Member Info for tomshare

March 25th 2019:

Pointe-Noire Special Economic Zone: signing of an agreement for the supply of electricity from gas.

The next steps concern “the development of related projects, with the construction of the PORT, the power station and the gas infrastructure.”

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Early April 2019. China Railways 20:

Sounda dam developments.

“The President has given the order to move forward as quickly as possible. The China Railways 20 is ready to start the work and to realize the Congolese dream to see this dam completed”

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April 2019 article in Chinese regarding iron ore.

“China is no longer the same as it has been, and has gradually reduced the import of iron ore, and reached an agreement on mining resources in Indonesia, Ghana, CONGO and other countries.”

“Once China really reduces its dependence on iron ore imports from Australia and OBTAINS MORE MINERAL RESOURCE EXPLOITATION RIGHTS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES, the good days of Australian mining giants are really coming to an end.”

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April 29th China and RoC signed debt deal.

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June 10th Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Chen Xiaodong.

“announced to the Congolese head of state the IMMINENT resumption of projects stopped because of Congo's trade debt to China. Just as he confirmed the support of his country in the construction of the special economic zone of Pointe-Noire.”
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2nd Focac meeting June 2019 Changsha:

“The Minister of Planning, Territorial Equipment and Major Works, Jean Jacques BOUYA, presented the ambitions of President Dénis SASSOU NGUESSO to develop ambitious projects for his country by putting a bilateral cooperation with China and advocated the FINANCING of the Pointe Noire Special Economic Zone, the rehabilitation of the CFCO, the Sounda dam, in an economic model called "invest build, manage. During this meeting of Sino-African trade relations, Minister BOUYA also took part in meetings between leaders and investors, organized by Industry and Commercial Bank of China and its partners, during which contacts for direct business has been established.”

“The President of the Republic of Congo said that the challenge of a diversified and significant production in this economic sector must be accompanied by resolute action by the government. For this, infrastructure will have to be made available to the mining sector for a profitable economic return.”

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Economic and Commercial Office of the Embassy of Congo

July 16th 2019:

“The conclusion of the agreement (IMF) will help Congo (Brazzaville) and other financial institutions to carry out rescue negotiations and promote the economic recovery.”

Mynytho. Great post and I fully agree.

Why continue to pay the Australians?

Exactly what China is moving away from as per this article in Chinese...

“Since China is the world's number one steel producer, the demand for iron ore is huge. Although China's iron ore reserves are abundant, 94% of them are lean ore, and the cost of refining high grade ore is extremely high. As the world's largest steel producer, China consumes two-thirds of the world's iron ore every year.

Since the tragedy of Vale, the annual production capacity of over 90 million tons has been shut down. Shares of its competitors, especially in Australia, the largest mining country, have soared, including BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Fortescue.

There is no doubt that they will benefit from an environment of rising prices, but it may be difficult to increase production. Among the major producers, only Rio Tinto can significantly increase its supply.

However, China is no longer the same as it has been, and has gradually reduced the import of iron ore, and reached an agreement on mining resources in Indonesia, Ghana, CONGO and other countries.

The latest news: According to foreign media reports, the Republic of the Congo exported iron ore for the first time on April 19. The export volume was 23,000 tons and the destination was China. In 2017, Sapro SA, a subsidiary of Congo's billionaire Paul Obambi, started production at the Mayoko iron ore mine in the southwestern part of the country, with an estimated annual capacity of the mine by 2022 will reach 12 million tons.

Earlier, Australia took advantage of its own "privilege" to control the price of iron ore, often raising the price of iron ore in order to break this situation. In addition to the Chinese iron ore futures launched in May last year, our country has deliberately reduced its dependence on Australian iron ore.

In this regard, at the Iron Ore and Steel Forecast Conference held in Perth in March this year, analyst Mori said: As China's self-sufficiency in iron ore is enhanced, it is expected that in the next five years, imports will drop from the current 1 billion tons to 600 million tons, a drop of 40%, and Australia will suffer heavy losses!

Once China really reduces its dependence on iron ore imports and obtain more mineral resource exploitation rights from other countries, the good days of Australian mining giants are really coming to an end.”

https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1631776432843902720&wfr=spider&for=pc&sa=vs_ob_realtime&isFailFlag=1

Thanks so much for the link about Sundance, Riski.

