AVZ Discussion 2022
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Bray
Regular
If the new board were smart they’d offer them a bunch of brown paper bags
Luckily the reporter who reposted the article has her email in her bio, I'm sure she's got a few reminders of the facts from shareholders.Here is the latest sketchy bullshit information regards the Manono project out of the DRC if anyone is interested. Once again they seem to ignore the fact that the deposit is still rightfully owned by AVZ and the ongoing arbitration cases.
En RDC, qu'est-ce qui bloque le démarrage du projet d’exploitation de Lithium à Manono ?
Annoncé début de l’année 2023, le projet d’exploitation du Lithium dans le Manono, province du Tanganyika, n’est toujours pas lancé.actualite.cd
sonia.rolley@thomsonreuters.com
770k followers can't go unnoticed.
Spikerama
Regular
She sounds like a decent report to get on our side if she can get the story right.
French journalist Sonia Rolley expelled from DRC, denied accreditation - Committee to Protect Journalists
Kinshasa, November 9, 2022–Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo must reverse their decision to expel journalist Sonia Rolley and cease all efforts to intimidate the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. On the morning of Tuesday, November 8, the DRC’s...
cpj.org
'Rolley previously worked for French broadcaster Radio France Internationale, during which time she extensively covered politics, conflict, human rights, and corruption in the DRC. In 2021, her work included the so-called Congo Hold-up investigation, which revealed DRC elites’ alleged embezzlement of public funds.'
China’s control and coercion in critical minerals | The Strategist
This is the first of two parts of an article on coercive threats to critical minerals supply and what Australia and its critical minerals partners are doing and should do to counter them. Markets ...
Bray,
And those Board members would likely be prosecuted in Australia if that was to occur - The BOD I am confident would not consider compromising AVZ and are working hard and lawfully to progress a positive outcome.
Frank
Top 20
In the DRC, what is blocking the start of the Lithium project in Manono?
Announced in the beginning of 2023, the project to exploit lithium in Manono, Tanganyika province, has yet to be launched. Yet, at the discovery of this prestigious deposit, many already believed in the transformation of this region of Greater Katanga.A highly coveted ore throughout the world, its exploitation is expected to take place a few years after that of tin a few years ago in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But the question arises: why is the delay in the implementation of this long-awaited project?
En RDC, qu'est-ce qui bloque le démarrage du projet d’exploitation de Lithium à Manono ?
Annoncé début de l’année 2023, le projet d’exploitation du Lithium dans le Manono, province du Tanganyika, n’est toujours pas lancé.
Samus
Top 20
China’s control and coercion in critical minerals
7 Jun 2024|Ian Satchwell
This is the first of two parts of an article on coercive threats to critical minerals supply and what Australia and its critical minerals partners are doing and should do to counter them.
Markets for critical minerals are no longer shaping up to be the next components of the global economy to be dominated by China. They already are.
While Western nations were sleeping, China built vertically integrated supply chains for several critical minerals vital to the energy transition and high technology applications, including defence equipment.
Critical mineral supply chains are increasingly subject to Chinese government manipulation focussed on creating and maintaining monopolies and monopsonies. The scale and scope of this competition is presenting Australia and its partners with significant economic and security challenges. The Australian government’s 2 June divestment order to China-linked entities with shareholdings in rare earths developer Northern Minerals is an example of what will be needed to counter China’s domination of critical minerals supply.
Stricter foreign investment oversight may mitigate some of the more egregious attempts to grab control of minerals projects in Australia. Meanwhile, various coercive behaviours are directly affecting Australian mining interests at home and abroad and threatening growth of more diverse, secure and sustainable critical mineral supply chains. Several recent developments have highlighted the growing intensity of these threats.
The situation is becoming acute in several countries in resource-rich Africa, where Australian companies contributed 29 percent of the continent’s exploration spending for all minerals in 2023. (Canadian companies contributed another 29 percent.) Russia-influenced deterioration of security in several mineral-rich African nations is supporting China’s aspirations.
