The 2 million dollar deposit would make it very difficult for them to legally back out without significant compensation to FFX if they did.
This is why we say binding offtakes alone are not worth the paper they are written on, cash makes any business transaction a lot more real in the eyes of the law.
(Note: not a lawyer, not advice etc)
Theres no reason to believe the halt is for anything other than allowing both FFX and Gangfeng holders to be presented with the information at the same time prior to trading again. Just like when the deal was announced, it first went out to Chinese media, then a small halt for us to allow FFX to filter through aussie channels, then resumption of trading.
We are dealing with different time zones etc and if not handled correctly we could have a situation where people overseas know details of the ANN and are trading based on the outcome before us (or vice versa).
FFX Price at posting:
57.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held