Could one of you post Tommy's article for non-AFR subscribers please. We need a laugh
This article is from the December 12 issue of Australian Financial Review Digital Edition. To subscribe, visit
https://www.afr.com.
Tom Richardson
Suspended lithium explorer AVZ Minerals kept an ownership dispute over rights to 15 per cent of the Manono lithium project – which has access to a major resource of the vital battery metal – hidden from investors for nearly 10 months, new information shows.
The details of the dispute with Congo state-owned miner Cominiere and China’s Zijin Mining reveal AVZ actively sought to dissuade Cominiere from selling the 15 per cent stake to Zijin in a battle for control of what may be the world’s largest lithium deposit.
Over the period AVZ failed to disclose the dispute – July 2021 to May 2022 – the company’s stock, at its peak, rocketed eight-fold to snag a place in the S&P/ASX 200 Index and a near- $4.6 billion valuation.
However, the stock’s suspension since May points to questions around AVZ’s journey into the Congo, where political instability makes for regular disputes over rights to vast deposits of clean-energy resources nickel, cobalt, copper and lithium.
New resources of such ‘‘ future facing’ ’ metals are being sought by Western governments and companies to lessen dependence on China for commodities vital to the decarbonisation of the global energy system.
Chinese state-backed miners dominate the control of supply from the Congo, although US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited in August to pitch US interests.
On August 4 last year, AVZ’s lawyer in Kinshasa wrote to Cominiere to urge it to abandon negotiations to sell a 15 per cent interest in Manono to state-owned Chinese miner Zijin.
However, the plea fell on deaf ears. Zijin said it lawfully registered its 15 per cent stake at Congo’s commerce registry in November last year in exchange for a $US33.4 million payment.
Congo’s Commercial Court of Lubumbashi rejected AVZ’s attempt to have the deal thrown out in November 2021 and January 2022, Zijin said later.
It can also be revealed that Cominiere first wrote to AVZ at its Perth headquarters on July 21 last year to inform it Zijin sought 15 per cent of the Manono project.
AVZ made no mention of the dispute until May this year and now faces multiple legal fights next year related to events it failed to disclose to the market.
The stock’s dream run began to unravel publicly on May 4 when it first acknowledged its claimed rights to Manono had been challenged by Zijin.
The Zijin dispute is set for arbitration in May.
AVZ is in another legal fight against a company called Dathomir Mining in the Congo.
Dathomir is reported to have obtained Congo court orders in December last year to have a deal annulled in which it sold a separate 15 per cent interest in Manono to AVZ for $US20 million in August last year.
AVZ did not acknowledge the tribunal verdict to investors until May 4 this year. It said it believed Dathomir’s claim to be spurious, without merit, and containing fundamental errors.
A further Congo court order in September also favoured Dathomir: it suspended the roughly $US20 million payment until the matter could be resolved by more arbitration. This time, AVZ dismissed the ruling as ‘‘ immaterial’ ’ and said it was not a party to the claim.
It has also dismissed Zijin’s claims as meritless and said it would defend its ownership rights to the two separate stakes worth 30 per cent of Manono.
Many investors who bought shares between July last year and May this year unaware that AVZ had actively engaged in the ownership dispute with Cominiere and Zijin over rights to Manono will fume at the latest revelations.
The company had just $3 million cash in May last year before its stunning run saw it raise $40 million in July that year and another $75 million in December. It said the December capital raising was partly to help it buy the 15 per cent stake from Cominiere, but never disclosed it had been notified the prior July about Zijin’s intention to buy the stake from Cominiere.
The company has declined to answer several questions put to it by The Australian Financial Review. It has also blamed a short research firm named Boatman Capital, the media in general and social media for what it says is misinformation.
Last week, the picture got murkier for the explorer when it disclosed the findings of a Congo government audit by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF). The report concluded Zijin had paid below the market value for its stake in Manono.
Zijin said the finding was incorrect because it did not account for the lower spot price of lithium at the time, or a price adjustment clause to allow the seller (the Congo government) to be properly compensated.
Another revelation is the finding that AVZ’s original agreement to acquire its 60 per cent stake in the Manono project from Dathomir was in violation of a governing joint venture agreement.
AVZ rejected this finding last week and said it held valid legal title to the ownership interest.
Moreover, it still insists it owns 75 per cent of Manono, having acquired the disputed 15 per cent from Dathomir, and it still claims rights to acquire another 15 per cent from Cominiere. This is even as Cominiere appears to have sold that 15 per cent to Zijin.
The IGF audit also found three Manono region mining tenement licences (titled 12436, 12449 and 12450) were illegally transferred by Dathomir as Manono’s holding company some time after 2017.
In January 2019, AVZ disclosed it held rights to mining licences 12436, 12449 and 12450, but in April that year it disclosed the rights had been ‘‘ relinquished’ ’ for unspecified reasons.
In a statement to the market last week, AVZ said nobody at the company had any involvement or prior knowledge of the transfers to any third party.
‘‘ AVZ has undertaken further investigations with respect to the transfer of these tenements and is continuing to cooperate with all competent DRC governmental authorities regarding the findings within the IGF Report,’’ it said.
‘‘ The company further confirms that it is, and continues to be, in compliance with its ASX continuous disclosure obligations and any inference to the contrary is misinformed and misguided.’’
If AVZ does reach a deal to receive its mining licence in the Congo and return to the ASX boards in 2023, investor confidence in its disclosures will be tested. In April this year, investigative media group Africa Intelligence said the Manono site in the remote southeast of Congo had long been the stronghold of the Kabila family.
Dathomir’s owner, Simon Cong, is a Chinese businessman believed to be close to Zoe Kabila, the sister of Joseph Kabila, as Congo’s long-serving ruler until January 2019, Africa Intelligence said.
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