Fouad Haidar, The Market Online: Magnum Mining and Exploration has entered into an agreement to take up a 50% share ownership of Midmetal with intent to construct and operate a Pig Iron production facility in Saudi Arabia. To find out more about this I'm joined by Magnum CEO, Neil Goodman. Welcome on board Neil. Neil, tell us about the news.Neil Goodman, CEO Magnum Mining & Exploration: So this agreement cements the solid relationship we have with our Saudi partners. So Magnum will now be part of Midmetal going forward. We'll have a seat at the table when we're in negotiations with the Saudi government and other investors in the Pig Iron project.Haidar: What will the scope of this JV with Midmetal be? Can you walk us through that.Goodman: It's not going to be a JV per se, it'll be a true partnership. So Magnum will own 50% of Midmetal, and our Saudi partners will own the other 50%. We originally intended to form a JV, but our partners in Saudi suggested we work more directly together and we agreed.Haidar: How do you believe this will affect magnum's timeline and strategy if so.Goodman: Well, the strategy is unaffected but this has the potential to speed things up as we’ll now be talking directly to Midmetal’s investors and not through a JV intermediary. This means we're going to be in the same room as the Saudis and the government, and all the investors, and all the decisions we make will be made in a single meeting.Haidar: We’re just a few weeks away from the end of the Quarter. What are the next steps from here?
Goodman: With the Saudis the next steps are to follow up some initial discussions we had last month with various investors for the remaining 50% to the Pig Iron plant. We're talking to 3 or 4 potential partners for this.Haidar: Neil, any final thoughts for investors before we wrap up.Goodman: We're still making progress on all three businesses. The Iron Ore in the in the US, we have 7 or 8 companies still doing Due Diligence. Bit slower than we want, but still ongoing. The Pig Iron plant in the Middle East is ongoing. We just discussed that. But also we’re looking at the Biochars in Southeast Asia. And I think the Biochar plants, that's going to be our next area of concentration. And it should offer the fastest track to production and cash flow, as they have the lowest capital cost of all options. We’re talking to several interested investors in Southeast Asia later this month.Haidar: There’s quite a bit happening there, for sure. Neil Goodman, thank you so much.Goodman: Thank you
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