* the FOI papers the greens uncovered show that exergen/tata told the Vic and Fed Govt in October 2011 that demo scale plant co-funding with Govt AND a billion tonne LV S7 allocation were pre-conditions for tata power to back the future of the 'brown coal pilbara'.
* despite this, four weeks ago exergen legally bound themselves to build a $50 million demo scale plant in JV with MNM about the BM resource. The precise step they said required an S7 allocation and Govt co-funding to facilitate? But cryptically, they do not say where the demo plant will be built.
* based on the FOI papers it is clear that exergen/tata would not have committed to this step UNLESS they had been assured that the Govt co-funding and S7 allocation they demanded in October 2011 were to be available.
* this suggests that information about both the funding program, and the S7 process, must have become known to exergen/tata BEFORE they signed the BM JV with MNM on 2 July 2012.
* Now exergen/tata could only know these things if they had been promised in private discussions with the Vic and Fed Govt. And we know from the FOI papers and the Herald Sun that private top level discussions have been underway between Govt and exergen/tat for more than a year now.
* the BM JV demo plant build time frame is 2-4 years. the funding ann hits that time scale exactly.
* a week or so ago rfcambrian made it public that they were raising $100 million to fund the exergen demo plant work. again, this step PREDATED the funding ann from last week.
* but it is clear that tata required govt co-funding AND and S7 allocation to move to this step? Which suggests (as I have long suspected) that the S7 allocation is also already in the bag. Will it be the section of the S7 at the gate of loy yang that will link MNM's 600 sq Km of LV tenements to LY? I'd like to be as certain of winning lotto...
* the rules of the funding program make it perfectly clear that only the financially credible, who also have 'partners' who have a 'proven track record' in resources projects need apply.
* who does that sound like it is planned to benefit? struggling juniors looking to get their first project off the ground, or multinational conglomerates who have done hundreds of projects, and can relied to do hundreds more?
The Vic/Fed Government is not so stupid as to make it obvious that they are bending over backwards to get Tata Power into the Vic BC game.
So first in 2012 they ann a likely 'competitive tender' for S7 allocations (one of the key exergen/Tata pre-conditions revealed by FOI)
And then last week we get a 'competitive, merit based' funding scheme ann for the other exergen/Tata pre condition revealed by FOI - co funding of a commercial scale demo project for brown coal upgrade techs.
working out what is really going on here is not rocket science.
the greens worked it out months ago.
the penny is still to drop in some quarters, but it will soon.
and MNM, exergen's coal warehouse in BM and the LV, stands to benefit more than anyone else from all these top level strategic games.
if all this is shown to be right, MNM should be a $1+ stock by the end of 2012.
MNM Price at posting:
11.9¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
