Ok, watched the webinar and to be honest it just gave me an overwhelming feeling we had been transported back about 10 years and will start again!
There seemed a lot of fluff about corporate difficulties with separate entities etc but adamant Todd had not failed. Hmmm, then why are they not proceeding with the much lauded infrastructure agreement (It was clear from the start that all assets would be required to support the total development and PIOP for example would be significant piece of the security puzzle, not hard to tie in different names).
(By the by, I was surprised no one texted a question asking if any remaining directors would refund their exertion fees for their efforts in selling us nothing!
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So from here we start a (relatively) small trucking operation to Port Headland (as long as it is economic) to generate cash flow.
Obviously an expensive BFS would not be required for such an operation however if we move to develop Balla Balla, how much is required to underpin that project and what reports will be required and at what cost?
Cheryl stated they did not know what reports would be required at this stage.......
Obviously it is most unlikely that the state rail agreement will be extended past 9/23 because we will have only just completed stage 1 and with no BFS for a large capacity mine and unknown capital source we will surely not be able to provide any reason to extend.
Fair enough this is not a concern and if we can come up with the capital and development plans later we should have no problem restarting or getting a new agreement.
The question though is, have we purchased these assets without any idea of how we are going to progress the development. The 2 main issues always come back to the same thing-
Does PIOP have a BFS evidencing large enough tonnage to support the capital required for a rail link and the biggest one - where is the capital coming from?
I was also surprised that Andrew stated rehab work is 90% complete (completed Nov '22) with the other 10% basically not required as it is where we will start mining!! This seems to fly in the face of previous advices including the amount of funds BBIG were diverting from the BFS to rehab work and then a complete stop of everything!? Anyway I didn't bother going back over quarterly reports, but I do think it is great if that rehab work is now out of the way.
I would imagine that the Balla Balla port is a worthy and needed project, so you would think that worse case it would be saleable and perhaps this will make FMS a potential take over target by someone with big plans.
It is clear (imo of course) that the reported new broom that swept through the Todd corporation called a halt some time ago and have been trying to extricate themselves from this infrastructure deal and the Guarantor obligations of the rail agreement. Perhaps other parties have been disinclined to engage with Todd and it is considered FMS as a public company may have better results.
If so it will also be important to ensure an independent board is running this show.
Obviously we are not (cannot) being told everything so I guess we will just have to see what comes next. I certainly hope this brings an end to borrowing from Todd and all funding requirements are ascertained and arranged well in advance and not just to keep the lights on, because if they are truly keen to get moving, whether it mining or developing Balla Balla, money will start flowing out very quickly...........
(20min delay)