Some obviously disingenuous posts to start the thread, since modded, but worthwhile actually providing a response as they do raise valid queries for the benefit of those genuinely curious.
Romann - KNL used to be Kibaran Nickel Limited (now Kibaran Resources). Under previous management they had some Nickel tenement(s), that didn't make financial sense to develop. From memory, BHP had spent some $12m on initial dd which we had access to. When AS & Co came in after the previous management, they basically used KNL as a shell to acquire the new graphite assets. They identified Tanzania as having arguably the best quality flake graphite in the world, and picked out their top 3, being Mahenge (Epanko), Tanga, and Merelani. In short, old KNL is completely different to recent KNL. While there was some initial move to perhaps look more closely at the Nickel by AS & Co, they would have had too many balls in the air, and would have had to divert precious funds away from graphite for the nickel.
They made the right call on their graphite tenements, becoming the first graphite company in the world (not just the ASX) to secure a binding off-take agreement with a non-Chinese company (Focus beat them to the first binding off-take in the world at the time, by about a week, but with a Chinese deal, and we all know in hindsight how valuable the Chinese paper is). At the time, a lot of people (primarily TON & SYR holders, but also VXL and LMB holders) poo-pooed the off-take, thinking their super-pits were going to take over the world, with binding Chinese agreements, on a "build it and they will come basis". Or so they said.
VXL closed up, couldn't sell their stockpiles. LMB management were dumb enough to hand over $2m to a pretend Chinese partner, which chortled and said thank you very much, and a few months later the shareholders worked out it was all baloney, and they (surprise surprise) didn't actually have a binding deal to purchase all their basketed graphite at $2K per tonne. LMB have since changed their name, pretending to still have a viable proposition, but that's fanciful thinking on their part. TON, of course ... well, VA is a bitter way to highlight that Chinese agreements are worthless. SYR, being the only other company to actually progress their proposition (I'm excluding MNS for the moment) proceeded with the stupid idea that they could quite realistically go from 0% to over 25% of the global flake market with their super-pit concept, and have since realised that they couldn't obtain finance, nor could they obtain genuine large off-takes. Full credit to SYR management though, as they managed to tap insto money (not once, but twice) and are just going to plough ahead with building a super-pit and hoping that they don't end up with one of the largest unsold stockpiles of graphite in the world. Sort of like someone single, not having a job, getting declined for finance at the bank, and going to their parents for money to pay cash for the 17 bedroom manor, with the promise that when they finally get a job, they'll start paying them back, plus interest, even though their job prospects aren't as great as they think, and their likely salary doesn't justify a 17 bedroom mansion.
Sirrobbo, they passed on the other tenement for a reason. Good luck to BKT with it, but KNL passed on it for good reason, and the fact they subsequently achieved the first western off-take in the world with their chosen tenement, indicates with the benefit of hindsight that they were correct in doing so. As for BKT's market cap, which is (on hype) approaching KNL's, if you think that is a valid argument ala "my schwartz is bigger than your schwartz", then that's just silly. TON was valued at $100m or $200m at one stage I think, and the chances of that being repeated with that company are nil.
Romann's other point (is mine approved?) Yes, it's fully approved, environmental and all. Normal mining licence, not special (under $100m).
I won't argue your point on "Technically it doesn't look particularly good at the moment". Reading tea leaves is way above my pay grade, and I certainly don't dispute that a lot of people look at the TA and make decisions accordingly, and all I can say is good luck. I wish I could have done that on a few others, but like TON & LMB & VXL show, I don't want the risk of getting the TA wrong and be left holding the baby. But good money to be made in some of the competitors by trading them, so good luck to those so inclined.
In summary, old KNL is not new KNL. KNL have been proven 2.5 times so far via genuine, western off-take partners (the 0.5 times reflects that Sojitz are awaiting conversion to binding), and while finance is unfortunately delayed, the initial in-principle approval by the German Govt indicates that the BFS was sound, the buyers are valid (they should know, being that they are guaranteeing their own countrymen who are buying). No other initial announcement with finance (being TON, SYR, and MNS) has been proven to be genuine. SYR got around that by going down the 100% equity path, which will lower their ROE even more than they already had. MNS is finding out that they have to do a BFS and satisfy a western funder instead of their initially announced Chinese binding 100% funding. Even with our delays, KNL is the closest graphite company to securing western funding approval for western off-take buyers.
And here endeth the lesson, as the pastor would say.
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