Ann: Bald Hill Operations and Mineral Resources Update, page-76

Back to the subject of the release. Care & Maintenance of Bald Hill is no surprise and the right thing to do as far as leaving it in the ground until it can make money. Bad news for MIN employees and sympathies for them and their contractors. Mining is a tough business.

But the two things that struck me were the dumping of a new resource estimate out on the market. There hasn't been a new resource calculation done since Tawana in 2017 for Bald Hill, so the numerous owners have been mining and drilling and exploring and doing grade control drilling etc during the operating years of Bald Hill Alliance/Tawana, and then Alita, and then after Liatam Mining's failed first attempt on the second attempt the Chinese buyers defaulted and then Yihe Cleantech Material Limited/Austroid operated and continued to export Li before Jim Chalmers and FIRB stepped in stopped Austroid from acquiring Alita, Rumours swirl about complex corporate structures and effective foreign control and that's probably where the ATO and or ASIC should have stepped in with some transfer pricing investigation, so then MIN brought Bald Hill off the administrators who didn't seem open to any other bidders and MIN acquired the operation. Then the Li price turns again and after much soul searching and hand wringing the decision to close the mine is taken on the 14th Nov 2024

In an incredible coincidence with the mine gates swinging shut, and redundancies being given out, MIN releases a brand spanking new resource estimate for Bald Hill with what must be the last 6-7 years worth of exploration data, I want to give these geos a job, because that is a hell of a thing to put together in the space of a few days!. As others have said - how convenient.




When I dived into the details of the resource statement, the JORC2012 Table 1, and this is really in the weeds and not the sort of thing that many people enjoy, there is detailed info about the collection and treatment of the data and who does what with it. This part stuck out like a bit of a sore thumb.





Now I would imagine that the database would have had quite a bit of data added to it since Tawana days! And the mention of CSA Global ( a well known geological/resource consultancy) also peaked my interest. Is this just a silly case of an innocent copy and paste stuff-up, or a sign of how urgent this new resource estimate was to get out there? I will leave it to others to look at the LinkedIn career history of the Competent Person named, but as soon as you do you will see a history of a very competent resource geologist, and I am not casting any aspersions on her professionalism at all, but there are a couple of glaring co-incidences in the career path of one of the competent people involving ASIC and CSA Global that are fairly unique.

Now the obvious explanation for this fortuitous update of a JORC2012 compliant resource statement in 2024 would be something along the lines of by doubling the size of the deposit (at the same grade as the 2017 resource estimate so completely normal there) and updating the official indicated and inferred resources must give MIN options in the future about a sale or disposal of the asset or even a restart. This sort of last-minute housekeeping should also not be a surprise if there are any state royalty disputes or indeed ATO company tax disputes/transfer pricing allegations outstanding from the previous operations at Bald Hill during the Yihe Cleantech/Mike. Hilariously - and probably in the course of Chris Ellisions dispute with the ATO it seems that the ATO attempted to stick MIN with allegations of unpaid taxes in what could only be viewed as a bit of gamesmanship or posturing by the ATO in their long-running and probably bitter tax dispute with Chris Ellison.

I think I am starting to put together a few theories of possibilities of leaks and possibly some office politics within MIN in the past that will be interesting to see, especially since The Fin Review seems to have a very much of an inside running into the internals of ASIC, and access to various whistleblowers within MIN. Not to mention the tax arrangements of Chris Ellison and his attempt to settle with the ATO somehow evolving into a full-blown ASIC investigation and I am willing to bet that there would be a really interesting turf war story about the ATO and ASIC who have been completely asleep at the wheel for years and are probably starting to feel some political heat from this..