They have been instructed by the ICSID and the ICC not to do any work on the tenements. They have been warned. Any loss is on them.
AVZ Discussion 2022
- Thread starter GazDix
- Start date
Daz,
My understanding is that Zijin knowingly entered into an agreement that is fraudulent - The JV Agreement has not been published and they have not completed the DFS as required by the Mining Code. Both the ICC and ICSID have basically said that progress in Manono needs to stop and they are progressing.
So they will reap what they sow - and they may even be doing the heavy lifting for us.
I wait with baited breath to see the outcome.
Regards,
SilentOne.
Carlos Danger
Top 20
The ICSID have not issued any stop work orders to Zijin, Cominiere or Manono Lithium in regard to 15775. They ‘declined to deal with title to the northern area on an interim basis because doing so could affect the interests of a third party to the proceedings (ie Manono Lithium SA), which will be dealt with on a final basis as part of the broader ICSID proceedings.’
The ICC ordered Cominiere "not to take any steps to explore and exploit, directly or indirectly, the mining reserves within the perimeter of PR 13359 and PR 15775”. Which has clearly been breached.
It is unknown if the DFS was completed by Manono Lithium. AVZ’s official announcement on this issue states that ‘it is highly implausible that Manono Lithium has fully and properly complied with the requirements of the DRC Mining Code for the grant of such a permit in the time since it, in AVZ's view, invalidly acquired PR 15775’, which I agree with. Saying they didn’t is misleading although legally irrelevant as the termination of the Dathcom JVA which the subsequent partial sale of resulting in the purported creation of 15775 was done unlawfully imo
Yes, and it gets even more complex and intractable with each passing day as Manono Lithium digs itself deeper into PR 13359.
In the near future, regardless of arbitral rulings and DRC mining code Zijin will be mining, processing and shipping stolen spodumene back to China...and they will be impossible to remove.
Nothwithstanding these complexities, these corrupt shit-eaters will not negotiate a fair settlement for CDL because they have immunity thanks to the corrupt fat man in the blue Amani and a whole conga line of equally-corrupt officials.
Their intention is to delay and stall at every opportunity in order to starve AVZ out of the game.
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I agree with what you say however 15775 in wholly contained within 13359. So how can working on 15775 not be subject to the ruling? Also what happened to the tailings? the underlying tenement, according to grahame johnston owns the right to exploit them. Interesting times ahead.
Carlos Danger
Top 20
It is subject to the ICC ruling. Just not the ICSID ruling on the current interim basis as it could affect the interests of a third party ie Manono Lithium. This is the loophole 9card warned us about many moons ago before he was silenced which is legally valid despite Outcast's tears on this matter at the time.
Extremely likely it will be subject to the final ruling by the ICSID if it gets that far as the purported termination of the Dathcom JVA is
unlawful as it was attempted without valid grounds and in a manner contrary to the express terms of the Dathcom JVA specifically Article 11.1 imo
Yes, back to basic principles:
If the termination of the Dathcom JV is ruled illegal or invalid, then every side contract and agreement hanging off the termination should also be invalid and unwound.
I wanna be a fly on the wall when they try unwinding their spaghetti bowl of corrupt side deals, and turn on each other with machetes.
Samus
Top 20
Now I'm not claiming to be Nostradamus but if there isn't some serious political pressure put on the DRC I forsee a future where the DRC loses both ICC and ICSID arbitrations and they still couldn't give a fuck. And we'll be in for many a long year trying to recover the damages from them.
It's now clear that the entire country is rotten with corruption from the ground up and the elite only care about their own short term wealth.
It seems like our best hope is that Western powers can put the pressure on with the Lobito Corridor project and that not all of the DRC political class are happy to be beholden to China for the foreseeable future.
We haven't really had any evidence that AVZ problems will be linked to that deal though and lithium only being one aspect of Congolese mineral wealth required by the west. It's a matter of if the west will allow the Chinese to dominate and control the lithium market by stealing Manono.
Carlos Danger
Top 20
Exactly. It won’t be that hard to unwind with a willing government. But the words ‘disadvantageous to the republic’ are our biggest problem in getting them to comply with external arbitration decisions. Hopefully the DRC Supreme Court does the right thing in the end if needed.
