Gordon Stein, CFO of CleanTech Lithium, explains why CTL acquired the 23 Laguna Verde licenses. Watch the video here.
It feels good to see the news stating diamond dealers are back and business are back too leading to normality bringing confidence in the market. The videos in the articles have presented great analysis on the recovery of diamond market and its direction it is heading towards.
https://www.news18.com/videos/ivideos/antwerp-to-surat-diamond-trade-beats-covid-blues-as-imports-rise-for-first-time-since-february-2020-3265565.html
I believe South Africa cannot afford to go into full lockdown again. The government there are well aware about the impact of it on the country economy and income of the citizen. So in compliance with the Covid-19 rules, I am sure BRD will continue operating its business with minimal or no disruption and they are well placed to take the benefit of recovery in diamond market.
Along with the recovery in diamond market, it will not take long for BRD share price to head north as the news of well over due update on mining upgrade will land any day from today onwards. Taking into consideration of provisional resources update, this is an expectation of additional 175,000 carats of diamond and the company will further undertake work at KV2 and KV3 to find the true size of resources.
After that, 2020 production update with massive improvement anticipated in Q4 2020 production report and the guidance for 2021. With another crushing circuit installed where BRD will have more ore processing capability, we may hear about finding of big diamond.
Around 60% of shares must be with institution, private companies and long-term individual holders. When you take into account with other small holders who has taken position with the intention to hold the shares until it reached to their designated price, it will show less than 30% of total shares must be on the hand of general public. Hence, it will not take long for BRD share price to reach 150p to 200p per share when the herd of buyers comes here.
I have a firm believe BRD days are coming after many years of suffering. Mr. Conitzer, a long-time holder has not been inputting post for a while although there is not much to talk about at the moment.
Thank you Tenobe, I thought it was different to what we know. But it is the same information we are aware of MM mining i.e.
"following your letter we want to inform hereby that the documents you request from us are within the framework of the togo investment project already deposited at the level of the presidency of the republic where we have been instructed to remain discreet.
On the other hand, we bring to your knowledge that in relation to the considerable fall in the selling price of a ton of iron ore on the international market since the year 2015, the company MM mining SA has decided to suspend its activity in beginning of this year.
Please accept, Mr. Minister, the expression of our best consideration".
So, we just have to wait for Togo Mining Minister appropriate timing for her to believe it's time to make decision. There is hardly information about MM Mining still in operation at Togo.
The Togo government link below shows the headlines that SUSPENSION OF THE ACTIVITIES OF MM MINING_10-02-2016. I guess it was updated further on 8th Aug, 2019. But the link does not open and says Page does not exist when tried to.
https://mines.gouv.tg/taxonomy/term/12
Diamond Creek phosphate mining where new plant is being shipped from Shanghai has the capacity to process 48,000 tonnes of production which is planned to be achieved by 5 years. But I believe, once the commissioning of that machinery is done by Q1 2021, the KRS board may not wait to for that 5 years and start ramping production to achieve that 5 years plan in less than that.
I wonder if the delay in granting of exploitation license is nothing to do with MM Mining then, how about Togo Mining Minister is waiting for the remaining 25 pit samples result? So that she can have all the required information to determine grade and particle size distribution per geological horizon prior to presenting her verdict to the Council of Minsters for their decision.
If I am not wrong, KRS has not updated us about that remaining 25 pit which was due to be completed by the end of October 2020 and the collected samples to be submitted thereafter to Intertek Laboratory in Accra, Ghana.
Company is undergoing through transformation improving the fundamentals despite diamond overall market will take time to recover.
Expecting overdue news of mining upgrade possibly starting in middle of the January.
News of crushing circuit commissioning complete
Q4 sales and FY 2020 production update to be expected after mining upgrade.
Expecting BRD to have around $2m cash in hand to overcome any storms that may come throughout 2021 in the diamond market and company itself.
Not to forget the potential of finding high value diamond again and again as Chairman states "We are hopeful that the discovery of three high value stones within a month marks the start of a return to mining higher value diamonds". And he expects prices to recover in 2021.
