Member Info for Pappiklon

Https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/agriculture/news/contract-farming-takes-over-poultry-industry-3325996

World Bank report Bangladesh losing $3.3b a year to power cuts

...and it isn't predicted to get better, Telegraph today

Wholesale gas prices could rise above €100 per megawatt hour in the second half of the year, nearly three times higher than present levels of around €36.

European gas prices have fallen after the continent emerged from winter with gas stocks more than half full and close to record highs for the time of year.

However, Goldman Sachs expects European consumption and liquified natural gas (LNG) demand elsewhere in the world to rebound in the second half of 2023 raising prices on average above €90 per megawatt hour.'

Is management working away tirelessly in this perfect storm of opportunity to get a win win for everyone, especially Bangladesh, I certainly hope so, I've spent over 15 years waiting for 'the' RNS and would like to finally get the opportunity to punch my fist in the air and shout '' YEEEEEEEES'' :-)

Aljazeera getting stuck in and not letting it rest.

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/3/30/bangladesh-in-a-hot-seat-over-adanis-power-deal

It was widely reported in the media that the Energy Adviser commissioned a report back in 2014 from Bangladesh’s IWM to assess the impact of open pit mining the Barapukuria Coal Deposit (adjoining Phulbari). Media reports of the 20th October 2014 stated:
“The final report of water modelling and hydro-geological survey on Barapukuria coal mine says open-pit mining is possible there. The government has planned open-pit coal mining at the northern part of Barapukuria coal field in Dinajpur to use the extracted coal in power plants. The Institute of Water Modelling, which conducted the survey, has suggested carrying out a mandatory geo-technical feasibility study before making the decision of open-pit mining. The survey report was disclosed at a workshop in the capital yesterday.”
Despite the positive findings of the IWM report being released to the media, the full report was suppressed. To this day, the Energy Adviser’s comments regarding open pit coal mining continue to ignore the copious technical studies undertaken and as such may be considered to be opinions that lack technical credibility.
The unsubstantiated negative statements regarding domestic coal extraction from the energy advisor do appear as a deflection from the real problem for Bangladesh being the short-sighted Strategy that has been evolving since 2010 whereby, the Country has been moved towards full dependency on imported energy! In recent months with dwindling foreign reserves, regular power cuts and newly commissioned power stations unable to operate because of lack of coal, this would seem to have been to put it generously a misguided policy.
Fortunately, there are many others, including the State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, that seemingly do appreciate the dangers for Bangladesh being totally dependent on the vagaries of the international energy market and want to get the domestic energy resources developed. The State Minister has continued to build on his very strong statements of support for coal sector development (referencing Phulbari’s coal) made to Parliament on 1 November last year.
In this context, the recently reported directive regarding a dramatic expansion of Barapukuria coal production, sent from the Energy Ministry to the Barapukuria Coal Mining Company management, is an example of this renewed focus on developing the domestic coal resources. The issue here, as relayed by Barapukuria management, is they are unable to significantly expand underground coal mine production which means Barapukuria coal-fired power plant will continue to lack the required coal supply and will continue to underperform. Once again, this puts the focus back on Open Pit Mining as the logical and manageable solution!
Developing new domestic energy resources will take time. The Phulbari Coal Mine is ahead in this game as its Feasibility Study and Scheme of Development has been done and the mine is ready to develop and could produce first coal in 3 years.

It would appear to me (understatement) that there is a political feud going on here between 2 different camps.
The Energy Advisers’ latest statement that “huge water level over the coal that connected with the Bay of Bengal” is meaningless and lacks context. He appears to be the prime driver behind Bangladesh’s “import all energy strategy” and seems adept at making off the cuff misinformed statements regarding developing Bangladesh’s own energy resources, notably coal and gas.
The Bangladesh aquifer system is enormous and pervades the entire country. It is universally pumped to provide potable water for cities, villages and agriculture. By contrast, the proposed open pit coal mine development is very small (both in relative land area and water pumped but conserved). It is a mere "pin prick in area and a drop in the ocean in terms of water extracted and distributed" in that huge 3-d aquifer world!
The Phulbari Coal Project feasibility study team (over a three-year period) undertook very detailed groundwater and aquifer characterization field studies, developed a predictive groundwater model (which included the influence of Barapukuria mine and power plant), developed an overall Water Management and Conservation Plan and commissioned independent expert reviews. The water study team also included Bangladesh’s own Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) and reviews were undertaken by internationally recognised organisations that have conducted water management studies in many countries around the world. These water studies were delivered to the Bangladesh Government via its Energy and Mineral Resources Division and included in the ESIA and is available on the GCM Resources website.
Yes the groundwater level will be drawn down within the mining area, however, the extent of the water level drawdown will be restricted to the mining area by putting a large amount of the water back into the Aquifer system through a ring of wells surrounding the mining area. This is a very standard world-wide mining practice to promote safe mining conditions. The remaining water will be distributed to the community for reticulated water supply, irrigation and industrial use, and some will be used to generally improve the environment around the Project Area, again all available on the GCM resources website.

