Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Sheds you make a good point but I can also appreciate observers on this message board getting a bit fed up with some of the things being posted (and some quite irrelevant articles).
I tried to politely say yesterday that it's unlikely that we will get a EU grant under the theme of climate, energy and mobility, I provided the documentation to prove this and yet mutterings still persist. Ask anyone who has worked for the EU and they will say the same, unless our project in some way will go to help developing an innovative zinc battery but again this is unlikely as a lot of the research right not is related to lithium or even things like vanadium flow batteries.
In the article that Bricks posted to say funding is close, if you read the Spanish version it actually says that the grant will be awarded to the 'alternative development of mining areas'. To me that doesn't sound like it will be going to the development of a new mine. The other grant related to jobs may apply.
I get the speculation and I'm all for positivity as most of us here want this company to do well but equally I think we need to be realistic and wait for a proper update from the company. Maybe use today's webinar as an opportunity to ask some questions to LR and get some answers, to the extent he can reveal info?
Thanks mm - final points before I go. I do agree that we'll look to source electricity from renewables so good to do research here.
Also, I do think we're more likely to be funded under Cluster 2: Culture, creativity and inclusive society. This may explain all the stakeholder engagement and emphasis on jobs for the project. The inclusive society part is all about improving the economic prospects of the region, which this mine could do.
@mm - please search the document I have linked below (this is the full range of topics that can be funded) and judge whether you think anything is relevant to Europa. I have searched it and in my opinion, I don't think Europa would fit under research and innovation funding in the climate, energy and mobility cluster of Horizon.
The closest thing is funding for battery materials but a lot of this is geared towards Li-ion batteries, rather than Zn batteries. I may be wrong but thought you may like to decide yourself.
https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/wp-call/2021-2022/wp-8-climate-energy-and-mobility_horizon-2021-2022_en.pdf
Also FYI, Horizon funding programmes are typically research and innovation, whereas funding for the redevelopment of areas would likely come under something like the ERDF https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/funding/erdf/
There are plenty of opportunities (both EU level and local) for funding and I'm sure our management team are exploring but the award process is long and we should not expect immediate results.
Also typically multiple projects are funded out of each funding call, so just because the budget is EUR12m doesn't mean we would get the full allocation, particularly under horizon. However, a cluster of projects could be funded this way to promote cross border sharing of ideas (e.g. a project in Cornwall...one in Spain, one in Bulgaria etc.).
Other funding schemes may allow for larger investment so worth doing some research but please do check the criteria rather than posting links to renewable energy funding.
Morning moneymakers/all. I think it unlikely that a mining project would fit under Horizon Europe funding theme of climate, energy and mobility from my experience of projects in the EU.
I've searched the documentation for Horizon Europe and think it most likely that mining projects would come under Horizon Europe Cluster 4: funding for Digital, Industry and Space.
For example, HORIZON-CL4-2022-RESILIENCE-01-06: Sustainable and innovative mine of the future (IA) (EUR 36m budget) or HORIZON-CL4-2022-RESILIENCE-01-07: Innovative solutions for efficient use and enhanced recovery of mineral and metal by-products from processing of raw materials (IA) (EUR 36m budget).
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/wp-call/2021-2022/wp-7-digital-industry-and-space_horizon-2021-2022_en.pdf
Also, I meant to mention that this will all be benchmarked to expected costs. A serious investor won't care if the company has been really inefficient in the past or had multiple mess ups for want of a better phrase. If it typically costs £1m and company X has spend £3m purely from being inefficient, tough.
Sorry just going back to the JV talk...I think it's unlikely that you would put together a valuation based on historical equity raises moneymakers. A lot of the ones I have negotiated will consider three main factors:
1. historical spend as a percentage of total spend required to bring the project to end of development - if this has taken place over a number of years you may want to index to today's prices by inflating costs incurred (i.e. this first metric estimates overall project progress and project budget). Level of funding by the investor will also be consider. E.g. if the investing is funding 100% of the project and the development company is just providing the development services, the funder may want an 80% share. If both are putting up money, then a different split may be negotiated.
2. level to which the project has been de-risked (entering at a later stage means you get less of an equity stake). This would consider the cash required to reach each milestone and the risk of the project failing at each stage. For instance, securing project permits may be very high cost and have high risk as without a permit there is no project. On the other hand, consultation with local stakeholders may be lower risk as it's unlikely to completely kill a project, just raise issues that need to be mitigated.
3. current valuation/market value for comparable projects - this provides a valuation for peers and may be based on recent M&A data. This could be adjusted to reflect specific factors such as jurisdiction, projections for metals prices etc.
Hope this helps
I've read that tweet a few times now and to me everything about it suggests someone is trying to work out a sensible valuation for an equity stake in the project, considering the work done to advance it to date.
As well as the cost in taking the asset to this stage, it has been significantly de-risked so any future investment should take that into consideration in any equity split.
I do hope it's a government entity but regardless you'd want an experienced, commercial negotiator handling those for you...good job we have Adam Habib I suppose...Let's hope he's compensated on the strength of the deal, rather than just a fee for getting a deal through.
I'm not suggesting a leak or anything disreputable, just that is the way things are done in the finance industry. Big investors will simply know that a placing is coming and it would be naive to suggest that they don't. I don't think DBA will be influencing the share price on a daily basis by trading in and out...high net worths, I don't know, I'll let the board judge whether they would trade in and out or not.
What is clear is there is almost zero demand for shares in Europa, which is strange, almost to the point of being suspicious, given all the good news being report.
If a placing is coming, anyone with real money to invest that is regularly in contact with the broker will know well in advance. This may result in a lack of demand/buys as the pricing will be favourable and there will be no need to buy on the open market. And causes a drift in share price downwards. Exactly what is happening here in my opinion
Back to usual update tweets: '#euz PFS work progresses extremely well despite Spanish/England Euro 21 . Drilling continues on schedule alongside other key workflows now reviewed by WAI study managers, following ops kick of meeting last week. Well done EI team- safe/efficient/thorough'
Really nice to see a female employee playing a key role too and boosting diversity with the painfully male dominated management team. This project is developing fast and it will have funding in no time with so much local participation There must be something in place already with so much drilling going on.
Difficult to be sure if the trades are buys or sells but I think there's quite a lot of buying going on here. Trading data is showing some reasonable sized trades going through this week with around £50k yesterday and £65k on Wednesday. Could this be in hope of one of those chunky contracts finally coming through? A nice £50m order would really kickstart this business again
Teaye great news getting something out of LR but isn’t saying a deal is ‘pending a signature’ pretty close to disclosing price sensitive info? Most CEOs will simply say they are working hard and sorry they can’t disclose any more details
But didn't he cause controversy at Amur after his wife sold her shares quite soon after being issued them and then he got voted off the Board while being a Director? No idea if they ever resolved that one but it was portrayed as being quite a scandal from what I remember