Member Info for Jiving

Arthur remains at the heart of the process, see P16, 1.8 Knowledge:

"Any reference to the knowledge of (i) a COPL Entity, means the actual knowledge, after

reasonable inquiry, of Peter Kravitz, Arthur Millholland, Tyler Johnson, Gabe D’Arthenay and

Elizabeth Millholland (who, in each case, for the sake of clarity and avoidance of doubt, shall have

no personal liability or obligations regarding such knowledge),.."

The main issue is who Marty hasn't checked after 6 months - ZIOC shareholders.

Wish we could send 'the market' down the rabbit hole, 'the market' does not currently seem overwhelmed by our Thursday statement.

Indeed asp2014, and Marty has also just liked two articles on AD Ports Group. Including one explaining their expansion plans:

"Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, our Managing Director and Group CEO, believes that our strategic focus for 2024 will be to leverage our cutting-edge infrastructure and advanced fleet for further dynamic growth both regionally and internationally."

Might we be witnessing our dream scenario of competing bidders? After all it is decision time for all concerned, once the Strategic Partner deal is signed the project is spoken for. Key points: the 2024 FS will be complete in April; the economics of the project are way better than Simandou; the ore quality is exactly the type required for the key 'green steel' of the future; & critically we are ready to roll with mining licence, environmental permit & mining convention (years of work) all in place.

The ME bidders may have been first off the mark due to their speedy decision making, but the Chinese & Japanese have a way larger need for quality ore for their vast steel industries. The Chinese clearly are on the inside track with their Nguesso relationship, existing projects & lead role in the whole EPC process - they also have the power MOU, maybe they want the Port MOU as well to have total control! The November presentation seemed targeted at them, here is the lead point on P11 :

"Zanaga benefits from a supportive Government, actively encouraging mining-related investment,

experiencing significant engagement from China – the largest consumer of iron ore globally"

UAE. We know the UAE has made a big play for RoC with their official visits with Denis, the trade negotiations & the 30 year port concession deal with AD Ports. We have long suspected, with their own green steel plans, that they were likely participants in the Zanaga development - but were they pipped at the post by the Saudis last autumn? They have also just done a keynote deal with Glencore for the Mopani copper mine, whereby they essentially bought out Glen's equity stake in the mine but left Glen with the offtake rights. A dream deal for Glen releasing their capital but retaining offtake. Whilst UAE will want the Zanaga offtake for their own steel interests, possibly they could be more flexible & allow any excess to requirements to be marketed via Glen rather than traded directly as Manara intended? However given the delicate state of relations with MBS & the Saudis, potentially they could be wary of taking the stake & incurring MBS's wrath - other than that they seem a perfect match. Also its not like the likely price tag of $600-800m, for a 20% primary stake as Strategic Investor, would raise eyebrows in the UAE. Overall it would make the same sense for them & us, as Manara taking the role, but they also simultaneously bring the Port MOU & take 'care' of the Nguesso's.

Whilst the Saudis appear a very good fit - they state they only want 20% of projects & they pay generous prices for stakes - their buy-in of Vale's nickel/copper interests was reportedly at a premium to nav. But of course there are other serious contenders for Strategic Investor, these are my Big 3.

China. Was always going to be a prime candidate. Even with Simandou they will only cover a fraction of their demand & it remains a strategic imperative of Xi & the CCP to increase their ownership/control of key resources. That Chinese contractors & sub contractors would be responsible for the critical construction activities & the power solution makes this a win/win for Chinese overall control & recycling investment money directly back to China Inc. Simandou is a way way more expensive & riskier project, with likely poorer quality ore - so why put all your eggs in one West African basket (-case)? Issues for them might be they will want more than a 20% primary stake, but potentially they might be able to purchase Glencore's 40+% or indeed make a buyout offer & seek 100% Chinese control of all aspects of the project.

Japan. The Japanese are in an even worse position vis resources than the Chinese. It has been Govt policy for a long long time to encourage direct Japanese ownership of stakes in key resources. Nippon Steel, a central part of Japan Inc, is particularly active in this area & recently joined with Glencore in the buyout of Teck's coking coal interests. Looking at their statements they are still well under their stated target ownership in iron ore & their entire strategy is geared towards 'green steel'. Interesting that Denis junior was in Tokyo at the end of last year discussing the need for Japanese representation on the ground in RoC. Due to its strategic status, Nippon Steel is able to act quickly with the full support of the Japanese Govt & banks, and they have recently done a major deal with Glencore & would likely easily use all offtake internally & not need to trade any surplus.

Hi Extrader

Your first point is my sole concern & your interpretation exactly matches my own - both my initial reaction & next day! The confident, self assured tone accompanying the ZIOC releases where they gave target dates for the MOU's seems to have disappeared and been replaced by the non date specific "interest"; which was the weak language used in early 2023 not late 2023. Similarly AT twice signalled over Xmas/NY that management were in Saudi, that together with the management 'October scramble' to get their option/swap shares & Marty's appointment in Nov were all supporting signs they felt the key Strategic Investor was 'in the bag' & v likely was Manara. Similarly if something has gone wrong at the last moment, where do we look for the culprit - of course at the Glencore traders & their offtake obsession. At the time I viewed Bob Wilt's keynote speech at the FMF in January of Saudi's clear stance on offtake control, as being specifically aimed at Glencore - now I do x10.

