Alexandre Mbiam: Laying of first stone in Q4 2023, page-114

That is the billion-dollar question. I wouldn't be so sure Baowu won't commit just because they have 2 x blocks at Simandou (or 20% from memory). Strategically, China (via Chinese SOE) are positioning themselves to capitalize on this resource growth Africa will see in the coming decades. IO is a huge play for China (we know the GeoPol issue) and having multiple options will be important to them IMO. Simandou has the reputation with Rio driving but having Michael Ma and Tsingshan onboard is huge. Ding and Ma all run in the same circles (as these big Chinese SOE's) and all these big boys will know what is coming. Tsinghan taking 10% of the total output with options to take up to 50%. IMO when Baowu sign (50% of all the IO) Tsinghan with confirmed they will take the other 50% and alas there is the additional 7-8 billion needed. All speculation but that is how I see this playing out.

I think these multitude of ANN point to something big i.e. maybe Baowu wouldn't sign until power/engineering and exploration contacts had been signed... Baowu are publicly listed so there will be hoops to jump thought to secure funding from them. But i mentioned in a previous post how much they would potentially save PA by signing this deal (multiple that by 10 years or 25 years and or 50 years). To me, it is a no brainer from Baowu. But as I said I think it is a tedious take to secure their funds.

And @DVEous raises a very good point. This SDL pre-discovery issue as well as the ICC hearing needs to be sorted out. Would Baowu want to commit with this hanging over ANS and both African states? Potentially not.