Both entitities are fucking useless............just for clarityThe ACCC is not the regulator of the ASX
The ACCC regulates competition and is concerned with consumer law
ASIC (The Australian Securities and Investment Commission) is the regulator of the ASX and in it's broad role regulates financial markets and the conduct of Australian companies
Just for clarity
Cheers
Force AVZ hand ?That’s why I’m being such a douche about this. I’m trying to force AVZ’s hand if it exists because I truly believe it will help us in the public relations battle.
Ever considered a pilgrimage to Cardwell to get free investment advice and crocodile ride?You can't handle a simple observation?
*Someone needs to remind a certain someone ( Felix the Cat ) that it's not a "Win-Win" if you "Lose-Lose" when it comes to ICC & ICSID, as
The Lobito Corridor, a Route to African Development?
In this article, Veronica Bolton Smith makes the case that the participating countries in the Lobito Corridor need to do more to become part of the $60 billion Electric Vehicle (EV) battery supply chain.
The stakes are high for Africa as the EV battery market is anticipated to more than double in size to $141.6 billion by 2032, according to Apollo Research.
A primary goal of the Lobito Corridor initiative is to improve and expand the existing railway and supporting infrastructure to allow efficient flows of critical raw materials from mines in Zambia and the DRC to Angola’s port city of Lobito.
Presently, the minerals mainly travel eastward via trucks towards ports in South Africa, Tanzania, and Mozambique.
Poor road infrastructure leads to delays and traffic jams, and once at port further delays are not uncommon due to them being overwhelmed, mismanaged, or lacking in capacity.
The Lobito Corridor establishes a westward path for the minerals providing optionality to producers and easier access to markets in the United States and Europe.
The United States, the EU Commission, the African Development Bank, and the African Finance Corporation have all pledged significant funds towards the project.
The Lobito Corridor is an ambitious public-private-partnership to develop infrastructure linking the copper and cobalt mines of Zambia to key markets in Europe and the United States.
Made possible through multi-stakeholder agreements, the venture has been hailed by the governments of Zambia, the DRC and Angola as crucial for future generations and economic growth.
Alongside the fanfare and big dreams, however, it is important to understand where the greatest value of the Corridor may lie, who stands to benefit the most, and how impact might be measured against expectations.
What is the Lobito Corridor?
Officially termed the Lobito Atlantic Railway Corridor, this is an agreement between Zambia, the DRC and Angola, and a consortium of three companies (Trafigura, Mota-Engil and Vecturis) to allow for the construction of a railway and all its support infrastructure, so as to transport materials from the mines in Central Africa to a point as close as possible to the markets in the USA and Europe.
This point is the Angolan port city of Lobito.
The Corridor will be used as the route to transport critical raw materials (CRMs), strategic minerals and products of the EV battery value chain.
As demand for CRMs increases, EU and US markets need to access these quicker, more reliably and competitively.
An Atlantic port significantly shortcuts the current Indian Ocean ports of Beira, Dar-es-Salaam and Durban.
Currently trucks transport these materials, placing shipments at risk of hijacking, border delays, capricious political delays and under-performing unloading at overwhelmed ports.
The railway, which exists historically and has already completed a trial journey, will still require further development.
What are the planned benefits?
While it primarily seeks to deliver critical minerals to western markets, the knock-on effect within the countries of the DRC, Zambia and Angola will foreseeably be increased employment in the region and infrastructure improvements.
At the G20 meeting in September 2023, both the US and EU announced a feasibility study on activating the corridor.
An initial load of over 1000 tons of copper from Ivanhoe Mines was delivered along the railway in December 2023.
copperbeltkatangamining.com
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Well, as i see it , the Lobito corridor intitiave by the US is the key bargaining chip in either AVZ getting its ML or achieving a TO by a large US coy, possibly Albermarle (thus avoiding the laborious ICC / ICSID route) , which i reckon would have the FIRBs blessing. ( aka US / Aust critical mineral pact )
Thats the angle the west should be approaching regards to that initiative....." You want Lobito corridor ? Release Manono to its rightful owners, or allow us to TO and payout AVZ long term suffering shareholders who funded the discovery / development "
You can imagine that Zambia and Angola would heap some pressure on FT to make that deal happen to enable Africa as a whole to benefit for the long term future
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But what will be the reality ?
imo
*Fyi, In other News i see where,
Congo’s $7 billion infrastructure deal with China will depend on copper prices
Around $7 billion of infrastructure investments in the Democratic Republic of Congo by Chinese companies in a revised minerals deal will largely depend on copper prices remaining high, details of the agreement published on Friday show.
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The government of President Felix Tshisekedi pushed for a review of the 2008 infrastructure for minerals deal with Sinohydro Corp and China Railway Group to bring more benefits for Congo, the world’s biggest cobalt producer.
They signed an agreement in March.
The parties agreed to maintain the current structure of their Sicomines copper and cobalt joint venture shareholding, 68% of which is held by the Chinese partners, and 32% by Congo state miner Gecamines.
