Fellow Shareholders.
I also was at the AGM and my comments are as follows :-
Firstly, only two of the Directors were present, being Dr. Scrimshaw and Ian Chambers. They were accompanied by our Managing Director, Bardin Davis, the Company Secretary, Philip Randal, and his Deputy Justin. ........ It was stated that the other Directors were asked not to attend as an economy measure, for two live in Honk Kong and one in Melbourne. There were very few shareholders present. Possibly only eight.
All of the Resolutions regarding remuneration and reappointment of Directors were passed with the usual huge margin.
There were the usual presentations by the Chairman and Managing Director. Everything is going well, the project is "shovel ready", Shenghe is strongly supporting the project, they are confident that the world demand for our NDPR product will increase along with it's price. They were surprised that our share price does not reflect this. Everything is great, except they have run out of money because the selling of the Teeside property is taking longer than expected. Mr. Davis said that he expected our mine would start producing in early 2026. Mr. Scrimshaw pointed out that all the members of the board were so confident in the Company's future that they were putting a lot of their own money into the present cash raising.
Regarding the sale of Teeside, the new thinking is that it might be best to divide it into three lots. Might take another six months.
The delay in getting Shenghe's EPCM and full funding proposal has been due to the lengthy and meticulous "Due Diligence" studies that were done by the Chinese Banks. Which included visits to Ngualla and Peak's office in Dar es Salem. Mr Scrimshaw understands that this work has been completed.
The preparing of the legal documentation of the proposed Contract between Peak and Shenghe has taken longer than expected due to the need to have it in Chinese as well as English. Much sending of papers backwards and forwards between Australia and China. The need to make sure that every clause in the Chinese document has exactly the same meaning as in the Australian document. Mr. Scrimshaw expects this work to be complete by Christmas.
Shenghe needs it's Government's approval in order to participate in this venture. To me this is a big worry. What Mr. Scrimshaw said is that he can only go by what Shenghe has said to him, which is that the seeking of approval is underway. He points out that Shenghe are spending much money in taking up all the new shares they are allowed in this current Cash Raising. This indicates some confidence by them that approval will be given.
In answer to a question Mr. Scrimshaw said they were not giving giving priority to advancing the phosphate project, because of the necessity to reserve all cash for the "main game", which is the NDPR rare earth project. However, there was always the chance that some party could come along with the funds to get it fully operational.
It was noted that we are spending Peak's money in preliminary works in advance of Shenghe's own workforce becoming active. Seemingly doing work at our expense that should be part of Shengh's EPCM package and for which they have been given a generous 55% of the profits for 5 years. The complicated answer was that this was probably so, but Peak was under great pressure from the Tanzanian Government to be advancing the project that they had to spend this money.
Then came the angry part of the meeting.
A shareholder - who seemed to know a lot about how companies raise cash - tore into the two Directors. Much was said quickly and with much heat. As I am not at all familiar with this aspect of things the following account may not be accurate.
This Shareholder's view was that the Directors had not looked after the interests of minor investors. Firstly because the new issue was at such a big discount to the then prevailing share price. And secondly because the main issue was to institutions and sophisticated investors, with small investors limited to only $2M in a maximum of $30,000 bites and subject to "scale back". He thought the issue should have been "underwritten" and that it should have included "options".
The strong replies from both Mr. Scrimshaw and Mr. Chambers were that Peak was running out of money and they had to act quickly and have certainty that money could be obtained quickly. They had looked at all possibilities and had taken much advice from Brokers, who said there was currently little appetite from the public for rare earth stock. They were aware that the last cash raising from shareholders in Sept 2021 was not fully subscribed and feared the same would happen again. They were unhappy with the Broker's advice but had to accept it. But also thinking that this new low price of 10 cents would only be temporary. The idea of including "options" was definitely not liked due to the "overhang" on the company in the future.
I hope this summary helps. Readers will have various views on our Director's actions. For myself - my view is that both these Directors have much experience in running companies and raising money. That they are competent people, and have put very large sums of their own money into this cash-raising. So I accept that the did the best they could in the circumstances. It has given me the confidence to apply for new shares to the extent that is possible for me.
Wichetty.
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