There are a number of different Environmental licence requirements for exploration and mining in Mozambique.
Each stage of activity requires a different form of licence ie- (a)exploration (non mechanised), (b)exploration (using earth moving equipment),(c) Drilling, (d)mining stage, all require environmental licence before any work can be conducted.
It is possible to conduct basic non mechanised exploration while awaiting formal approval of an already lodged Environmental licence application, as i believe TON must have done recently.
Assuming that TON have engaged a licenced professional consulting firm to take care of the required Environmental issues, i would expect that TON will have no problem at all in gaining the required Environmental licences for the mechanised exploration and drilling program within 8 weeks of application being made, as i mentioned above, as TON has recently conducted some field exploration i would assume that these applications were lodged around the same time that the exploration commenced and therefore IMO expect formal approvals within the next 2 weeks or so.
I don't believe TON have any problem at all in relation to the issue of titles, the delay you refer to is not really a delay, just normal Mozambique Mining Dept processing time, if you do not push thing along on a weekly basis it is normal to wait 12mths for title, as TON have local consultants liaising with the Mines Dept on regular basis outstanding titles IMO will be issued in the near term, (impossible to say 1 day, 1 week, 1 month), however if i had to go out on a limb and give a time frame i would say that within the next 4 weeks TON will have further titles issued.
TON is just one of many hundreds of mining and exploration companies awaiting titles to be issued, if all processes are followed correctly when making the initial application issue of title is a formality, i have never seen a correctly submitted licence application rejected once accepted for processing, i have seen licences cancelled for non performance issues but that is a completely different story.
I think that "Proof of concept" is a fair comment as TON purchased the Aero data and then had the interpretation done, from this they identified priority target areas and then put someone on the ground to se what was there, as announced the "someone on the ground" found substantial outcropping in both areas of interest.
No one can say how much overburden may cover any Graphite Mineralisation on any of the TON licences at this stage, what i can say is that IMO the recent findings (outcropping) at both Balam & Ancuabe is as good a news any anyone could have hoped for at this stage of the game.
I dont know why everyone is so hung up on outcropping, of course it is great to find this/have this, makes things that much easier but a little unrealistic to expect all the goodies to be just jutting out of the ground waiting for some geo to kick his toe on. Based on what TON aero data shows there is every possibility that they will have just as much mineralisation as found to date 7-8kms undercover, how deep??, who knows at this time, IMO probably no too deep.
As far as i know the new mining law legislation has not been enacted yet. IMO, no doubt it will be some time this year, i dont see any problem for mining and exploration companies from this.
I think that it is reasonable to expect that the Mozambique Government will/already does require some minority holding in larger energy related mining projects within Mozambique, i dont know if this will relate to SYR or TON type projects.
TON by way of it's JV with Grafex does already have a local content although at this time that is not an official requirement.
As you know i have always been a big believer in TON and it's Graphite project, of course there are unknowns but if there weren't the SP would not be at 0.065, when comparing to Syrah or Sovereign Metals projects TON has everything going for it that these do with one big difference, SYR-SP = $1.75, SVM-SP = 0.30, and TON = 0.065
TON has a very large tenement holding, has already found extensive Graphite outcropping, now we just need things to come together ie- good drill results, robust Graphite market, strategic alliance with an end user and the sky is the limit at 0.065 as good a punt as any, and lets face it any stock at any price is a punt at the end of the day.
I'm buying more TON today.
TON Price at posting:
6.5¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
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