Two Australian companies, operators of world-scale lithium properties that are being developed into mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Mali, have been edged out by China-based joint-venture partners amid disputes with national governments, plummeting share prices and suspensions from the ASX. Control of the resources will consolidate China’s role as effectively the world’s central banker for lithium: it already controls around 80 percent of processing and an increasing share of global mine production.
The DRC property is the Manono Project, which has the largest hard-rock lithium resource in the world. A dispute with China’s Zijin Mining Group over the project’s ownership has resulted in Australia’s AVZ Minerals being delisted from the Australian Stock Exchange. AVZ said in September it believed China and Congolese companies, including state-owned Cominiere, were ‘acting in concert to crystalise disputes with AVZ and disrupt and delay the development of the Manono Project with the aim of seizing control’. The International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes made orders in AVZ’s favour in January, but the company says the DRC government has failed to comply with them.
In the situation in Mali, Australian company Leo Lithium Ltd agreed in May to sell its stake in the large-scale Goulamina lithium project under development there to China’s Ganfeng Lithium, relinquishing project management. That followed a dispute with the government of Mali and its September 2023 suspension from the ASX. Leo Lithium’s shares were valued at 51 cents at the time of suspension, down from a high as $1.25 in mid-2023, shortly before the dispute emerged. Ganfeng Lithium paid Leo Lithium the equivalent of 43 cents a share. Leo Lithium said the sale was in the best interests of its shareholders in light of ‘challenging’ sovereign and security risks in Mali.
Australia, through its mining companies, has been the largest foreign investor in Mali and neighbouring Burkina Faso. Russian influence in recent years has worsened Mali’s longstanding political instability and driven further deterioration in security for the population and businesses there. Security of mines in West Africa, which the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has sought to support through its annual mine security conference there, has become ugly.
On 30 May, the US government sanctioned companies linked with the Kremlin-controlled Wagner Group operating in Mali and the Central African Republic (CAR), saying ‘Wagner Group personnel have engaged in an ongoing pattern of serious criminal activity, including mass executions, rape, child abductions, and other brutalities against innocents in the CAR and Mali.’ The Wagner Group has taken over several of Mali’s gold mines and allegedly is producing gold to fund the Russian regime.
Market manipulation is another method of coercion. China’s supply chain dominance for several critical minerals gives it the market power to crush competition, as industry leader Angus Barker points out.
China’s investment in low-cost but environmentally harmful nickel laterite mining and smelting in Indonesia has delivered cheap nickel for batteries and stainless steel made in China. This has driven down global nickel prices, threatening the viability of higher-cost but more socially and environmentally responsible nickel production. China’s investment in new lithium mining capacity in Africa and Australia and its domination of processing could distort the market for that battery mineral.
China-linked supply also dominates markets for several other minerals and metals, including rare earths needed for both the global energy transition and defence equipment. Australia’s Iluka Resources highlighted the situation at its recent annual general meeting, with managing director Tom O’Leary saying, ‘There are clear, ongoing efforts, including by Chinese state-owned entities, to extend their nation’s monopoly by controlling Australia’s rare earth deposits.’
China has used its virtual monopoly in rare earths to apply geopolitical coercion. In 2010 it withheld rare earths supply to Japan amid a territorial dispute. This helped to trigger Japanese investment in the Weld Range rare earths project of Lynas Rare Earths in Western Australia.
Recent Australian government crackdowns have targeted the use of some coercive actions. In 2023 the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) rejected a bid by the Chinese company Yuxiao Fund for a higher stake in the Browns Range project in Kimberley, Western Australia, of ASX-listed Northern Minerals. In early June the government sanctioned associates of Yuxiao Fund after discovering they had tried to circumvent FIRB rules in taking up further shares. Just before this order to dispose of shareholdings, Yuxiao Fund had successfully petitioned for removal of Northern Minerals’ executive chairman after he reported the share buying by Yuxiao Fund’s associates.
It has now emerged that Northern Minerals suffered a malign cyber security breach and data theft in March. Coincidence? Possibly. But why was this particular small mining company targeted?