Nice to see someone has got the confidence to be buying 1.35m at 3.2 today

So they need to find a company for the reverse takeover, negotiate with them, prepare and publish the admissions document, sell it to shareholders , get it approved by shareholders and complete the deal, unless the have the first 2/3 on the boil already going by past performance on AMC timelines that is going to be a difficult task, appreciate any others experience of similar transaction timelines.

From todays RNS
The Company will be required to make an acquisition or acquisitions which constitute(s) a reverse takeover under AIM Rule 14 on or before the date falling six months from the completion of the Disposal, or be re-admitted to trading on AIM as an investing company under AIM Rule 8. Failing that, the Company's Ordinary Shares would then be suspended from trading on AIM pursuant to AIM Rule 40. If the Company's shares remain suspended for six months, admission of the Company's shares will be cancelled.
Pursuant to Rule 14 of the AIM Rules, a reverse takeover transaction would require the publication of an admission document in respect of the proposed enlarged entity and would be conditional upon the consent of shareholders being given at a general meeting.
Market conditions may have a negative impact on the Company's ability to make an acquisition or acquisitions which would constitute a reverse takeover under AIM Rule 14. There is no guarantee that the Company will be successful in meeting the AIM Rule 14 deadline as described above.

Seems a bit like they have formed a committee to investigate the committee

‘’ Extracting domestic coal remains off the discussion table. Why? ‘’
Interesting article no beating around the bush

https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/views/importing-coal-for-power-a-losing-proposition-1677252880

Hi Spights, you are obviously trying to tell us something, don’t underdtand your concern of saying it here unless it could be classed as libellous.
I too still have Polo shares, I have thought about the risk of gcm delisting myself, Gary was asked this after the AGM and pointed out thst you dont delist a company which is going to require major investment when the approval comes, Polo is an investment vehicle GCM id as very different kettle of fish. Would love to hesr uour thoughts though. Been a long time

This is definitely the bottom of the range on GCM, suspect now it's down here that fundraise completion RNS will come soon, Company said this would be completed by June but the share price may be way higher by then and the existing large investors will be looking for as many shares as possible before approval.

In the current situation with load shedding going on across the country there must be hundreds if not thousands of applications going in to get solar operational and at a much higher rate than usual - especially in rural farming areas which are being worse hit than industralised urban areas, I think its a bit of a stretch to suggest she was referring to Asia Energies latest proposal on Phulbari, I doubt that has even crossed her path yet, and if it had I am pretty sure she would be highly unlikely to be alluding to knowledge of it.

Correction 1GW of power from Solar would take in excess of 1,600 hectares of land, thats appx 6.25 sq miles.

Gary was very clear at the AGM that there was no option to put solar panels on farming land it wasn't allowed so nothing new there, he explained that in order to set up a solar farm on the land it could only be done once they had approval to mine at which time the zoning of the land would change to mining and other activities.
He didn't think there would be any issues with setting up a solar park on part of the lease as the Government is committed to solar power but hasn't got the land to do it, The mine would start in the North and slowly work its way south and as a consequence they have been able to earmark an area that could be used to generate solar for 20years
As with many things in Bangladesh, the government commitment to generate 40% of its energy from renewable sources by 2041 is rather pie in the sky, I would venture to say with current technology impossible, it hasn't got the land available to do that, to generate 1GW of energy from Solar would take in excess of 1000 hectares of land, hence most solar in Bangladesh has remained small scale on flood prone areas that can tentatively be classed as non arable.

Every day they delay on the approval is costing big bucks.

Easy mistake to make

Even the Washington Post is running this story ….. and the ‘secret deal’ was signed in 2017 when coal was dirt cheap compared to now, some very greedy hands on this one!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/07/adani-bangladesh-electricity-coal-discount/

Payra Port for coal import is another disaster even if they could source or afford it ... It's got a
huge, ever building 60+km sand / silt bank between it and the open sea and dredging costs are HUGE ... just isn’t practical.
As the energy minister pointed out the only practical source of coal is Phulbari

https://www.thedailystar.net/environment/natural-resources/energy/news/coal-consumption-may-rise-bangladesh-year-3198226
But countries kike Bangladesh cant afford the increase in imported coal prices

Guardian today, Makes one think that those that think Hasina wouldn't give the go ahead to Phulbari for fear of protests from the likes of Anu and his communist agitators - who seemingly are the only ones being vocal against the project- are deluded. Hasina will do what she wants to do no matter what, same would go for Khaleda, western norms have little relevance here.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/09/bangladesh-opposition-leaders-arrested-crackdown-government-opponents