If all of the above goes well, high probability of rerate will be happening in BRD early 2021. Atleast, expecting share price to be around 140p-160p after the news of mining upgrade, crushing circuit and Q4 and FY 2020 production report.
Even, with BRD share price reaching 160p will value the company little less than £15m. If I am not wrong, the expected resource upgrade of 52% of increase carats alone is worth around $50m and the Company expects to undertake further work in 2021 to prove the continuation at depth of the KV2 section of the Main Pit and to establish the true size of KV3 both of which are expected to increase the resources and the life of mine further.
And when BRD announce few more finding of big diamonds, we can see share price hitting 200p range and above.
Happy to sit tight and see the share the price fluctuates in the meantime.
Diamond Creek Organic Phosphate mine at Utah, USA
Company now owns 51% after making recent final payment of approx. $300,000. The total payment of $2.5m for 51% ownership by KRS to falcon Isle (who was the sole owner) is a loan and will be paid back to KRS on tranches.
Falcon Isle will soon receive shipment of machinery plant and commissioning is schedule to complete in Q1. Once completed, I believe ramping in production will be done swiftly.
However, sales of organic phosphate expected to commence in January 2021.
Manganese in Nayega, Togo
KRS has come through so much in here that I think the directors should not stop for pressing Togo government to make their final decision on permit to exploitation license. Finding out If there is any shortcoming from KRS causing delay should be done and addressed quickly. If the delay is from Togo government, then, I believe directors should be well informed on the progress and KRS to shareholder.
But the good things is CEO 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.
Manganese will be replacing cobalt for increasing power on batteries and the future looks really good with increasing demand and price rising.
When the license is awarded, we all know what will be the share price of KRS whilst both organic phosphate and manganese, highly soughted resources comes on the market generating revenues for KRS.
Maybe we are waiting for Togo new young mining minister to finish her due diligence work as she does not want to rely on the work of her predecessor on the report submitted by KRS and SGM before signing her valuable signatures on the permit. Hopefully, we will be granted a license before end of Jan and having both Nayega and Utah project coming to streamlines of revenue generation, the share price has the probability to go through the roof. Finger cross.
Moore Stephen LLP Dec 2017:
https://itietogo.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Report-EITI-togo-2015-traduction.pdf
In 2006, the State signed an agreement with MM Investment Holding Ltd for the exploitation, processing and marketing of iron ores in the Bangéli perimeter. However, this project ceased because of the fall in iron prices. Therefore, the ministry of Mines and Energy entrusted a team to review and renegotiate the agreement terms.
Nayega manganese project: the project comprises 5 research permits covering an area of approximately 928 km2 granted to the Société Générale des Mines (SGM Sarl) subsidiary of the Ferrex Group in October 2011. In accordance with the company's statement published on 21May 2015 on the London Stock Exchange, the company finalised its feasibility study by defining the existence of ore reserves with an export proposal of 250,000 tonnes of manganese per year13 .
They further wrote that according to DGMG, the signing of the agreement is dependent on the renegotiation of the large scale agreement awarded in 2008 to MM mining for the exploitation of iron ore and related metals. The renegotiation led by the Ministry of Mines, in partnership with the AfDB teams aims to limit the permit granted to MM mining for the exploitation of the iron to be able to attribute the exploitation of other metals to SGM.
So, to my understand, it means that Togo government wants to limit the permit granted for MM mining to Iron only and give the manganese permit to SGM. Hence, Togo government provided the large-scale exploitation permit to SGM on 21st Oct, 2019. KRS was hoping that Exploitation Permit will be signed by SGM and Keras and a full announcement of the terms of the Permit and the underlying protocols will be made immediately after signature.
But I guess that never came and we are still waiting for it. In contrast, I believe we do not have to worry much about MM mining as Togo government has already made their decision to allow KRS and its subsidiary SGM to award permit to exploit manganese in Nayega.
Indeep seems to be rushing on posting his finding. Don't go too much in deep with limited information or maybe it was mistake from him while posting the KRS ownership in SGM of Togo and Falcon Isle of Utah.
The research report prepared on different occasion by Moore Stephen LLP and once by BDO LLP (that I could find) are similar with few differences.