Bodes exceptionally well for Zanaga, especially with the Chinese recently stating they want to control more iron ore assets abroad.

Great find again MinorMiner.

Looking excellent indeed.

Yes very positive indeed, as is the Danes already securing funding for the their project.

Thanks for the link MinorMiner.

That's excellent news indeed!

*well reasoned

Sooty.

Yes it's my ideas coming from the extensive research I have done over the past year, underpinning one of the reasons why I am invested here.

I was asked my opinion and simply gave my answer. I'm not saying people have to agree with what I think though.

I do agree with you that the EPP update is extremely important near term and also a reason why I think the record premiums for pellets today is extremely good news for us and this small scale project.

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extrader

You are welcome. Reasoned debate is always healthy.

Part 2:

In the weeks leading up to the FOCAC it was generally presumed by both Congolese and Chinese parties that the new mineral port would be signed off, as was the SEZ. The IMF pulled the plug on a debt deal late in the day, and hence the ducks never aligned in Beijing.

However Congo and China met on the sidelines of FOCAC and, as has been reported by the new IMF man and Brazzaville media, agreement is now very close if not 'toute de suite' - immediate.

With the Congolese ministers meeting early next week to sign their departmental budgets, including that of the new port, it would appear we are very close to those ducks getting themselves in a nice orderly line.

Hi extrader. Part one

Yes I agree there has been memorandum after memorandum.

Meeting to schedule another meeting to sign another memorandum and so forth.

Again, we need to go back to the IMF.

The Chinese can finance and build this port with or without the IMF bailout. I've heard that from a reliable source.

The IMF deal as we know needs the RoC to diversify the economy. This diversification of the economy is underpinned by the mineral port please refer to this link:

http://www.adiac-congo.com/content/congo-chine-la-cooperation-de-nouveau-portee-sur-les-plus-hautes-cimes-88602

“As an oil country, Congo is currently in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with a view to signing an economic cooperation program. The country is facing a crisis due to the lowering of the price of a barrel of oil on the world market. It is for this reason that the government is multiplying ways and means to redress macroeconomic balances.

The envisaged conclusion of a program with the IMF is one of the recommended options, as is the diversification of the national economy based mainly on black gold. There is talk of industrialization, development of agriculture and tourism, improvement of the business landscape to attract foreign capital.

The creation of the Pointe-Noire Special Economic Zone is part of this logic. Realized with the technical and financial support of China, the project would boost the national economy and create some one hundred thousand direct and indirect jobs.

The signing of the agreement concerning the development of this zone marks a crucial step in the process of carrying out the project, the launch of construction will take place in January 2019.“

- - - - - - - -

However, another important part of the IMF deal is that the RoC improves governance and reduces corruption.

China are very keen on that indeed as they don’t want to invest more money and for that to go missing as well.

This can also be seen with them making the Sino-Congo bank earlier in the year. I.e. a check on what money is coming in to the RoC from China and more importantly where it is going.

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I think the deal for the mineral port is done, but China have said they will only rubber stamp it after the Congo sort out the IMF deal.

As we know there is a new IMF representative in the RoC currently and is looking like a deal will be made very soon on that.

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Then we also have the RoC needing to pay for their share of the project as well.

On Monday this week the ministry for SEZ’s in the RoC submitted their budgetary proposals for next year.

These discussions will finish on September 18th.

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IMO deal for port is done in principle but waiting for IMF deal to be finalised and RoC funding to be released.

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Agree with you in that I'm also very much looking forward to the upcoming investor presentation.

Hi extrader.

I didn't say they prepare the news before the fact at all or you can't rely on the news.

What I said is that some articles in China use information copied from articles reported a few days/weeks before and then any updated developments they add on top to the article from before.

This is from a report of the new port released in June this year. It discusses a single basin design and a double basin design for the new port.

They concluded that the double basin port design is ideal for the new port.

Info from the report here:

"Double Basin Port design

Separate Double Basin port 300,000-ton iron ore loading berths are arranged outside the harbor basin.

The 300,000-ton iron ore berth has no cover, but according to the research results, the open iron ore terminal can still achieve higher working time.

The outer section of the waterway is a 300,000-ton waterway, and the inner channel is a 50,000-100,000-ton waterway. Small channel dredging.

