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Great links as ever MM, this is a world class green steel industry being rapidly created in real time in the Gulf. ZIOC seeking the detailed costing from the Chinese both moves the project forward - real time costings from real contractors being obviously needed prior to development - and also gives Chinese potential bidders detailed estimates from Chinese contractors.

Of course IF the detailed costings do lead to the suggested 20% fall in initial capital investment that positively affects the NPV/project value - on which hopefully any buyout price would be based. My thinking is a deal could potentially be struck in advance of actual cost figures 'subject' and fine tuned to the actual figures that emerge in Q4. If I was in a hurry that is what I would do.

But the positive thing is again the speed these guys are moving to stitch up the deals they want. They fast forwarded the Vale deal from a suggested September completion to an actual completion in the last week of July. IF if we are in their sights (& given the extreme tension/competition/rivalry with UAE) they might want to sort the iron ore supply situ out asap, particularly now Vale is formally now a JV/investment partner - ie the guys who could build/run the thing.

My only concern is whether Vale intends to supply the Gulf demand from its existing mines, but of course as yet the Saudis/UAE dont have an equity participation in that. Even if the iron ore were to come from Vale's existing mines, it still leaves the rest of the world facing a future shortage of high grade iron ore - so again China (& others - Japan, Korea, India) should be seeking to lockdown those scarce, proven supplies.

Back over 0.60 - small mercies! The Chinese are clearly playing up, if things start moving in RoC maybe they could be replaced?

I hope you are right Soup, & that would be great to get anything for the remains of 001. And if it was either side of £500k it would see us right, even through 004 testing. My alternative lower scale hope is that this is to do with warrant exercise, & would give us approx £87.5k, not as good obvs but keeps us ticking over.

Its frustrating, it would be simply crazy for all the amazing things going on in the green steel/Gulf/RoC area for us not to be a part of it. But here we are at a share price about 40% of where we were 3 weeks ago.

Its possible something has changed re-sentiment, that shows in price/volume versus as Soup says just a couple of weeks ago. Its doesn't feel like a normal PnD, it could be an appreciation we are closer to a deal than at any time since re-listing (or certainly Kissei fever 2019-2020)? Which would be accurate & also shares like OPTIO have jumped significantly recently, maybe people are shopping for the next one?

IMO its all about volume & I see a figure of 18.8m for today. Be interested to see how this pans out volume wise over the next couple of days.It certainly doent appear to be a normal Earl/Ria effort & I dont see any of the normal symptoms of that style of operation.

Agreed this is not an amateur PnD but way more professional. Earlier, during the week, it was clear the MMs were actively intervening on the spread cutting off indep orders by altering their bid/offer continually. It also could have been synchronised with the Lanstead news. One possibility they are forward selling in advance of the exercise of the warrants (35m @ 0.25p), to do that safely/profitably they needed the underlying to be north of 0.30p.

The secret code is BI 765423, sends algo's crazy

The Oman Investment Authority (OIA) is also the largest core investor in RoC potash company KP2, which at the moment also appears to have 2 stranded assets in RoC, the main project delayed due to a Chinese consortium partner playing difficult.

It is also quite possible, given Oman's geographic position, that this is another play in MBS's Saudi/Emirates rivalry game.

"..not sure there are any substantial mining ventures Saudi/UAE would want to get involved in THE RoC..."

MM yep Saudi/UAE competition now looks most likely. Once the Saudis have the Vale stake secured in copper/nickel maybe their relationship with the iron ore side of Vale could also be revealed. Maybe this stake & whatever relationship then exists between Vale/Saudi, is the catalyst the Saudis have been waiting for before making any move? It would be a dream for us to get into a competitive situation, especially one MBS would not want to lose!

Aside from Zanaga I am not sure there are any substantial mining ventures Saudi/UAE would want to get involved in - the phosphates stuff doesn't seem to be a strategic priority for them & Mayoko appears to be lower grade ore.

