all positive, page-12

Yes it's would be great to see announcements like that. Practical and functional.

These are the boring type of announcements we need to see that shows that progress is happening. It's going to be slow and steady steps that get us to where we want to go not one big fix all announcement or event.

People have too high an expectation for a boomer announcement that solves all the problems and gives an instant fix, I don't think that will happen or is realistic,

The company seems reluctant to announce "boring " things because everyone seems to get a bit disappointed. That's natural because we all know what we want announcement but that us probably not realistic in the short term. But for shareholders to feel like we are being informed they need to announced this mundane stuff so we do know what's happening.

To me the fundamental decision held in the COA was that the processes and procedures and even requirements set down in the Mining and Minerals Act and the other legislation governing customary land, specifically the Lands and Titles Act was, in the case of Isabel either partially complied with, circumvented or straight out ignored and that this was not going to be tolerated in any measure. Not the slightest departure from the strict letter of the law will be contemplated.

In the Case of SMM they were arguing that they should have been allowed to seek judicial review of the decision by the SIG to cancel their LOI. Commissioner Brown had previously said that this was an abuse of the courts because the argument didn't belong in that particular court. The COA disagreed with this and confirmed that SMM should have been able and be able to seek a Judicial Review of that issue.

BUT

They also found that the Mines and Minerals Act specifically says that you can't have more than 3 prospecting licences unless you have a ML or started mining on one. Their view was very narrow that regardless that SMM should have been able to have a judicial review on the matter it was irrelevant because the SIG government should never have accepted their Tender and issued an LOI in the first place. Absolute certainty that you can't have more than 3.

AVQ argued that they had a lease with the registered owners of the land and as such that lease and in fact the Title itself were indefeasible because they were registered and they could rely on that fact and the Title could not be undone.

The COA again went back to its view that the legislation around these issues is not open to any variance and must be complied with exactly. The court made comment that the legislation regarding customary land has strict procedures in place to protect the landowners and that any variances defeats the purpose of the legislation.

The court specifically pointed out that the Lands and Titles Act does not contemplate the transfer OR lease of any customary land to any other entity other than the commissioner of lands. The commissioner of lands then on leases the land to the end user such as a mining company. The process of trying to convert the customary land to registered title and then lease it to AVQ was not within the bounds of the legislation and was therefore unwound and nullified. The court also referenced that the procedures for a correct procurement of an SAA could not possibly have been undertaken in view of the short timeline.

So IMO the court didn't say there was a clerical error by the SIG or an admin oversight it was saying that there are strict processes and systems in place to deal with customary land and the eventual use of that land and they must be followed to the letter with no room for short cuts or trying to find loopholes.

The system of dealing with Mining concessions was put up by another poster extracted from the Mines and Minerals Act and basically is.

Government calls for Tender
Govt talks to landowners about the tender
Tender is selected
LOI is issued that gives the successful tenderer 12 months to negotiate an SAA.

The SAA is not a matter of signing the people up that you think to be the landowners or who it would be most convenient to be the landowners. The SAA process involves calling meetings and making a proper and exhaustive investigation into who the landowners are and then engaging them or more specifically their chosen representatives. Then, there is an appeals process to accommodate those that feel that they were wrongfully excluded or to challenge any of the findings. Then, after that is hopefully resolved an SAA can be signed and submitted to the government who if happy then issue a PL.

This won't be a short process and you probably get 12 months to do this under your LOI because it can take that long.
No matter what the SIG change about the tender process they won't be able to change the way the customary land is dealt with.
I don't understand why people are saying they believe we will have a PL back in a few weeks. I can't see how this is remotely feasible because I can't see any chance that the SIG will skip any of the steps they are required to undertake after the COA wrap over the knuckles that they got.

I also can't see any possiblity that SMM can apply for the tenement either. the COA was absolutely crystal clear that you can only have 3 tenements and that the SIG should never have accepted their tender in the first place. So even if they decided to apply there is zero chance IMO that SIG would even consider accepting their tender, again because of the COA reprimand.

AVQ may have the inside running on Isabel because of our history and progress to date but we will still have to go through all the hurdles. If SMM do wish to still stir the pot or interfere I would think its unlikely they would apply directly for the tenement but they may cause the SAA appeals process to be a painful experience that will chew up yet more time.

I think the move the San Jorge is sensible and probably something to sink our teeth into while we progress isabel through the maze of approvals.

The PFS is a good thing to my mind. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks about the numbers. Over positive people think it's too low with plenty of upside, negative people think it's too high with lots of downside. Doesn't matter. It ONLY matters what's on the report. It's like getting your house valued, doesn't matter what you think its worth or what your mate thinks its worth, it only matters what the Valuer puts down in his report. RM now has a valuation that says its worth US$188million and that will give him something to leverage with.

It will give him something to entice support while we move through the approval process that will probably take longer than we think because after the COA decision not even the smallest step in the process is going to be skipped.

The company needs to settle in and grind away at working up San Jorge and also working through the application processes at isabel. This is looking like what they are doing but we should expect a fairly lengthy period and pretty mundane announcements.

Holders need to realign their thinking to one of being happy with slow and steady progress starting from now.

Those that have been in it for a long time will be used to waiting but will be happy to see progress and chipping away towards the result rather than going in circles and waiting sitting on our hands.






.Cheers
DJM