The previously unpublished details of the agreement set a number of conditions for the $7 billion investment, which will include the construction of roads in a country that is largely devoid of infrastructure.
The infrastructure finance will come from Sicomines’ profits, which would also be used to reimburse loans from the Chinese companies via Chinese banks to Congo on behalf of Sicomines.
Under the previous version of the agreement, 65% of the profits were to be used to repay these loans.
The parties agreed that $324 million will be invested in mostly road infrastructure every year from 2024 until 2040, but this is conditional on copper prices remaining above $8,000 a metric ton.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was trading around $9,855 a metric ton on Friday, after surging to a two-year peak of $10,208 on Tuesday.
“If the price of copper rises by at least 50% from $8,000 a ton, 30% of the additional profits made under these conditions will be devoted to financing additional infrastructure”, the detailed agreement published on a government website showed.
“The parties understand and accept that Sicomines will cease to finance infrastructure projects in the event that the price of copper falls to $5,200 per tonne or less.”
According to the agreement, Sicomines will continue to be exempted from paying taxes until 2040, a situation widely criticized by Congolese and international civil society organizations, that say the decision was a major loss of revenue for the state.
Congo, also the world’s third-largest copper producer and holds significant deposits of lithium, tin and gold among other minerals, has undertaken to publish all mining contracts as part of a three-year program with the International Monetary Fund.
An IMF staff mission is underway in the country until May 8 to assess the sixth and final review of this program.
mining.com
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We can only hope Lucas.........Beisha,
I share this sentiment... Both China and US/EU are pitching $1-2B+ railway deals to Africa/DRC... I can't help but think that both deals will be honoured (i.e. win-win) after reading AVZs latest announcement regarding "partial or complete disposal"...
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U.S. and China Back Competing Rail Corridors to Zambia's Copper Belt
The U.S government has given new commitments in the development of the Lobito Corridor, which is proposed as a critical trade route to facilitate mov...maritime-executive.com
Youre killing me Frank, so FT upset that the west is " lecturing ", but happy for Russia / China to loot ?
I hope you’re right. But I just don’t think that is how the ICSID will see it if it gets that far. Hopefully we never need to find out what their decision would be and an alternative outcome can be reached long before then. Dathcom were under no obligation to file the waiver as I have said numerous times. They should have fought it then and there rather than agreeing to the split even if under false pretences. If there was a written contract rather than just a waiver submission this surely would have been all over a long time ago.“The surviving legal effect of the Dathcom waiver not so much imo”
There are stipulations in contracts that say if one party (DRC) doesn’t honour their agreement, the contract is null and void. If that happened to be the case in this instance, then ‘null and void’ means it was never legally waived, never relinquished and never ceded.
I guess DLA are the only ones that currently know and they appear to be sticking to the line that if there was an agreement, the DRC didn’t honour their side
Possibly. But lip service is all you will ever get from any company's management. That's why I don't bother talking to any of them. They're hardly going to admit wrongdoing or let you know if things are actually bad because EGM's can still be called when listed or not listed leading to them losing their jobs.Force AVZ hand ?
Well, when you think about it, AVZ delisting and not having to conform to the regs of the ASX per se, should allow the BOD to have more freedoms as to revealing pertinent information about such issues as the North / other matters / path way forward outside of a AGM wouldnt you think ?
I mean if the big hitters on this forum ( sophs ) were to construct a email with a list of concerns and possibly arrange a private meeting with Nige and crew, would that be at all possible ?
When WFE was in VS, i arranged a one on one meeting with the cunt Brewer with a list of questions that were collaboratively put together by a number of big hitters........i gotta admit tho, i felt he was just paying me lip service and eventually they went bust.......... but hey
Thoughts ?
can't palm myself in the face any harder reading that, what an absolute fucking goose!!!Youre killing me Frank, so FT upset that the west is " lecturing ", but happy for Russia / China to loot ?
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I hope you’re right. But I just don’t think that is how the ICSID will see it if it gets that far. Hopefully we never need to find out what their decision would be and an alternative outcome can be reached long before then. Dathcom were under no obligation to file the waiver as I have said numerous times. They should have fought it then and there rather than agreeing to the split even if under false pretences. If there was a written contract rather than just a waiver submission this surely would have been all over a long time ago.
If the MoM had of mentioned Dathcom being tricked or a contract dispute in 00032 then it would be an obvious slam dunk case. But she clearly doesn’t and instead cites Cominiere’s letter from December 2022 that blames AVZ ignoring the minority shareholders opinion. That is the basis of AVZ’s current claim to Dathcom having the entirety of PR13359. The idea of ‘contracts being null and void’ has never been recognised by the DRC government. Which is a very dangerous reasoning path for us to take to arbitration.
The company has been using in recent official announcement the wording of no opinion being given as to who will ultimately end up with a PE for the north. But if it does go to Dathcom then further negotiations with the other shareholders will be undertaken. This is a very deliberate tactic by DLA Piper for the current reasoning path we are on and I fully support it. It is far better idea than letting the ICSID decide who should get it imo