In the first phase of the project, two new 300,000-ton iron ore export terminals will be built, and only the south side single breakwater will be built.

The first phase of the project costs less and the return on investment is high."

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For image of excerpts of the report:

https://twitter.com/TomNic84/status/1039417992201699328?s=20

Hi PBateman. Thanks for your post.

You are correct that the article I posted below originated from 人民网 (People's Daily).

http://news.ts.cn/system/2018/09/04/035363616.shtml

One thing you need to be careful searching for info on Chinese websites is that a lot is copied from other articles written a few days before. I've even been stumped before thinking I had found something but it was old news from a year ago.

As you said it does originate from the People's Daily and this was written on September 3rd 2018. (As you quite rightly state). I.e. Written pre Focac.

However,

The top part of the article is as you said written pre Focac.

I have copied the first paragraph of the article I posted and put it in to Baidu (Chinese search engine) and his article appears many times on numerous other websites.

However, the same articles I checked do not have the paragraph about the Poine Moire Mineral Port News.

Only the website I have sent the link to has that information. I.e. Posted after/towards end of Focac.

Also we need to look at this sentence from the article I posted talking about the Pointe Noire Mineral Port:

在今年的中非合作峰会期间，中国交建成功签署.....

During this year's Sino-African Cooperation Summit, China Communications Construction Company has successfully signed

They use the word 成功 which can be seen in the above translation as successfully I.e. Already happened.

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My conclusion is that the article posted has the start copied from a pre Focac article and then the bottom section stating with the bold title below was written post Focac with information about the port.

诚意赢得中非合作新机遇

New opportunities won for Sino African Cooperation

Also this nugget as well...

“During this year's China-Africa Cooperation Summit, China Communications Construction SUCCESSFULLY SIGNED the cooperation agreement for the Msimfbu River Dam project in South Africa and the cooperation protocol for the construction project of the Congo (Brazzaville) POINTE NOIRE NEW MINERAL PORT.”

http://news.ts.cn/system/2018/09/04/035363616.shtml

China Communications Construction company is the parent of China Road and Bridge (CRBC)

On September 7, Deng Yong, Chairman and Party Secretary of China Railway 20th Bureau, met with Congolese President Sassou, who had just attended the Beijing Summit of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum. The two sides conducted in-depth exchanges on cooperation in areas such as infrastructure construction.

At the same time, the China Railway 20th Bureau has also actively bid to participate in the development and construction of the POINTE NOIRE SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE.”

https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2420665

China Railway 20th Bureau, is a subsidiary of China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (abbreviated CRCC). CRRC is a state-owned construction enterprise based in Beijing, China, that is the second largest construction and engineering company in the world by revenue in 2014.

extrader.

I'm afraid you will have to do some more research again.

The Pointe Noire SEZ project includes the new mineral port.

I can't believe we are going over this again.

Precisely Moneyman64.

Also with Glencore recently stating in their 2018 half year report backs your points up even further:

"premiums for high quality material, particularly in pelletised form, improved substantially."

Sounds very familiar!

Beautiful MinorMiner.

Thanks for sharing mate.

"Zhuo expects IRON ORE DEMAND TO BE FOCUSED ON HIGH-GRADE FINES AND PELLETS, with mills looking to boost production efficiency"

Sounds very familiar indeed. Good job we have a number of mills currently looking at our product.

Meanwhile...

The ones causing bickering are the ones who have sold out looking for a lower entry.

They feel uneasy in that they might have made the wrong decision.

I get it, I really do. I wouldn't want to be trading this knowing the red dot could appear and then be locked out.

We saw that with the rise to and then fall back to 15.6p the other week and similar posters coming on board to try and manipulate as Johnny said earlier that he likes to do and is a pro at.

That after that last drop to 15.6p, Keith increased his holdings yet again and they got their knickers in a twist again. PMSL

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60p for EPP. I'll have to disagree with that.

Before extrader jumps on that comment like a b.itch on heat, workings for the EPP project have been posted countless times and a simple flick through will answer that.

1. NPV update
2. Investor presentation
3. Steel mill making an offtake pellet agreement
4. EPP update
5. IMF bailout
6. Chicken and egg situation with port/financing stage 1 as I so articulately put the other week.

Good luck trading through that minefield and sleep well.