One explanation is that the output of heavy rare earths from Browns Range will be processed at the under-construction Eneabba rare earths refinery operated by Iluka Resources, also a heavy rare earths producer. This will be the only non-China production of this scarce product used in high performance permanent magnets essential to components of defence equipment such as guidance systems.
Rare earths mining and processing proposals in the United States, including the Lynas Rare Earths processing plant in Texas, have been subjected to fake social media attacks in recent years, seemingly designed to stir up local opposition.
Supply chain allies, including Australia, the United States, Britain, the European Union and Canada have taken some steps to counter coercion, but as part two of this article will explain, more concerted action is needed to assure more diverse and secure minerals supply.
www.aspistrategist.org.au
7 Jun 2024|Ian Satchwell
This is the first of two parts of an article on coercive threats to critical minerals supply and what Australia and its critical minerals partners are doing and should do to counter them.
Markets for critical minerals are no longer shaping up to be the next components of the global economy to be dominated by China. They already are.
While Western nations were sleeping, China built vertically integrated supply chains for several critical minerals vital to the energy transition and high technology applications, including defence equipment.
Critical mineral supply chains are increasingly subject to Chinese government manipulation focussed on creating and maintaining monopolies and monopsonies. The scale and scope of this competition is presenting Australia and its partners with significant economic and security challenges. The Australian government’s 2 June divestment order to China-linked entities with shareholdings in rare earths developer Northern Minerals is an example of what will be needed to counter China’s domination of critical minerals supply.
Stricter foreign investment oversight may mitigate some of the more egregious attempts to grab control of minerals projects in Australia. Meanwhile, various coercive behaviours are directly affecting Australian mining interests at home and abroad and threatening growth of more diverse, secure and sustainable critical mineral supply chains. Several recent developments have highlighted the growing intensity of these threats.
The situation is becoming acute in several countries in resource-rich Africa, where Australian companies contributed 29 percent of the continent’s exploration spending for all minerals in 2023. (Canadian companies contributed another 29 percent.) Russia-influenced deterioration of security in several mineral-rich African nations is supporting China’s aspirations.
Two Australian companies, operators of world-scale lithium properties that are being developed into mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Mali, have been edged out by China-based joint-venture partners amid disputes with national governments, plummeting share prices and suspensions from the ASX. Control of the resources will consolidate China’s role as effectively the world’s central banker for lithium: it already controls around 80 percent of processing and an increasing share of global mine production.
The DRC property is the Manono Project, which has the largest hard-rock lithium resource in the world. A dispute with China’s Zijin Mining Group over the project’s ownership has resulted in Australia’s AVZ Minerals being delisted from the Australian Stock Exchange. AVZ said in September it believed China and Congolese companies, including state-owned Cominiere, were ‘acting in concert to crystalise disputes with AVZ and disrupt and delay the development of the Manono Project with the aim of seizing control’. The International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes made orders in AVZ’s favour in January, but the company says the DRC government has failed to comply with them.
In the situation in Mali, Australian company Leo Lithium Ltd agreed in May to sell its stake in the large-scale Goulamina lithium project under development there to China’s Ganfeng Lithium, relinquishing project management. That followed a dispute with the government of Mali and its September 2023 suspension from the ASX. Leo Lithium’s shares were valued at 51 cents at the time of suspension, down from a high as $1.25 in mid-2023, shortly before the dispute emerged. Ganfeng Lithium paid Leo Lithium the equivalent of 43 cents a share. Leo Lithium said the sale was in the best interests of its shareholders in light of ‘challenging’ sovereign and security risks in Mali.
Australia, through its mining companies, has been the largest foreign investor in Mali and neighbouring Burkina Faso. Russian influence in recent years has worsened Mali’s longstanding political instability and driven further deterioration in security for the population and businesses there. Security of mines in West Africa, which the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has sought to support through its annual mine security conference there, has become ugly.
