When deciding who to trust when there are conflicting claims from two parties, first consider who has more to lose (i.e. legal consequences) from making a false statement: (i) a managing director making official company statements on official public stock exchange portals with easily traceable details, or (ii) untraceable anonymous social media and forum profile account holders that can be easily abandoned/deleted/removed from public view? Obviously the managing director has more accountability and will actually make sure that all company statements are true and legally-backed rather than anonymous internet profiles. The managing director has a major financial incentive to make sure that things are done correctly, whereas anonymous internet profiles with malicious agendas just want you to make the wrong financial decisions so that they take your profits away. For example, if you make the wrong financial decision based on the Boatman report, how can you even sue/get financial compensation if you cannot even find the person who wrote it? Whereas AVZ paid nearly $90,000 in liability insurance in 2021 to cover the company/personnel (2021 Annual Report).
When Li Tao@lithiumanalytic claimed to be showing a copy of the Dathcom shareholders agreement, the cover page (first page) showed an RCCM registration number of CD/KIN/RCCM/16-8-12284. Dathcom's real RCCM registration number is CD/LSH/RCCM/19-B-00935. This RCCM number is publicly available on the RCCM portal and is also quoted in CATH's announcement on 27/09/2021
https://stock.us/filing/view/cn/venm9k8v.
Summary: If the first page of a series of document is incorrect, it is difficult to believe that the rest of the documents are true. Don't simply believe anything you see/read from anonymous internet profiles.
Size of company does not make one immune to local country laws. Glencore (market cap US$88 billion) was recently fined US$1.1 billion for corruption . Zijin has a market cap of US$38 billion. The Chinese are not immune in the DRC. China Molybdenum (market cap US$14 billion) was removed as a mine operator a few months ago due to a number of unlawful acts
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/world/congo-cobalt-mining-china.html.
Summary: When Jin Cheng/Zijin gets charged for unlawful acts in the DRC, punishment will follow.
Two months after the alleged sale between Cominiere and Jin Cheng/Zijin occurred in July 2021, CATH announced to its shareholders the deal with AVZ to purchase 24% of the Manono project on 27/09/2021. Within the document
https://stock.us/filing/view/cn/venm9k8v (use "Print view" to view whole document), it stated (translated with Google Translate):"After the transaction is completed, AVZ will hold a 51% controlling interest in the Manono project, And to maintain its position as the main developer of the Manono project, Tianhua Times will hold a 24% interest in the Manono project."
And, under basic information about Dathcom:
"Major shareholders: AVZ International Pty Ltd holds 75% and La Congolaise D’Exploitation Miniere (Congo DRC government) holds 25%Dathcom had total assets of $38.4 million and net worth of $37.6 million as of June 30, 2021million (financial data provided by Dathcom Corporation)."
Summary: Even CATH did not acknowledge the presence of Zijin/Jin Cheng in Dathcom and did not recognise the alleged sale of 15% from Cominiere to Zijin/Jin Cheng. Even Zijin themselves did not recognise this purchase as on 3rd August 2021 Zijin announced that "To date, the Company has no lithium mineral resources or related business."
https://hotcopper.com.au/posts/61512656/singleAlso, Cominiere used the excuse of an "urgent" need to raise cash in July 2021 to justify its sale of 15% of Manono to Zijin - even though its 25% shareholding of Dathcom equated to more than $9 million in assets as of 30 June 2021, just weeks prior to the sale. Flimsy excuse.
A recent allaged Cominiere meeting "classifying" the 5% that they gave to Dathomir as a "security loan" that should never have been on-sold by Dathomir to AVZ in 2019. Well guess what; an Extraordinary General Meeting of Dathcom was convened in 2019 to approve the sale. Cominiere was there as part of Dathcom, well aware of it, and approved the legal sale. This is Dathomir/Cominiere now wanting to retrospectively fudge past events to gain an unlawful advantage. AVZ purchased this share parcel legally.
AVZ is still in discussion with the DRC government for Cominiere's 15% interest in Dathcom (ASX announcement 4 May 2022). If the DRC government actually recognises the sale of 15% from Cominiere to Zijin/Jin Cheng, then the DRC won't have anything to "sell" to AVZ so why would they even still have discussions? This is because the DRC government does not formally recognise the sale of 15% to Zijin/Jin Cheng. And when the DRC wants to sell this 15% parcel to AVZ, they (the DRC, not AVZ) will be the one that takes it back from Zijin/Jin Cheng. So if Zijin/Jin Cheng wants any compensation, they will need to approach the DRC, not AVZ. They have no claim to make on AVZ. Same thing happened in AVZ's past: MMCS sued AVZ twice (in WA and in DRC) and both attempts were thrown out by the courts, so MMCS is now suing Cominiere (i.e. the entity that took away the asset from MMCS). AVZ is not the entity that will take away the 15% from Zijin/Jin Cheng, as it will be the DRC taking it away before on-selling it to AVZ.
AVZ was the only miner invited to join the DRC Battery Council in Nov 2021. No Zijin/Jin Cheng. Also, AVZ presented at the DRC-Africa Business Forum 2021 (ASX announcement 24 November 2021) and the presentation slide clearly displayed the ownership structure as 75% by AVZ and 25% by DRC government. This was presented in the forum in front of a global audience. And yet, no direct/public rebuttal from Zijin for nearly 6 months until just this month after the mining licence award was decreed and after Zijin quietly inserted a footnote in page 251 of their 2021 annual report (published in March 2022) about their alleged purchase from Cominiere.
My opinion: AVZ's position is much more secure than Zijin/Jin Cheng in this saga. Don't be fooled by the mud-slinging from the shorters and anonymous profiles with various agendas. Read official company announcements and think before deciding.
DYOR IMO
