our globally significant Lithium Resource, page-92

Morning All,
The situation between China and Australia is looking more ominous by the day and is beginning to look like a kind of 'cold war' mentality is setting in. The Chinese have always played 'the long game' and I don't think they will even try to deescalate the situation any time soon.

Reports in the press and various web sites are now saying that the Chinese are going to rapidly develop their interest in a very large, very high grade Iron ore system in Guinea West Africa , this will greatly reduce their dependence on Australian Iron ore. They plan to develop their part of the project ( 40% Chinalco, 15% Guinea's Government and 45.5% Rio tinto ) in record time and are aiming for shipments to start in 2025. the following was taken from the link provided below.

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 16 (Reuters) - China-backed consortium SMB-Winning aims to bring blocks 1 and 2 of Guinea’s massive Simandou iron ore deposit into production by 2025, Société Minière de Boké Chairman Fadi Wazni said on Friday, a tight timetable for a huge mine and infrastructure project.

Guinea’s government requires the developers of Simandou to build a 650 km (400 mile) railway, dubbed the Transguinéen, and a deepwater port to transport the ore from the remote southeastern corner of Guinea to the coast for export.

“We already have in hand the technical capability to undertake the construction of the Transguinéen railway,” Wazni said, adding that SMB-Winning has had contact with Rio about potentially transporting their ore on the railway.

“The more we have tonnes, the happier we are,” he said, adding that cargo is needed to make the infrastructure viable.

https://www.reuters.com/article/mining-summit-simandou-idUSL8N2H73R7

There was a court case which prevented this resource from getting mined but this was sorted in mid 2019 , most likely by Chinese pressure/influence to ensure they could develop the project faster to give them an alternative to Australian iron ore.

How does this affect our company? Well it gives us two things really. I. Transport Alternative. 2 Investor Interest.

I. Guinea is locate on the southern border of Mali and has a large costal region with 5 ports. The development of a rail system and a deepwater port in Guinea means that it is highly likely that we could transport our ore to utilise this new rail system and reduce our transport costs. They are looking for additional tonnage to help make the infrastructure more viable.

2. Investors will see this as a big "thumbs up" for investing in West Africa, it helps to de risk the region and gives them the confidence to step up. It is obvious the Chinese have huge plans for the region. they could very easily turn it into a major transport/mining hub. They could reduce their dependence on Australian iron ore and lithium if they were to purchase our resource , they could kill two birds with the one stone so to speak. Mali has already signed up to the silk road initiative, see link below.( link is in french but google will translate)

https://www.maliweb.net/economie/cooperation/cooperation-mali-chine-le-mali-adhere-a-la-nouvelle-route-de-la-soie-2830617.html

The realities of this "new world" are that the trade war between Australia and China is worsening by the day, the chinese are actively pursuing alternatives and our location in west africa next door to Guinea will be a vey positive thing. Below is an article which suggests the alternative to Australian Iron Ore.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/16/as-china-australia-trade-tensions-rise-beijing-needs-iron-ore-alternative.html

Hold them tight people.................very interesting times ahead............................our lithium resource may very well find it's way to China after all...that's if the Europeans don't beat them to the punch first.

All IMO and DYOR