On 30 May, the US government sanctioned companies linked with the Kremlin-controlled Wagner Group operating in Mali and the Central African Republic (CAR), saying ‘Wagner Group personnel have engaged in an ongoing pattern of serious criminal activity, including mass executions, rape, child abductions, and other brutalities against innocents in the CAR and Mali.’ The Wagner Group has taken over several of Mali’s gold mines and allegedly is producing gold to fund the Russian regime.
Market manipulation is another method of coercion. China’s supply chain dominance for several critical minerals gives it the market power to crush competition, as industry leader Angus Barker points out.
China’s investment in low-cost but environmentally harmful nickel laterite mining and smelting in Indonesia has delivered cheap nickel for batteries and stainless steel made in China. This has driven down global nickel prices, threatening the viability of higher-cost but more socially and environmentally responsible nickel production. China’s investment in new lithium mining capacity in Africa and Australia and its domination of processing could distort the market for that battery mineral.
China-linked supply also dominates markets for several other minerals and metals, including rare earths needed for both the global energy transition and defence equipment. Australia’s Iluka Resources highlighted the situation at its recent annual general meeting, with managing director Tom O’Leary saying, ‘There are clear, ongoing efforts, including by Chinese state-owned entities, to extend their nation’s monopoly by controlling Australia’s rare earth deposits.’
China has used its virtual monopoly in rare earths to apply geopolitical coercion. In 2010 it withheld rare earths supply to Japan amid a territorial dispute. This helped to trigger Japanese investment in the Weld Range rare earths project of Lynas Rare Earths in Western Australia.
Recent Australian government crackdowns have targeted the use of some coercive actions. In 2023 the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) rejected a bid by the Chinese company Yuxiao Fund for a higher stake in the Browns Range project in Kimberley, Western Australia, of ASX-listed Northern Minerals. In early June the government sanctioned associates of Yuxiao Fund after discovering they had tried to circumvent FIRB rules in taking up further shares. Just before this order to dispose of shareholdings, Yuxiao Fund had successfully petitioned for removal of Northern Minerals’ executive chairman after he reported the share buying by Yuxiao Fund’s associates.
It has now emerged that Northern Minerals suffered a malign cyber security breach and data theft in March. Coincidence? Possibly. But why was this particular small mining company targeted?
One explanation is that the output of heavy rare earths from Browns Range will be processed at the under-construction Eneabba rare earths refinery operated by Iluka Resources, also a heavy rare earths producer. This will be the only non-China production of this scarce product used in high performance permanent magnets essential to components of defence equipment such as guidance systems.
Rare earths mining and processing proposals in the United States, including the Lynas Rare Earths processing plant in Texas, have been subjected to fake social media attacks in recent years, seemingly designed to stir up local opposition.
Supply chain allies, including Australia, the United States, Britain, the European Union and Canada have taken some steps to counter coercion, but as part two of this article will explain, more concerted action is needed to assure more diverse and secure minerals supply.
China’s control and coercion in critical minerals | The Strategist
This is the first of two parts of an article on coercive threats to critical minerals supply and what Australia and its critical minerals partners are doing and should do to counter them. Markets ...
Dave Evans
Regular
Manono: the erection of a mini dam deprives the inhabitants of water
Manono: the erection of a mini dam deprives the inhabitants of water
The erection of a mini dam on artificial Lukushi Lake in Manono in Tanganyika province, creates a stir. Residents of two surrounding neighborhoods say that the construction of this infrastructure affects riparian communities. Others denounce the non-compliance with the administrative procedure by Manono Lithium.
Indeed, since the beginning of June, the company Manono Lithium has launched construction work on a mini dam. The company registers this initiative as part of its social actions. Nevertheless, Abbé Moise Kiluba, an executive of local civil society who visited the site, is shocked. "The company is building a dike on the river. To date, machines cover part of the river with soil. It traces a road in the middle of the river." Thus, the lake that was supplied with water by this river, has dried up, says this civil society actor. In addition, riparian populations are already experiencing consequences.
"Barzin districts 8 and 7 and the Kanteba city of Manono are deprived of water. And yet, the communities used the lake for all household needs, deplores Valérie Mabala, another actor in civil society. He added: "This artificial lake is also economically vital. People fished there and fish were sold on the local market. »
Read also: https://magazinelaguardia.info/2024...n-des-activites-de-manono-lithium-fait-debat/
What about compliance with standards?
