Interesting to see XI Jinping continues his constriction hold on Australian trade.
Import figures of Australian copper concentrate into China are now massively down ; China now pulling the lever down of Australian timber, which is a follow up on from coal , banning beef imports from a number of abattoirs, sticking hefty tariffs of lobster and wine; all kicked off after the initial 80% tariff on Australian barley back in ’May’ of this year.
The Chinese have turned the life machine off on Sundance, for the massive Mbalam iron ore project in the Republic of Congo....
All of the above mentioned industries , barley to Coal to Iron ore and all in between are prime contributors to Australian GDP...what are the Chinese up too???
FIRB’s ousting of the Chinese deal back in April, with the excuse being ‘contrary to national interest’ ; leaving the Chinese in a tizzy and accusing the Morrison government of blocking their investment in “a small ASX- listed company with a lithium project in Africa, that has never intended to bring product back to Australia for processing”..that was April.... then the first shots on Australian trade by the Chinese occurred in May.....probably just a coincidence of course...
Considering the grade and size of Manono ; the Chinese could actually end up dropping the bulk if not all of Australia sourced lithium and firing another knee cap shot. Manono and the extension which is 75/100 owned by AVZ, tonnage wise; is likely to dwarf all current combined economical Australian Lithium deposits , including what’s ever left at greenbushes.
Gangfeng are the first to move; but this move sets up a number of possible domino ignitions . Many high end brokers , irrespectively of if members of the company believed in the Manono project or not and even more so with the location factor weighing down on it, wouldn’t have been able to pull the trigger ; but now there’s been a binding OT for such a percentage , the reins on some of those brokers will now have been released , further offtakes / project percentages will release more .. AVZ will also now have a start block percentage that will go towards satisfying at least some financiers ; again another OT for another decent percentage will likely open the gates .... the Chinese have been hard work to date; we’ve seen / read articles where UK, German, Saudi , US funding interest has been group mentioned by Nigel and the clear omission of ‘Chinese’ ....personally I wouldn’t like a Chinese investment fund involved in Manono , Euro or other all the way, as it’s fortifies AVZ more and opens many channels.
Problem to the above is that the Chinese already know this and of course will have taken in those little Chinese omissions in article . The thing about the Chinese is that they can make things happen very quick. Really what’s the only real alternative source of economic hard-rock lithium to Australia Lit ?
AVZs Manono is a massive threat to the acceleration of Australian lithium industry ; is Manono a button that the Chinese would enjoy pressing ...of course.
very interesting times ahead; but not looking good for the Australia economy with our biggest trading partner throwing lego on to date fluffy carpet floor.
I'd love to see the Europeans coming in to fund and AVZ being the vena cava into the worlds lithium processors....but personally I feel that the Chinese will now start to lock in OTs smothering supply to others. Also our ’friends’ Lithium Plus Pty Ltd...with an ABN / registered in NSW of Australia are CATL.... and hold 4.19%; Yibin also ’voluntary’ escrowed until May of 2021 holding 8.32% ..Huayou, the poor forgotten sleepy snippet holding 7.59%..the Chinese already hold 20.1% of the company .
Australian takeover law..the 20% rule states that an entity can not acquire more than 20% voting power without a full takeover bid / scheme of arrangement
again maybe just a coincidence.......FIRB seem to have possibly plugged an hole, but open up a cannon now hole
Personally, I think the Chinese will just take AVZ
![https://hotcopper.com.au/data/attachments/2761/2761784-4de478a49000d27f2630071071fe46fe.jpg](https://hotcopper.com.au/data/attachments/2761/2761784-4de478a49000d27f2630071071fe46fe.jpg)