government approvals, and subsequent governments have not apparently addressed it to a satisfactory outcome - or one that has at least not been reported anywhere.

Fella, I think you need to take a breath. SGM is the Togo company which we own 85% of and have done since 2011. Falcon Isle is the 51% which we are buying into - an organic phosphate company in Utah, USA.
I'm completely baffled by what it is you think I need to be convincing you of? It was me who brought to the shareholders attention on here the issue regarding MM to begin with. It was me who put questions to RL because of it.

I have no idea what you are talking about nor how you reach that conclusion from the information available. The MM agreement was signed by three Ministers at the time on behalf of the State. If you read the EITI report then you will also see that after we acquired 85% of SGM, 5% of the remainder was held by a member of the Presidents Office, Kossivi ODAYE.

Richard. "If true" you ask? Stop being so lazy and go read the links posted including the EITI reports and signed agreement from where the information came.
Here you go for a starter. Section 3.3.1. Page 19. https://itie-togo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Report-EITI-togo-2014-final-version-anglaise.pdf

Keep up fella's. I posted all this in November. The response I got from RL was "We have taken legal advice on the MM/RoT agreement from a specialist francophone mining law firm in Paris and discussed it at length with the Togo MoM - we are comfortable with SGM’s security of tenure on the Nayega project which is also underpinned by the 2019 Decree."

I sincerely doubt there's any more we could be told given some form of legal advice, at the least, has been sought. Consider the fact that the current President approved and signed the MM agreement then it has to be accepted what a delicate situation this clearly is and has been.

In November I posted the actual agreement MM Mining signed with Togo. However, it's in French. My wife translated for me sufficiently so that I could put relevant questions on it to RL.
https://pdgm.tg/index.php?option=com_docman&view=download&alias=158-convention-d-investissement-mm-mining-07-08-2006&category_slug=documents-statistiques&Itemid=752
MM were granted exclusivity for 20 years over IO, Manganese, Chromite, Bauxite etc and that included Nayega. However, they were only ever granted an actual license to mine iron ore. A part of that license was an agreement to build a branch of rail track. They never did so and they stopped mining IO and left Togo in 2016.
Two of the EITI Togo coordinators which in 2015 called for a renegotiation of the 2006 agreement, were no less than two of the signatories to the agreement!
Quite how SGM managed to be granted an exploration license for Nayega in 2010 - and FRX acquired 85% only 1 month later - when it was already under exclusivity to MM is anyone's guess,- though of course Presidential corruption is the obvious and undeniable link.
Frankly, the company has never hinted at anything on this and had I not found the document and links to question RL we would never had any form of reason for the ongoing delay .
I'll post this other link again for you to look over which also reports on the sorry affair - including MM's comments about being told to keep quiet on the subject by the Presidents office.
https://www.togoactualite.com/convention-dinvestissement-avec-mm-mining-fer-manganese-bauxite-chromite-etc-concedes-contre-quel-chemin-de-fer/
If this remains an issue for us or not is anyone's guess. But it sure all points to why we've not been granted a license yet in my opinion.

Indian owner. Offshore registered.

If it has any bearing at all, and we still don't know either way officially, the 20 years exclusivity to MM Mining commenced in 2008. We'd still have another 7 years to go!

Prop - hard to see how yet as we've only sold 20% of the yr1 stockpile. Even if the lot gets sold we only stand to make less than $200k for our 51%.

What's different here then? Do you expect the sp is going to spontaneously ignite all by itself ?

The only way things are going to get 'interesting' here is if, a) Togo exploitation permit finally lands (perhaps Santa is bringing it after it got lost by his Elves' for 7+ years?) or/and b) we get notified we have a buyer for the rest of the mined phosphate and for all that will follow when ramped up.

Likewise mate. All the best and I hope we all emerge the other side of the latest lockdowns healthy and solvent.

It still owes me and I'm sure I cannot be alone amongst LTH in this position.

"I remain positive about the award of the exploitation permit and believe that significant progress towards a permit has been made, specifically over the last three months."
Sorry, but there's nothing overtly positive to hang your hat on in regards to Togo in that comment. 5 weeks spent in the country lately. A Ministerial decree granting the permit over 1 year ago - and approaching 7 years since we were first told a license was expected.
Throw in RL's admission that at some point they have sought legal advice on our tenure of Nayega (because the President previously granted another company 20 year exploitation rights back in 2008), then I remain far from excited by this latest update.