apg , page-3

Well said benspurgin,

I agree with every point you make.

BHP is no different to any market trader....they drive a hard bargain.

On the matter of license fees I stated some 2 years ago that the fee for a fully proven exclusive technology is 7 %.

BHP is co-funding APG so they will not be paying that amount.
Because it is non exclusive in Africa they will get an even bigger discount (even though for all intents and purposes since the are so big they will dominate the market and therefore have exclusive use)

All this is normal practice in the world of business deal making.( my uninformed guess is that APG will get 3.5 % )

BHP is insisting that APG continue to contribute funds........they do this because it is the simplest test to see if APG has a viable business model......Do APG investors believe enough to stump up funds !

There is much company wisdom/knowledge in the development to date at Newcastle........BHP would not like to loose that.
We can be thankful that there is company loyalty/commitment amongst the APG employees.

That said we should remember that if BHP could push us to the wall they probably would......thats business.....they would then get the technology cheaply........but maybe not the brains behind it.

I think that BHP will be happy to let the "incubator" continue to do its work ......and apply the "stress" test every now and then.