One thing that needs to be remembered is the demerger is being...

One thing that needs to be remembered is the demerger is being handled by Macquarie.

Have they dragged the chain? quite possibly.

Do they have much experience dealing with the Malian bureaucracy? probably not

As I posted a while ago, on the 20th October when they received the Chinese approvals, they should have applied for the ML transfer, which I assume involves setting up a JV Malian subsidiary to receive the license. I'd like to think that happened promptly depending on how long Ganfeng took to complete it's paperwork. How long the Malian bureaucracy took to act on this application is anyone's guess.

It sounds like that's now done, the Activities Report still showed the assets as being owned by Timbuktu Resources, not sure if that's as at Dec 31 or the date of the report. Quite possibly the former as it's now an asx requirement to show this. (see below)

That report also said:
"The major remaining condition precedent to the formation of the Goulamina JV is the transfer of the Project Exploitation Licence to a single purpose Malian subsidiary as required by Malian legislation"

My bolding - sounds like there are still a few minor CPs to fulfil.

I have no doubt Simon is doing all he can to expedite the process, I'm sure from a personal view he wants his "own" company asap. Mike is in Mali, good chance his trip has something to do with the demerger.