Winenut
GO AVZ!!!!
Tom Richardson
Markets reporter and commentator
Mar 17, 2023 – 2.21pm
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Suspended lithium explorer AVZ Minerals has insisted that a deal to raise $US240 million ($360 million) from a private Chinese investor remains live, despite having its mining licence cancelled by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government last month.
The Perth-headquartered explorer disclosed its accounts late on Thursday evening, with a cash burn of $24.5 million over the six months to December 31 and cash on hand of $36.6 million as at the period end. It spent $18.9 million on exploration and development costs over the period, with $6 million paid to suppliers and employees.
AVZ said the completion date for the $US240 million investment from Chinese backer Suzhou CATH Energy Technologies in exchange for a 24 per cent stake in the Manono project has been extended from February 28 to March 31.
AVZ says it still has good legal title to 75 per cent of the Manono Project, which is thought to be the world’s largest hard rock lithium deposit.
The location of the Manono project in the south-east of the DRC. Ownership rights to what could be the world’s largest untapped hard rock lithium deposit are under dispute. AVZ Minerals
Legal fights
The explorer also flagged upcoming legal hearings versus rival Chinese group Zijin Mining and a DRC entity named Dathomir Resources at Paris’s International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in a ballooning fight for control of the deposit.
It has rejected Zijin Mining’s claim that it legally acquired a 15 per cent stake from a DRC government entity in November 2021 and Dathomir’s claims it terminated AVZ’s rights to a separate 15 per cent ownership stake in May 2021.
In the half-year report AVZ said it was confident it would obtain a mining licence pending resolution of the ICC disputes.
On June 1, AVZ agreed to pay a Congo middleman named Marius Mihigo $US1 million in cash to help it secure a DRC mining license.
Last April, AVZ raced to a $4.6 billion valuation and joined the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index before retreating to a $2.6 billion market cap in May when it entered an ongoing trading halt and first admitted its ownership interests to the Manono Project had been challenged in the DRC courts in 2021.
The under the pump explorer now faces a class action funded by Omni Bridgeway that alleges it failed to adequately disclose information when making positive statements about its ownership of Manono, and engaged in conduct that was misleading or deceptive. AVZ is defending these claims and the action.
AVZ’s management team again blamed its problems on a “hostile misinformation campaign” it says is attempting to diminish its credibility and that of the company.
From the article
"The under the pump explorer now faces a class action funded by Omni Bridgeway"
Tommy Richardhead has stated the above as a fact
I thought the situation (as per @obe wan ) was that applications to particpate in the class action didn't close until 31st March 2023 and that a class action would only proceed if enough signed up
From Omni's own page they note that the class action has not yet been confirmed as it "is funding or will fund potential claims"
So it is not a fact that AVZ "now faces a class action funded by Omni Bridgeway"
Tommy is spreading lies and mis-truths again through the AFR