Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
I’ve been there and it really is a lovely country, so please don’t be put off. Such a shame due process doesn’t seem to have been followed, but the country and its people aren’t to blame!
Having read the translation of the various articles that have been circulated a few times, I've been wondering if Jure was actually trying to say that he wanted to review ARSO and it's approach to the permitting process because it has taken TOO long in a number of cases, including that of AST – thus potentially creating legal issues for the Slovenian government – but at the same time wanted to reiterate his green credentials, and emphasise that this didn't mean he was rolling over to big industry, even if he was going to start pushing delayed permits through. It's hard to get the sense of some of the translated words or even the appropriate emphasis, and who can say what the particular spin or agenda of each news outlet is. Either way, as some previous posters have said, we can't assume that the "foreigners" he's referred to are AST shareholders trying to agitate to have the permits approved. It could just as easily be others with a vested interest in the permits not being approved for their own ends, and reasons. Either way the whole situation is an embarrassment for the Slovenian authorities, especially if the British ambassador has had to intervene, and they must be aware that it would be real problem for them if it were to end up in the European courts as they do have a case to answer, and a strong one at that.
The sacking sounds more positive than negative. Interesting times...
From what I can find out, Slovenia still generates around 15–20% of its power per annum using coal. Any green-minded politician coming in with an agenda to reduce CO2 output would have to look at natural gas as the least bad option to transitioning from coal to renewable energy. Nuclear plants take years and years to build and are generally not a popular option, and renewables can't pick up all of the slack straight away either, so gas is pretty much the only short-term fix for reducing carbon emissions. Plus in this case, it's all effectively there and ready to flow.
Can't wait until Midge Ure opens the file full of "abusive" emails from PIs after the Black Monday RNS.
...fallen for a Honey trap?
The really interesting thing as far as I'm concerned is if SS does prove his hypothesis that the kimmeridge layers are in effect one big connected reservoir, then the layers currently "available" at Horse Hill are only a percentage of the total. You could perhaps dismiss the tight shales to play safe, but you would have to consider the other unexplored KL1 and KL2 layers as a viable prospect at the very least. Not only that, but if you recall, DL had said he'd wanted to test the Oolite and the Lias back in 2016, but couldn't due to time restrictions. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
I've been thinking it must have been a buy, given that the expected result of the fundraise would have been a drop to around, or just below 0.65. A trade like that would ordinarily have put a real squeeze on available shares, so you would have expected a spike one way or the other... Strikes me as odd that the market makers had enough shares to fulfil the order, given the generally low volumes over recent months – and the likelihood that most LTH would have sat on their hands after the RNS – i.e. I'm not sure how many traders are left in this share. And finally, I was wondering if it might be the start of a stake-building exercise for one of the interested parties. Would make sense if they knew Sareum weren't rolling over to take a low-ball bid, so would have to raise cash to strengthen their hand. The bidder could therefore have been primed and ready to make a purchase on the announcement of a fund-raise, and if done it through a third-party it might be impossible to trace the purchase back. All that said, we're back to the usual low volume today, so who knows. Definitely something odd going on in the background though! Good luck all.
Is Colin the star of the new First Direct advert? Uncanny resemblance.
Is Colin the star of the new First Direct advert? Uncanny resemblance
Thought Esmo was one of The Muppets
Rollex are a fiver a piece at most good markets
Col might have to issue a speeding ticket at this rate.
Any thoughts re: DNL..?
I fancy throwing a bit of pocket change in there tomorrow. Looks like a good opportunity, and massively oversold, but I'm not too clued up on the endocrine side of things, so it would be something of a punt based more on instinct than anything!
Am certainly not considering moving anything out of here (even for a few days), as knowing my luck the big RNS will land 20 mins or so afterwards.
I'm not sure that's quite true..! Bare minimum you would also need an approved field development plan and planning permission etc. etc.
Been thinking the same... Hope you’re enjoying your weekends one and all.
Could even mean (again being pedantic) that AST are close to being at a point in time when the permits are a few weeks away - I.e. we are not yet at that point in time but “close” to it... not a deramp - just bored out of my skull with the endless can kicking. Hoping Arso are running out of road.
Not sure too much can be read into it, but the use of "either" in "The Company continues to have positive discussions with more than one interested party and is hopeful that either could result in a proposal which shareholders would find acceptable" suggests 2 parties, not 3+, as it should be "any" for more than 2.
That said, if I'm being a complete pedant (which of course I am), grammatically "either" refers to the "discussions" not the parties, so the whole thing is a bit of a grammatical mess. They really must stop getting the 14-year-old work experience lad to proofread the RNSes before they're released into the wild.
To be fair CH is probably on the phone to the British Broadcasting Corporation as we speak
And love that they’re now taking credit for making AST’s case more public... pretty sure that was down to various small shareholders going postal after Black Monday!