It's just too funny isn't it. And as it turns out , you couldn't write a better script of so called ' Irregularities '
Apart from having an SISP process which has gone way beyond what I would defined as a ' reasonable time-frame to conclude You wouldn't think that the fact that Gauthier who comes out in an Interview on Sunday ( Quebec Time ) and before any comments are communicated from the Monitor in regards their rejected BID......starts waffling on about how the NAL bid was a missed opportunity for processing anything but Lithium and for their higher margins .....and basically concludes his references to this project by effectively sledging the whole concept of using the 3,500 tonnes per day concentrator at NAL to produce Lithium. I mean what a great way to ' Wind BID's ' and ' Influence Quebec ' that you're BID is pretty much going to put other minerals ahead of the actual Deposit and Lithium HUB proposition. And he virtually confirms this by stating that you can't choose the location of the Deposits but you can with the Plant. And that pretty much confirms that he is NOT interested in the ' poorer ' quality Lithium ....and that is because he doesn't have the higher quality lithium from the Authier Deposit or the strategy to improve it.
What a shame or should I say sham .....with all his alleged ' New ' ultrasound technology , he can't even come up with a plan to improve the desired output and quality of the La Corne Lithium operations.....
And the potential conflicts of Interests don't stop here folks.
Seems one of the other Directors of CAN is also the President of Auxico Resources - Mark Billings. And of course Mark was appointed as Chief Financial Officer of the cannabis Company Relevium who seems to have had some problems with their financial affairs more recently with regards to their disclosure obligations and filings of their financial statements for the first Quarter ending September 30 2020 and have been subjected to a cease trading order ( or MCTO ) which was in place right up until l January 15th 2021 .
So apart from blaming the lack of timely submission of both their 30 June financial statements and their first Qtr operating statements on the lame excuse of they were changing Auditors and so had an additional ' Learning Curve ' associated with this. What.......were they work experience Auditors ......
They of course used this excuse together with the stock standard excuse of delays resulting from COVID-19 .....yada yada ....LAMO. So not is there this apparent competency aspect , they also would seem to have the same pattern - different Industry of jumping off their core business of cannabis products and online distribution ( good mix ) to that of magically importing a new line of PPE gloves mainly into the US from their so called Canadian online distribution partners.
So much in the same way as CAN wants to strip down NAL core Lithium producing operations to produce ' Other ' non related and higher margin minerals , this Billings fellow would seem to also be all over the shop with another company's core activities gone wrong and as a ' Finance Guy ' specifically responsible for the Financial Reporting or lack thereof ....with a Harvard degree no less , can't even seem to submit his company's financial statements in a timely manner.
Oh well nothing to see here ......and certainly no irregularities or conflicts of interest or lack of confidence on the Financial and / or operating competency side of things......
Interesting as well , the obvious Hypocrisy of CAD and SRG mentioning in the Article that NAL has been awarded to an ' Australian ' company.......
So if we look closer at these ' conflicts ' of interest more closely between the clear agenda he Gauthier spoke about , we can see from their ( CAN's ) website that they are specifically geared mostly to their foreign subsidiary's in the same way that Sayona has established a dedicated Quebec subsidiary for it's Interests in North America.
" CAN leverages its foreign subsidiaries and partnerships to access large-scale mineral deposits and reserves for the purpose of developing Candian plants for the processing of energy metals. "
And does CAN still own its Santa Anita property in Guatemala ? Because I know it wasn't all that long ago ( 5 years ) that Gauthier made this comment :-
" CAN holds the mineral rights to the Rio Negro property, which is estimated by Cominco Resources to contain 25 million tons at 1.6% nickel. CAN continues to negotiate the purchase of more properties in Latin America."
We also know that Auxico is primarily tied to its operations in :-
Colombia, Brazil, Mexico and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
And moving onto SRG who predominantly operates out of West Africa and NOT Quebec speaks volumes as well about the Hypocrisy in singling out another fellow Commonwealth and Allied Nation in Australia. At least we have the same common directive and imperatives which are clearly aligned with Canada's good neighbor the US of A.
Then there is the potential conflict of interest which may possibly stem from one of SRG's Directors Marc Filion who was Chairman of SOQUEM from 1999 - 2006. So nothing to see here except the fact that SOQUEM is a subsidiary of Investment Quebec and had done much of the early Geological work concerning Lithium showings and findings in Quebec over decades including the period of his tenure.
O.K so we could go deeper and deeper , and I'm sure we would find other so called ' irregularities ' with these other wannabee concerns .....but the main point I interpret from this latest article is the fact that Sayona's BID may have in actual fact been $60 - $63 million difference to that of CAN's $169 million instead of what has been asserted in actual numbers. Not only that , the BID of circa $100 million could in fact be structured for I.Q and Quebec in a very different manner to that which CAN is claiming. And I say this because Sayona's latest announcements specifically reference the deal as being ' in agreement ' with I.Q and NOT specifically anyone else which would be rather obvious because they are most likely being paid out entirely.
So for instance this could mean that there is almost a deal within a deal in that Sayona is offering to pay out 100% of the OTHER impleaded parties PLUS make good on the MERN restoration and environmental deposit while at the same time coming to a separate and agreed 5 year arrangement with I.Q which will best preserve Quebec's longer term investment and returns from this project......instead of simply trying to pick up the NAL operations for a discounted figure to turn your own agenda in making a ' quick buck ' from other materials other than Lithium. . really $100 million but at the same time may or may not be represented in different ways and different structures.
And what business would it be of CAN or SRG to even know or be privy to the actual workings of Sayona / Piedmonts BID for NAL. And what's more ....even before the Court has had time to go through its due process with Raymond Chabot who is the Court Appointed Monitor responsible for this matter. And all of this not even being expected to be heard by the Court until next in regards the conclusion if any of the SISP process. And i know the story is clearly already out there , but the TERMS in so far as Sayona and it's Shareholders are NOT.
So the fact that they ' Blowhards ' are mouthing off about dollar figures associated with Sayona's BID and at the same time precipitating , preempting, and inciting potentially public slander accusations and potentially misleading information before the matter has even been heard by Quebec's Authorities and their legal processes is quite concerning in itself.
So long and then short of it .....
, and in response to
@tiko 's question. I think we will gain a lot more understanding of where the whole thing is likely to go next when the Monitor reports next week. Because the only way the process can be intervened and / or objected to is through the actual process being the SISP. Will it be extended so as to ratify the finer details ......if so will it be extended for Court sitting times during the summer break period or will it be held over until the National Assembly resumes on September 14th ......OR will it ( the SISP ) be terminated ......or indeed will it be indicated that they have determined a FINAL successful candidate.
So given all this obvious ' New ' speculation and potential media furore that CAN and SRG have seemingly intentionally created , they will most likely have to state something more ' official ' sooner than later I would think.
Stay tuned I guess.
(20min delay)