The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
much in the same way as all the previous loan financing has been provided by kdnc… directly to dev… now converted to equity / shares in the jv company…
kdnc loan financing provided to date…
1… dipa $2.5m for 20% (100% $12.5m)…
2… dipb(1) $3.5m for 7% (100% $50m)…
3… dipb(1-2) $3.3m for 3% (100% $110m)…
kdnc 1st right of refusal…
4… dipb(2) $20.7m for 19% (100% $110m)…
section 5 of the jrp… all monies transferred from pba to dev are done via loans… in the form of dipa and dipb loan financing… that’s the normal way for holdings companies to move cash into subsidiaries… the interest rate for this financing is already defined in the above jrp clauses…
that’s not quite right… the loan financing to dev still exists… but instead of it being direct from kdnc to dev… it’s now being provided from pba to dev… and will accrue interest at the rate defined in the jrp for the dipa and dipb financing now being provided to dev by pba… along with the $49.14m dev credit that was also transferred into pba by our jv partner…
maybe… but i’m not that sure mexico are looking for more than what they would normally get through royalties and taxes etc… the motive to me seems more geared towards establishing and keeping a significant lithium value chain within mexico… as a priority to exporting mexican lithium to china and elsewhere… they are achieving that… and will achieve that… but without sonora lithium in production soon… they’ll end up needing to import lithium to all these new ev factories… which kind of defeats the object of the decree…
for the year ended 31dec22… the sonora project companies retain their mining concessions and land holdings despite the events outlined above… this ownership is protected by mexican and international law… the company has taken legal advice and has considered the impact of the mexican government's decree to amend the mining law… at the balance sheet date… and concluded that no impairment charge is required to be recorded against the investment in joint venture in the year… the directors consider it appropriate to continue to record the investment in the sonora project and related party loan balances at historic cost…
a key challenge is to negotiate a path and workable solution with the mexican government and enter into a commercial relationship with litiomex for the benefit of the sonora project and receiving all construction and operational permissions…
looking at the bigger picture… bacanora as it was back then… isn’t the bacanora it is now… it’s ganfeng… and where the then bod failed to fund and develop the sonora project… whilst we’ve been impatiently sidelined to witness the painful story unfold first hand… in great distress… we are still here with our 30% jv’s… and have basically farmed in the #1 global lithium producer to get the job done… as the sonora major project developer… and finish the job bacanora plc weren’t able to… these political intrusions now adding to the pain… with potentially further delays…
wonder if they’ll be using this in support of ganfeng’s case and ongoing plans to significantly scale up sonora… to infinity and beyond the ~9mt current resource we’ve drilled out… http://irservices.netbuilder.com/ir/cadence/newsArticle.php?ST=REM&id=1367479 …
on 17 february 2023… minera sonora borax sa de cv… mexilit sa de cv… and minera megalit sa de cv… received notifications from the ministry of economy informing the companies of the commencement of cancellation procedures over nine concession titles… due to what is perceived to be an administrative oversight… the notification triggers a 60-day period for the concession holders to respond to the notification providing evidence of compliance with all obligations… as per due process… the company fully disputes the reasons cited for mal administration and is confident all of its concessions remain valid and will remain valid… the audit is part of the process of reviewing all lithium concessions announced by the president in april22 when the government amended the mining act…
sonora group expect to continue with operations as normal and without political interference…