That's fair enough. There may be a change in government which very well may result in new leadership at Cominiere, but it's a big stretch from there to suggest they would attempt to strip AVZ of its license over Manono. For starters, I'm fairly sure that would be illegal.
It's a very different scenario to what happened to MMCS, who breached the terms of their permit by sitting on the resource for several years and doing very little to explore or develop it. They didn't sink a single drill hole during all their years of ownership, despite extensive historic records that indicated exactly what they would find.
The other insurance AVZ has is its top 2 shareholders being from China, the DRC's biggest trading partner. Dathomir owns 10% of AVZ (diluted) + 10% of the Manono Project, combining for 16% of the Project. Huayou own 16% of AVZ (diluted, and should they exercise their options), or 10% of the Project.
Dathomir is ultimately a subsidiary of the Chinese SOE that agreed to invest US$6 billion in mining & infrastructure in Katanga, and Huayou has been in DRC for over a decade and operate several mines in the region.
National relations aside, how would it benefit a new government by upsetting two large corporations that have contributed significantly to the region, with plans to contribute a lot more? Even at a fully diluted SP of 15c (MC of A$350m), their stake in AVZ is worth over A$90m. How would they feel to be told that it no longer exists?
Dathomir would retain a stake in the Manono Project either way, but by removing Klaus and Huayou, they would be getting rid of two entities with proven track records of bringing large resources to mine in the DRC. And at the end of the day, that is all any government should really care about.
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