Dec 2016 : report prepared by Moore Stephens LLP
https://www.extractiveshub.org/servefile/getFile/id/6980
In 2006, the state signed a convention with MM Investment Holding Ltd for the operation, processing and marketing of iron, manganese, bauxite and chromite ores within the scope of Nayéga (Savannah region).
But they further report that Nayega manganese project: the project includes 5 research permits covering a area of ??approximately 928 km2 centered on longitude 0 ° 28.54'E and latitude 10 ° 43.63'N granted to Société Générale des Mines (SGM Sarl), a subsidiary of the Ferrex group since October 2011. The works carried out by the said company, during 2014, include a sinking program of wells to allow the collection of bulk samples and their analysis and testing metallurgical. In accordance with the company's statement, published on May 21, 2015 on the website of London Stock Exchange, the company finalized its feasibility study by defining the existence of ore reserves with a proposed export of 250,000 tonnes of manganese per year. According to the Director General of Mines and Geology (DGMG), the mining agreement is in the process of being signed.
BDO LLP in 2017
https://eiti.org/files/documents/rapport_itie_togo_2017.pdf
In 2006, the state signed an agreement with MM Investment Holding Ltd for the operation, processing and marketing of iron ores, in the Bangéli perimeter. However, this project was brought to a halt due to the reduction in the price of iron. A team is therefore set up by the Ministry of Mines and Energy in partnership with the AfDB to review the terms of this agreement and renegotiate this contract.
The Nayéga manganese project: the project includes four (04) research permits covering an area of approximately 592 km2 granted to Société Générale des Mines (SGM Sarl), partner with the Ferrex companies. According to data published online, the company has finalized its study of feasibility by defining the existence of ore reserves initially estimated at 8.48 million tons.
In July 2018, the mining company began a metallurgical testing program bulk sampling of 10,000 tonnes on the Nayéga manganese project, prefecture of Kpendjal, in northern Togo.
MM Mining SA seems to be exploiting Iron only in Togo although they were given an agreement relating to the exploitation, processing and marketing of different minerals including manganese, iron and chromite. However, they were in risk of losing their exploitation of iron license in Bandjeli, Northern Togo due to polluting only available water sources by washing iron minerals back in 2013.
https://www.agenceecofin.com/fer/2209-13762-togo-fin-de-contrat-envisagee-pour-mm-mining-sur-le-fer-de-bandjeli
https://www.agenceecofin.com/fer/2103-18589-togo-l-ong-sadd-met-mm-mining-en-difficultes-sur-le-fer-de-bandjeli
http://news.alome.com/h/15127.html
Despite facing protest from Bandjeli local citizen, I guess they were operating there until 2015 and suspended their operation in early 2016 giving the reason considerable fall in the price of iron ore per ton in the international market .
https://www.togoactualite.com/convention-dinvestissement-avec-mm-mining-fer-manganese-bauxite-chromite-etc-concedes-contre-quel-chemin-de-fer/
The question remain whether they are back in operation after that and as they were only giving priority to Iron at that time, I wonder Togo dictator government thought that they can go against the legal terms and might have given permit to KRS for exploring manganese in Nayega.
My naive thinking says that the best option for KRS is to contact directly with MM Mining SA if they are still in operation and find out their rights they were granted back in 2006, unless the Togo government has cancelled their operation license in 2016 after not receiving the required document requested by them.
Togo government has a responsibility to clear all this issues before granting permission to KRS for exploring manganese. However, it looks like our directors were not aware or not worried of this issues prior to embarking on manganese mining when they found this mine in Nayega, Togo and now they are taking legal advice on the MM/RoT agreement from a specialist francophone mining law firm in Paris (Bull****!!). At the same time, considering no update from Togo government after such a momentum in the past few months, they seems to be not co-operating and willing to share information despite all this hard work done by KRS to date. Hoping for no bad implication in the future for KRS.
Keras who were on the track to commence commercial production on the first quarter of 2020 prior Covid-19 has now lost the plot. Despite, CEO has already visited twice to Togo for meeting with senior dignitaries and ministers after lockdown, we are still in limbo situation.