Unless they have repaired relations (ie UAE accepted MBS's list of demands) it looks questionable whether UAE/Saudi will be co-operating in a ZIOC buyout consortium. Although of course, that may not be entirely up to them as other parties could be involved - RoC, maybe Vale, maybe Chinese - who have good relations with both countries. Events that could have been interpreted as Saudi/UAE working together - Saudis open embassy in RoC; Emirates sign port deal; Saudi/Emirate meetings with Nguesso; the Saudi royal jet trip - could now be seen as the product of potentially competing countries. If if there is Gulf interest in ZIOC (sadly no clear direct link proven that I have seen, & the latest RNS points to China) then we might have competing Saudi/UAE bids emerging.

We know MBS is a v ruthless individual, its possible by the Saudis lending Nguesso the jet for his visits - if they have both the jet & communications devices bugged - they would know everything that was going on about Nguesso's meetings in the Emirates & elsewhere!

MM related to. that article, the antagonism between Saudi & UAE seems to be very real & very personal. WSJ reported MBS's comments (as its behind a firewall repro here) which seem 'real':

"Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gathered local journalists in Riyadh for a rare off-the-record briefing in December and delivered a stunning message. The country’s ally of decades, the United Arab Emirates, had “stabbed us in the back,” he said.

“They will see what I can do,” he told the group, according to people at the meeting...

In December, after intensifying divisions over Yemen policy and OPEC limits, MBS called the meeting with the journalists. The Saudi leader said he had sent the U.A.E. a list of demands, the people there said. If the smaller Gulf nation didn’t fall in line, MBS warned, Saudi Arabia was prepared to take punitive steps, much like it did against Qatar in 2017, when Riyadh severed diplomatic relations for more than three years and engineered an economic boycott, with help from Abu Dhabi. “It will be worse than what I did with Qatar,” he told the journalists, according to people there....

The Biden administration brokered a May 7 meeting between MBS and the Emirati president’s younger brother, Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed, once seen as a confidant of the Saudi crown prince, said people familiar with the matter. Tahnoun had been frozen out, making at least six trips to the kingdom without securing a meeting with MBS until he got help from the U.S., the people said. MBS told Tahnoun that the U.A.E. shouldn’t disrupt cease-fire talks in Yemen that the Saudis are leading and promised concessions to the U.A.E., the people said. But later he told his advisers that they shouldn’t change any policies toward the U.A.E. “I don’t trust them anymore,” he told advisers, the people said."

https://www.wsj.com/articles/frenemies-saudi-crown-prince-mbs-clashes-uae-president-mbz-c500f9b1

Yep looks like. But maybe not Earl/Ria behind this one?

Looks like thats the plan - real vote of confidence...

Punchline from WSJ article:

"Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth vehicle, the Public Investment Fund, and state-owned mining company Ma’aden, are nearing an agreement to pay $2.5 billion for the stake, the people said. A deal could be announced as soon as this week. "

Vet, the management needed to do way way better than they did, particularly given they launched an equity placing at the time of the last 2 RNSs. All they needed to do was present the news content ie port/Chinese partner pricing in a positive light (without of course naming names) because they were putting new shares onto the market that needed buyers. Its so elementary - we are now trading approx half the price of the funding example they quoted - its outrageous amateurish behaviour to not support the share price over a period you are doing a placing. But they are so used to saying nothing its just their default position.

Agreed Veteran, the AD Port news is v significant. It is quite possible we will get actual ZIOC port news before the Chinese costings given it was a key point in the last RNS: "· Port infrastructure discussions underway". Thus we could have ZIOC specific port news and then real time slurry pipe pricing by Chinese construction companies - the whole fully priced package to put before potential bidders. It is quite possible it could be over by Xmas.

Thanks Older that ncbi report is fascinating & just scanning it for 'tranilast' confirms the pattern we saw from the Japan/Iran studies that tranilast is an effective IPF inhibitor & that effect can be seen in human studies.