Ann: Quarterly Activities Report - June 2022, page-2

Great Qtr production, sales, revenue, margin with prices holding up better than expected into next quarter. No doubt Kwale is a finely tuned operation.

Everything else seems frozen in African time. Land access agreements for mining and exploration, new exploration permits, Toliara all 'continuing'...

Obviously the June and now July Toliara agreement finalisation has come and gone, last Jan a distant memory. The government's excuse of agreement delay due to cyclone catastrophe last Jan is no longer believable cover, simply more games and pressure around negotiations. Best explanation is the president gaming timing for local political reasons, worse is government pushing the deal terms further beyond Base's acceptable position? On one hand a global slowdown will likely delay or stop some new mine developments, ratcheting up pressure on Madagascar to do a deal and get Toliara running and funded before the window closes until the next boom. On the other, governments around the world lifting royalties and super-profit taxes on some in the resource industry would encourage Madagascar to ask for a bigger slice of the Toliara pie... it's vexing.

If Base is trying to act relaxed because of Kwale exploration upside to wait out the Madagascar government, they aren't doing it very well. No community exploration access and no numbers from Tanzania sample assays. Do I take that to mean are assays were so underwhelming it's better to have us think they are underwhelming than reveal they are even worse than underwhelming, or are assays so good they are trying to keep a lid on the situation while tying up more ground for this great opportunity

Pressure is building on both parties to do a Toliara deal with a global slowdown possibly closing the development window for new min sand mines for whatever more years. Some new mines are locked into development, some might be developed regardless of macro environment due to political and operation synergy reasons. Now would be a great time to do fair deal and join the race...