Machinery shipment for Utah will be happening early 2021.
No, hope for December at all for any kind of positive rns. Wish CEO could try to find an update from Togo and release the operational plan for 2021.
News to look forward in December and starting 2021:
- mining upgrade
- guessing diamond to start selling in Antwerp
- commissioning of new crushing machine
- possible big diamond again considering comment from Chairman on today's rns
- Q4 production report where it is expected to be profitable in half 2020
- connection to the national grid for electricity
- and others as we go along.
We were having some sort of good momentum early November with news of CEO in Togo. I believe most of us has hoped that this second visit would be sure for obtaining license. But as the weeks passed by, that momentum is fading away. I am sure Togo dictator, the President is up for two more terms and hence to impress his nation fellow citizen and paved the pathway of good legacy before his retirement, we can see first female Prime Minister and more female to have opportunity to be selected as ministers in different ministerial sectors. Likewise, first female young mining minister may be told by president that she has more power over him on her department and hope she may be doing required regulatory task before making decision to grant or not the license and impress her boss, the President too by her ability to conduct due diligence work.
I have no clue whether our CEO need to keep calling for updates on two weeks or month time OR do nothing and wait for Togo to contact him as it has been so long for this license coming.
With regards to machine shipping in Utah, in one of the rns or interview, Russell has said that commissioning of machine will happen early next year. So maybe Covid-19 reason might have delayed in shipment.
I am worried that the only thing I can understand after today rns is awarding license by Togo has not been moving forward because Togo President may have become greedy seeing the prospect of manganese in his country and to deter KRS team, he may be asking for pie in KRS like what Devon said or bribe (possibly) in favour of license and Russell may not be willing to give what he is asking for.
Hope it is not like that and the delay is just because of the formalities that newly formed government are conducting before granting license.
CEO Russell has commented : I expect to get feedback in the "near term" (hope it is very near) on what the pathway to final permitting at Nayéga comprises.
I think we need to see this delay in granting license from newly formed government simply as they are trying to stand firm on their ground. If they have granted the license immediately, then I guess their predecessor might say that the newly formed government are reaping the benefit of hard work done by them and bragging to citizen that they are the one creating jobs and opportunities. I mean it could be 'POLITICS'. So they may want to wait until dust is settled.
Former minister may not have granted license because he was sure he is going out and Covid-19 heat and may be he was told not to exercise any authoritative decision by President.
So license is there and it is just the matter of time when mining minister find suitable time to issue it- Me think! because all the required documentation is submitted
I hope CEO Lamming effort will not go wasted and the Togo new mining minister will appreciate and value the work done by Keras and grant the license. It is totally understandable that Togo mining minister has the responsibility to examine the impact on all sides before issuing license and may take few weeks to month if they are serious.
However, does anybody know whether CEO will be staying in Togo until license is granted and make sure work to start swiftly after it. I mean travelling to Togo back in Sept and again in Nov just to greet the new mining minister and return back without the license, that could have been done by keras subsidiary Société Générale des Mines SARL rep on behalf of CEO.
I was thinking the festival of light (Diwali) might have enlighten the mining minister on the importance of granting the license to Keras and its stakeholders and we will see the rns this morning of license granted and end this waiting game. Hopefully, before Christmas. Otherwise, I am happy to join CEO on hunger strike in front of Togo mining minister building. (Don't mean it)
Is CEO Lamming returning back empty hand without the license? Or is he back already? By speculating the scenario, I hope all those submitted documents for obtaining license permit are not lying well below other files in the corner of the cupboard. New mining minister seems to be not going easily by the impression of Keras no matter how long keras has been waiting for this license.
Obviously, they may have lots of other priority work over issuing Keras license and also may not be trusting the work of their predecessor and wants to do their own thorough due diligence work before issuing license which is understandable. However, some sorts of update on work progress would have been most welcomed.
I will not be surprised if we see the rns tomorrow saying license granted for Nayega manganese project to Keras. May be keras directors were told to be at Togo early November to accept their certificate of license for commercial production. This news will blow the roof of keras share price that has been showing resistance at .14p at the moment.