As a result, the construction project of this mini dam is perceived in different ways in Manono. For most of the inhabitants, the erection of the dam did not meet the standards.This is the case of Professor Deogratias Yolola, an expert in environmental governance. "This project could have started with preliminary studies of environmental and social impact. There are thousands of families who experience secondary and tertiary activities related to the presence of this lake. Market gardeners, fishermen, weavers, washers of artisanal mining products." For him, this study was not done.
For his part, Abbé Moise Kiluba, an executive of the Civil Society in Manono, denounces the lack of consultation with the local community. "The company Manono Lithium did not organize consultations before launching its project. This explains the discontent. »
In addition, the company maintains that the lake is in its concession. This is how we fear the total disappearance of this lake in favor of the exploitation of Lithium, he adds.
In the meantime, Manono Lithium has received the approval of the Chief of the Bakongolo Chiefdom for the implementation of his project. In addition, the document authorizing the erection of this mini dam bears the signature of the coordinator of the Regroupement d'intégration chrétienne, RDIC. Also, that of the president of the biker operators. For civil society, these structures cannot prevail in the name of the community. Sources close to the head of the chiefdom indicate that the mini hydroelectric power plant should produce about 2 megawatts.
On the side of the Manono Lithium company, so far, no reaction. We contacted the Company's human resources manager, but he did not wish to speak.
Post in thread 'Manono Lithium Continues To Violate Laws'
https://thestockexchange.com.au/threads/manono-lithium-continues-to-violate-laws.256310/post-426116
Last edited:
They really moving ahead fast with the build. Ignoring all court orders. We need a judgment made that incurs a huge financial penalty ( payable immediately ) otherwise they just won’t stop ( probably wouldn’t stop then either )
Manono: the erection of a mini dam deprives the inhabitants of water
Manono: the erection of a mini dam deprives the inhabitants of water
The erection of a mini dam on artificial Lukushi Lake in Manono in Tanganyika province, creates a stir. Residents of two surrounding neighborhoods say that the construction of this infrastructure affects riparian communities. Others denounce the non-compliance with the administrative procedure by Manono Lithium.
Indeed, since the beginning of June, the company Manono Lithium has launched construction work on a mini dam. The company registers this initiative as part of its social actions. Nevertheless, Abbé Moise Kiluba, an executive of local civil society who visited the site, is shocked. "The company is building a dike on the river. To date, machines cover part of the river with soil. It traces a road in the middle of the river." Thus, the lake that was supplied with water by this river, has dried up, says this civil society actor. In addition, riparian populations are already experiencing consequences.
"Barzin districts 8 and 7 and the Kanteba city of Manono are deprived of water. And yet, the communities used the lake for all household needs, deplores Valérie Mabala, another actor in civil society. He added: "This artificial lake is also economically vital. People fished there and fish were sold on the local market. »
Read also: https://magazinelaguardia.info/2024...n-des-activites-de-manono-lithium-fait-debat/
What about compliance with standards?
As a result, the construction project of this mini dam is perceived in different ways in Manono. For most of the inhabitants, the erection of the dam did not meet the standards.
This is the case of Professor Deogratias Yolola, an expert in environmental governance. "This project could have started with preliminary studies of environmental and social impact. There are thousands of families who experience secondary and tertiary activities related to the presence of this lake. Market gardeners, fishermen, weavers, washers of artisanal mining products." For him, this study was not done.
For his part, Abbé Moise Kiluba, an executive of the Civil Society in Manono, denounces the lack of consultation with the local community. "The company Manono Lithium did not organize consultations before launching its project. This explains the discontent. »
In addition, the company maintains that the lake is in its concession. This is how we fear the total disappearance of this lake in favor of the exploitation of Lithium, he adds.
