This 27th Aug 2018 article of 8th Aug from the Beijing Bulletin:...

This 27th Aug 2018 article of 8th Aug from the Beijing Bulletin: "Nkomati dispute coming to a close?" gives a clear summation of the events which led to the BCL (Selebi Phikwe mines) and TNMC (Francistown area mines, Phoenix etc) being thrown into provisional liquidation with KPMG.
Politics permeate all these dealings, including the hope that BCL will be resurrected, one way or another.
Our posting colleague who posts in  HC as 'fwp' and lives in Bots. has said a number of times he forsees the BCL ops.  being restarted under the Masisi government in the lead up to the 2019 elections, and some newer posters may be interested in researching the Botswana side of SI6 rather than seeing SI6 as being simply a 'shell'.

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  Volume No. 0205/16

Nkomati dispute coming to a close?

Beijing Bulletin
08 Aug 2018, 10 GMT+10

https://www.beijingbulletin.com/newsr/8950

It's a long article and makes no mention of (SI6)BML per se (though it mentions the Polaris strategy under which the BCL/BML JV came into being), but there can -as far as I am concerned - be no doubt that SI6's future would be much brighter if the Nkomati/Nornickle dispute can be resolved and the BCL ops restarted.
Towards the end the author sets out what he sees as three possible scenarios , the third outcome being his 'best'.
Big Mahn on HC has noted the deterioration in the lithium market and mentions SI6 need to seek Ni, Cu, Gold new projects, but in Zim. That is good, however we/particularly the BOD and geologist/ need to keep in mind SI6 already has excellent Ni, Cu, Co, PGM assets in Bots, between Selebi Phikwe and Tati/Francistown, and these to me are definitely not greenfields, and thus are a big part of the SI6 future. The first three are all so-called 'battery' metals.
I imagine with the greatest respect to the management that one reason they have been quiet on, and not pushing, the Bots prospects/projects is because they want to see how the in limbo BCL JV plays out from here. They did spend money recently drilling Airstrip and Dibete, and the results were excellent.
The Zim projects have their place (despite the dilutive entry cost) including the Vanadium. Lithium projects worldwide just recently are experiencing some head winds in raising finance but perhaps such problems can be overcome, while the historic Vanadium assays are very good, especially when compared to some highly touted grades I have seen in Australia, particularly Qld. Some very low grades which explain the large tonnages....not worth much if it is uneconomic to extract in some cases.

To conclude the Ni and Cu prices -though under heavy pressure due the US$  strength and trade posturings US/China, and brush fires like Turkey - seem to have developed a bit of a floor around 6 for Ni, 2.7 for Cu. Rises from these levels would help.

Regards to all.