Then there will be the small matter of the Dathcom waiver submission to overcome. Which based on available public evidence I don’t like our chances of winning. Although if I’m right that should go to the tender process under the mining code and not straight to Zijin / Manono Lithium as the haters will claim. Let’s hope AJN don’t apply again lol
But as if the DRC government will have a fair process for that if it ends up going back to them. They want China to control a significant portion of the tenement otherwise no battery plants in country is what they have been told imo. Either way the key thing to remember is that the north was never Cominiere’s to sell off and they will be held responsible for their illegal actions unless CKK grovels like the little bitch that he is to Nigel and begs for forgiveness imo
Mate, I too am perplexed about the West's silence about Manono, given its geo-political importance. What are the yanks and Europeans thinking when they bang on relentlessly about cobalt and other new age minerals and link them to their national interests, but somehow forget about the single most important source of high grade lithium on the planet. While lithium may be rather plentiful globally, Manono's quality and scale is not replicated anywhere else.
And don't get me started on our federal government's silence and apparent lack of interest in AVZ and Manono. In 2020, the FIRB blocked Yibin Tianyi Lithium from taking a 24.99% stake in AVZ Minerals on the basis of national interest, but since then...absolute radio silence while AVZ is abandoned to fight alone.
Cheers
F
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TheCount
Regular
ACT is wholly within NSW, different territory..
But we have logic in our Country, they, sadly do not.
I wish your observation was true!
and fucking gorgeous !
Frank
Top 20
China is oversupplying lithium to eliminate rivals, US official says
Chinese lithium producers are flooding the global market with the critical metal and causing a “predatory” price drop as they seek to eliminate competing projects, a senior US official said on a visit to Portugal that has ample lithium reserves.
Jose Fernandez, under secretary for economic growth, energy and the environment at the US Department of State, told a briefing late on Monday that China was producing much more lithium “than the world needs today, by far”.
“That is an intentional response by the People’s Republic of China to what we are trying to do” with the Inflation Reduction Act – the largest climate and energy investment package in US history valued at over $400 billion, Fernandez said, adding:
“They engage in predatory pricing… (they) lower the price until competition disappears. That is what is happening.”
China accounts for about two-thirds of the world’s lithium chemical output, which is mainly used in battery technologies including for electric cars.
Prices of lithium have fallen more than 80% in the past year largely due to overproduction from China and a drop in demand for electric vehicles.
However, the price collapse is also affecting China as it has forced Chinese companies like battery giant CATL to suspend production at certain mines.
Job cuts
Europe aims to reduce its dependence on imports from China and other countries of lithium and other materials essential to the green transition.Fernandez said the low price “constrains our ability to diversify our supply chains on a broad, global scale” and also hurts countries such as Portugal that need investment to develop these industries.
Falling prices have forced many global lithium producers to scale back production and cut jobs.
Portugal, with some 60,000 tons of known reserves, is already Europe’s biggest producer of lithium, traditionally mined for ceramics.
Along with neighbouring Spain, the country wants to take advantage of local lithium deposits, aiming to cover the entire value chain from mining and refining to cell and battery manufacturing to battery recycling.
Several mining companies in Portugal have been looking for financing, customers and suppliers to crank up projects.
“We want to help them, and we think we can… lithium mining companies, everywhere, have to survive this difficult phase that was created by predatory pricing,” Fernandez said.
China’s Premier Li Qiang in June used his address at a World Economic Forum meeting in Dalian to hit back at accusations from the United States and EU that Chinese firms benefit from unfair subsidies and are poised to flood their markets with cheap green technologies.
Trade tensions intensified last Friday when the European Union said it would press ahead with hefty tariffs on China-made electric vehicles to counter what it sees as unfair Chinese subsidies, after a year-long anti-subsidy investigation. China on Tuesday imposed temporary anti-dumping measures on imports of brandy from the EU.
mining.com
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Carlos Danger
Top 20
This is why no one is helping us. Even if we win 100% of our offtakes go to China at a discount to market rate which will still be manipulated by China. Only difference if AVZ control Manono is we will get a cut and there is the possibility of changing offtake partners in 3 to 5 years.
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