Yep, I'll be there nutcracker, at both presentations.
The Mali Mines Minister is having a ball, travelling the world to all the Western conferences, 5 star hotels, first class airfares, chauffeur driven cars, free phones and equipment, the best expensive restaurants and champagnes - all on the poor old Mali taxpayer.
Have you seen how broken and poor that nation is - what a rort the minister is perpetuating. And the government only controls half the country (just).
So why would the minister want all the exorbitant travel and food and accommodation and freebies to stop, they want to string it out as long as possible, conference after conference, being shown around like royalty. It's a joke. But this is exactly why MLL has not received all it's permits yet, and why the process is so long, and so many people are involved in the Mali government chain, they all want their cut.
Chris seems like a nice bloke, so I'm sure he's aware of this.
Behind the scenes, the Malian government ministers will be contacting countries like China to see what other goodies they can extract from mining agreements with them. In other words, they play both sides. They will infer to MLL that if they get off-takes and agreements with certain companies or countries, then the Mali ministry will look favourably on the Goulamina project. In other words, they want the royalty treatment and money from both MLL and Chinese companies, and probably finance companies as well (so they actually play 3 or 4 sides at once - because greed has no limitations). This is how government and politics work, not only Africa, but almost everywhere.
There is only one bottom line.
This has gone from 85 cents to 10 cents, and in the process had 3 boards and all the ructions.
I wish Chris well, and think he represents MLL very well, the best CEO it has had. He's nice, and rightfully deserves to be successful and respected.
Gw
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