In the meantime, Manono Lithium has received the approval of the Chief of the Bakongolo Chiefdom for the implementation of his project. In addition, the document authorizing the erection of this mini dam bears the signature of the coordinator of the Regroupement d'intégration chrétienne, RDIC. Also, that of the president of the biker operators. For civil society, these structures cannot prevail in the name of the community. Sources close to the head of the chiefdom indicate that the mini hydroelectric power plant should produce about 2 megawatts.
On the side of the Manono Lithium company, so far, no reaction. We contacted the Company's human resources manager, but he did not wish to speak.
Post in thread 'Manono Lithium Continues To Violate Laws'
https://thestockexchange.com.au/threads/manono-lithium-continues-to-violate-laws.256310/post-426116
Last edited:
Bray
Regular
My comment was satire
As explained before, you cannot dig a large open cut mine so close to this lake.
Manono: the erection of a mini dam deprives the inhabitants of water
Manono: the erection of a mini dam deprives the inhabitants of water
The erection of a mini dam on artificial Lukushi Lake in Manono in Tanganyika province, creates a stir. Residents of two surrounding neighborhoods say that the construction of this infrastructure affects riparian communities. Others denounce the non-compliance with the administrative procedure by Manono Lithium.
Indeed, since the beginning of June, the company Manono Lithium has launched construction work on a mini dam. The company registers this initiative as part of its social actions. Nevertheless, Abbé Moise Kiluba, an executive of local civil society who visited the site, is shocked. "The company is building a dike on the river. To date, machines cover part of the river with soil. It traces a road in the middle of the river." Thus, the lake that was supplied with water by this river, has dried up, says this civil society actor. In addition, riparian populations are already experiencing consequences.
"Barzin districts 8 and 7 and the Kanteba city of Manono are deprived of water. And yet, the communities used the lake for all household needs, deplores Valérie Mabala, another actor in civil society. He added: "This artificial lake is also economically vital. People fished there and fish were sold on the local market. »
Read also: https://magazinelaguardia.info/2024...n-des-activites-de-manono-lithium-fait-debat/
What about compliance with standards?
As a result, the construction project of this mini dam is perceived in different ways in Manono. For most of the inhabitants, the erection of the dam did not meet the standards.
This is the case of Professor Deogratias Yolola, an expert in environmental governance. "This project could have started with preliminary studies of environmental and social impact. There are thousands of families who experience secondary and tertiary activities related to the presence of this lake. Market gardeners, fishermen, weavers, washers of artisanal mining products." For him, this study was not done.
For his part, Abbé Moise Kiluba, an executive of the Civil Society in Manono, denounces the lack of consultation with the local community. "The company Manono Lithium did not organize consultations before launching its project. This explains the discontent. »
In addition, the company maintains that the lake is in its concession. This is how we fear the total disappearance of this lake in favor of the exploitation of Lithium, he adds.
In the meantime, Manono Lithium has received the approval of the Chief of the Bakongolo Chiefdom for the implementation of his project. In addition, the document authorizing the erection of this mini dam bears the signature of the coordinator of the Regroupement d'intégration chrétienne, RDIC. Also, that of the president of the biker operators. For civil society, these structures cannot prevail in the name of the community. Sources close to the head of the chiefdom indicate that the mini hydroelectric power plant should produce about 2 megawatts.
On the side of the Manono Lithium company, so far, no reaction. We contacted the Company's human resources manager, but he did not wish to speak.
Post in thread 'Manono Lithium Continues To Violate Laws'
https://thestockexchange.com.au/threads/manono-lithium-continues-to-violate-laws.256310/post-426116
The majority of the CdL deposit is very close to the lake.
Draining the lake will have 2 effects, it will make access to a much larger part of the CdL deposit possible and it will chase a large portion of the local population away.
As Felix so nicely explained on telly, a win win solution, or as he called it 'une solution gagnant-gagnant'.
And the real DRC local population? Fukkum, we got our $70 million!
Tell me about any fraudulent operation and I step in and take action.
Trust me!
IF it’s gone let’s just get it back to the original split. I know I know, many here will say fuck that we want it all back but that’s NEVER going to happen
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