Ann: Simon Hay Commenced as Leo Lithium Managing Director, page-41

Quamdives, I haven't read the fine print in the JV documents yet, and I'll own up to being a bit lazy with that task, but it's on the list to do (if the company will send me the fine print), but I'm actually caught up with re-reading all the old Jules Verne novels, like Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and Around the world in 80 days, at the moment.

However, yours is a good question, and from past experience I can tell you that there is "often" some legal clauses inserted into a JV agreement whereby the parties agree to maintain a shareholding within certain limits, for example, no more than 50% of the total shares on issue, and when capital raisings occur, to be able to buy sufficient shares to maintain that percentage.

These agreements usually come with a rough time constraint, or at least an indication of how long the conditions are expected to exist, but like all corporate legalities, they can change at any time if the parties agree (and in certain circumstances, if the shareholders agree). Keeping an eye on these things is what good company secretaries do.

You raise an interesting question though, which has prompted me once again to prioritize the reading of the small print, and if more clarity is needed, then I'll call up the Doc.

I note that Ganfeng have been quite happy to maintain a 50% JV holding in the Mount Marion lithium mine with Mineral Resources, without any intention of increasing their stake, because their primary interests seems to be the off-take, so they will probably view Goulamina in the same way, and from everything I've heard, they seem to be good partners.

I do remember a couple of things from the JV though, like the additional 10% option for the Mali government, but to be eligible for that they have to pay fair market value because they are only free-carried for the first 10%. Also for the JV to go ahead the IRR had to be greater than 15%, but from memory I think it was somewhere around 60%. Also, Goulamina had to produce spodumene within 4 years, which is no problem. But I'll get hold of the fine print regarding the ongoing corporate ownership conditions.

Cheers,
Gw