Wanker Tommy back on the keyboard.
AVZ stays suspended, rejects allegations
Tom Richardson
Markets reporter and commentator
Dec 15, 2022 – 4.20pm
Perth-headquartered lithium explorer AVZ Minerals has blamed third parties for attempting to diminish the credibility of the company and its management as the $2.6 billion miner marks its seventh month of sharemarket suspension.
It also said it retains legal title to a 75 per cent interest in the Manono Project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with the tenement regarded as the world’s largest untapped lithium deposit.
“The company has been the subject of a hostile third-party campaign, run by parties seeking to acquire an interest in the world-class Manono Project through questionable and irregular means,” AVZ said on Thursday.
Management also disclosed it faces court cases with Zijin Mining as the owner of Jin Cheng Mining and DRC mining group Dathomir Mining.
The legal blues are over ownership rights to separate 15 per cent stakes in the Manono Project equal to 30 per cent of the project.
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On Monday, The Australian Financial Review revealed that DRC state-backed mining body Cominiere wrote from Lubumbashi to AVZ on July, 21, 2021 to inform it that Zijin Mining sought to buy a 15 per cent stake in Manono.
AVZ’s Kinshasa-based lawyer wrote to Cominiere on August 4, 2021, to object to the proposed Zijin deal and remind Cominiere of its obligations. It also told Cominiere it was still interested in buying the 15 per cent stake.
In a statement on Thursday, AVZ conceded it sought to dissuade Cominiere from selling the 15 per cent stake to Zijin “around July/August 2021” and said it never disclosed the matter as it considered the claim “spurious in nature, without merit, containing fundamental and material errors, and as having no substance in fact or law”.
Zijin says it acquired the 15 per cent stake from Cominiere for $US33.4 million in November 2021 and has sound legal title.
AVZ did not disclose the Zijin dispute until May 2022. The matter is now scheduled to go to the International Court of Arbitration in May 2023.
AVZ further said on Thursday it didn’t disclose a December 2021 DRC court ruling related to Dathomir’s 15 per cent ownership rights, as it also considered the ruling “spurious” with no foundation in fact or law.
Suspension extended
Shares in the group rocketed between July 2021 and May 2022 to a peak valuation near $4.6 billion. As a result of its suspension in May, the company was removed from Australia’s flagship S&P/ASX 200 on September 2, 2022.
The stock will remain suspended until January 31 or an earlier announcement, the company added on Thursday. It said the sharemarket limbo is related to the finalisation of its mining license application in the DRC.
A historical Mineral Resources and Reserves (JORC) estimate put the Manono Project as containing 401 million tonnes of lithium hard rock at a lithium oxide grade of 1.65 per cent. AVZ raised $115 million in two capital raisings in financial 2022 to help finance the project’s development and execution of ownership rights.
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