i can perhaps help with that. As is my wont, I made a transcription of what was said, as best I heard it. i offer it here on the basis of 'all care, but no responsibility'.
After the procedural items of the Meeting were dealt with, Neil answered questions from his current location, in Saudi.
He clustered and posed groups of similar questions, and gave his answers as follows, addressing first questions concerning a raising:
A: There is no proposed issue of securites planned for October but we have several offerings to raise funds if required. We could call on the IRIS facility, obtain working capital from an investor, or issue securities. So the Board is presently reviewing all options, but has not decided which option to pursue yet.
Q: So next series of questions were all about the offtake agreements - a lot of chatter about this. Questions such as: How are Magnum not getting an offtake even from a trading house such as Mitsubishi? Is there something can be done to make this happen - change the tonnage? Anything can be done? Is any progress being made on the offtake agreement for the Buena Vista iron ore? Has the sentiment changed in getting this project off the ground? Why is it taking so long to sign an offtake for iron ore from Buena Vista? Mitsubishi have been talking to Magnum for well over a year, and no progress.
A: So yes this has been a long process. We're still confident that we will obtain offtake agreements from both Mitsubishi and Anglo American. So Mitsubishi have asked for a large sample of concentrate for testing before they issue an agreement, and Anglo has actually shown us a draft agreement that we're comfortable with. So we're preparing the concentrate now, the sample. And then it's up to their respective internal systems to finalise the agreements. We’ve talked to some mine owners close to our tenements and we could purchase further resources if needed. However, it’s unlikely that we could go larger than 4Mt to 5Mt per year. So while we believe that the Buena Vista mine can be successful in the future, there will resource be kept in a kind of land bank in the event that opportunities arise from developments in the US steel industry and/or the DRI Iron Ore market.
Q: A lot of questions about Midmetals, like: Where's the $200M coming from? How far along are they? Who are Midmetal? Who made contact with Midmetal? Who's behind the shell? You know …Are they Saudis? So a lot of questions.
A: So Midmetal approached Magnum last year about their plans to produce Pig Iron from waste materials, which is similar to our plans for Appalachian Iron in the US. So Midmetals being formed by Saudi industry executives who are presently still work in industry and prefer to keep anonymous. Ass and I have met them, and they do exist. We can release one name, Sultan Albogami - he is the public name, and the name on all the forms for Midmetal. We're in discussion with two potential investors in Saudi. I've been here this week talking to them. They've both expressed interest in investing $200M to $400M in the Pig Iron project. However, today no investors have expressed interest in investing in the mine.
Q: Next thing …so talking about issues surrounding Cadmon and the EAS advisory services we've had. A lot of things on HotGossip. So HotGossip is good for good gossip but this is a bit of bad gossip going around. So some of the questions about Cadmon going broke: Who hired Cadmon? Cadmon going into administration. Wasted money going to advisers.
A: So the bottom line is for Cadmon - Cadmon is not going broke. It's not going into administration. They are in a dispute with the ATO. So the ATO form says that these are not in administration. So they're going to court - it's actually today they'll be going to court. It doesn't make any effect on our business, and Cadmon have made good progress on securing offtake agreements for biomass in Malaysia. They’ve done great work literally in the weeds of the plantations of Malaysia, and doing a good job for us. I look forward to working with them in the future. As for EAS, they were very helpful in finding two potential investors for the iron ore mine. These investors went into due diligence, but unfortunately these investors decided not to invest. The EAS contract has now been terminated, but we wouldn’t hesitate using them again in the future.
Q: So a question on the investors and Pig Iron. What are our chances of this equity raise going through? Are these investors so far satisfied?
A: So far the response from investors has been positive for all three projects, with the Pig Iron plant receiving the strongest interest. We will inform the market of any material developments, positive or negative.
Q: A few questions on the Saudi projects. How does a Midmetal offtake on the materials work? What are the next steps while we wait for funding? Are you in talks for offtakes?
A: Yes, as I said we’re talking to two potential investors in the Pig Iron projects and working capital is planned to be raised as a part of this. Midmetal will then sign offtake agreements with our Biochar production partners and with our Iron Ore mine when required.
Q; And the final question that came through on the Buena Vista operations. Can Magnum hire someone who is experienced in iron ore to take over the management of the iron ore mine development?
A: So short answer, ‘yes’! Once we find an investor, we intend to hire an experienced engineer to develop the Iron Ore mine.
One additional question came in during the course of the AGM, also relating to Cadmon, which Neil had already partially answered, but he did elaborate a little:
Q: The question is basically - What advances had Cadmon made on biochar before the ASIC notice in April 2024 that you’ve referred to?
A: Oh, they’ve got great progress. As I said, they literally in the weeds. So they're up in Malaysia visiting plantations – I think they visited 40 or 50 plantations, 10 to 20 oil refineries. Talking to them, you know. They've got off their backside and got down into the weeds, as I said. Talking in Malayan Chinese - so that this is something that some Western guy couldn't have done. They’re doing great work for us. And I said, we expect to have an announcement soon, and then the next milestone is to get the BFS for the first plant. And that should happen over the next few months.
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