Everything else I am frankly indifferent to, relative to the key issue, its background noise.

A big chunk of the placing money in Q1 went on part repaying the Glencore loan - in Q1 alone $700k repaid or roughly £560k. I find this a bit odd as I thought the point was to basically keep rolling it over till the deal, when it could be easily repaid with v minimal dilution. However, 12m shares is only around 2% dilution, which by AIM standards is of course minute. And I absolutely agree with others pointing out that it is most definitely in the company's financial interest to maintain a positive investor relations climate when you are continually placing.

Given how few full time staff we have; really AT & Marty + maybe some consultants; I imagine they are mega busy possibly continually flying between UK, Saudi, maybe UAE, & China. So realistically I guess we have to cut AT some slack vis IR at such a time.

Actually Shaun I clicked recommend on your comment on the other board from 27 March in response to a post by Veteran10, it reflected my thoughts exactly:

"V10, considering they hit targets early for re-costings and hydro-power, why do you think they’ve missed the strategic partner and port targets? And if they were going to miss these targets, why didn’t they update the minute they knew they were going to miss those targets?"

We are surely all angling for the same thing as of today: 2024 FS, Strategic Investor MOU & finally a higher share price.

Hi ATG, lot of activity over Easter & some interesting perspectives. I agree with most of your points btw. My concern remains that according to their timeline we were going to get the key Strategic Investor MOU by end Q1 & we did't get it or indeed a revised date we could expect it. Aside from that it will be interesting to see what April brings after the FS update - hopefully a presentation by our new CEO with some guidance as to the remaining MOU completions. We all hope April will be positive for ZIOC shareholders.

Hi Transhaven, I will keep it brief as its partly off topic but I do have comment on NFX as well below. COPL was killed primarily by the reality it was run by a totally dodgy scumbag, a halfway decent CEO could have quite likely succeeded. The problem with smaller companies is shareholders have to act before disaster happens not afterwards & its v difficult getting any concerted action in advance - I know I tried wayback with COPL. As did PaulK in 2021, possibly the last chance to have stopped disaster.

NFX is fortunately run by a decent, entrepreneurial, substantial shareholder in Dan. At least that takes away the chance of an Arthur type situation now he is back in effective charge. But given I began building a stake around the 4p re-listing price, my original shares are at 5% of what I paid. I think many of the original shareholders, including me, had never invested in a biotech co before & didnt realise quite how long it would take to get 002 fit to market to JV partners - essentially 7 years. Just about everything that could go wrong, did go wrong; but we just survived & I think we are now in with a decent chance of a deal.

And very predictably the Shard trades that were put through now show up - another 230K dumped on unsuspecting market participants. Rotten to the core, dumping big trades for days ahead of market changing news.

Oh and the actual stated target dates for the key partnerships - given here clearly as Q1 2024:

Port partnership - Q1 2024 (Memorandum of Understanding)

Strategic partner initiative - Q1 2024 (Memorandum of Understanding)

Have now been replaced by the meaningless, non date specific "in due course":

"Discussions continue and the Company will provide further updates in due course."

Patience has been granted in vast quantities. Its over 13 years since this thing was listed at 156p. Its over 12 years since they first announced a search for a strategic investor. Its over 1 year & 4 months since they did the Glencore stake merger. The key to the whole thing is nailing down a strategic investor, everything else is background noise - we had all the misleading hints around New Year that the Saudis were in play. Now all we have 3 months later is this pathetic woffle about "interest":

"Strategic partner initiative: the Company is pleased to have received, interest in the development of the Zanaga Project from a number of parties. Discussions continue and the Company will provide further updates in due course."

I intend to raise with the FSA whether obvious corporate sells from the Shard facility that went through during the last few days were the sole reason this news was not released at an appropriate time - but slyly at 16.06.

Outraged by this disgusting lowlife behaviour, intentionally leaving it till the last possible moment- ie 16.06 for information that could have been honestly released at 7.00. They have essentially made no real progress.

No big selloff on lack of news, which is a relief, so people are holding their nerve. (Aside from the late disclosed 140k).

If nothing appears later today, we see what Tuesday brings - I hope more than a Glencore loan update!

The last loan update was released on 02.01.24, but actually backdated to 29.12.23, which does beg the question why it wasnt released then.

I have emailed their Nomad Liberum pointing out the Glencore loan expires 31.03.24, & shareholders need to know its status. Also pointed out is is elementary investor relations that once a company publicly sets itself a target with a date attached (Strategic Investor, Port Operator), that shareholders are updated on the status of that target ie successful, delayed whatever, when the fulfilment date is reached. Shouldn't be necessary AT & Elphick know better.