ok tedi / freida

An interesting article in yesterday's Australian 14/3 headed "Png learning not to count all it's chickens before they hatch" dealing with the the png govt playing silly buggers with Ok Tedi by threatening not to renew their licence to mine when it expires or to award it to another party.
Perhaps to us Hig holders the most interesting point was regarding Xstrsta and the possible divestment of part or all of its investment in Freida which has been well flagged. The only holdup to the merger of Glencore/Xstrata is Chinese approval.Ivan Glasenburg (from Glencore) is to be head of the new entity and is no fan of green fields projects.He comes from a trading background and wants results now and is unlikely to wait around for five years to see any return on his money. If Xtarata goes who would be mostly likely to develop it- Ok Tedi/Sustainable Dev Fund who have the expertise or the Chinese who seem to have all the money these days.The trouble is if the Chinese are invited in (say MCC) their starting point would be the 10 year tax holiday they extracted for Ramu - so they are likely to play pretty handball .Perhaps both a combination of expertise and cheap Chinese money. No matter what happens that Png govt should get their act together and " not count their chickens before they hatch".capital will go where it is welcome and there is no shortage of projects waiting to be developed.