Exactly right Stock, I never saw any evidence that SMM applied when SIG were 1st calling for EOI back in March when AVQ applied. On that note though I still haven't seen any notice that AVQ have applied or anyone else yet for this latest tender which in itself is confusing.
According to the latest news article (which is all we have to go on unfortunately since the company has seen fit to keep SH in the dark) it looks like the last process in which we did apply seems to have been scrapped and started again. It is also unclear as to weather these 3 tenements are being offered together ( which is how the article reads since they are offering a TENDER as opposed to TENDERS for the 3 blocks, could be wrong) or separately. As we all know AVQ had in the past applied for KL alone, not in a parcel, which is unclear as yet since no legitimate news has been forthcoming if weather AVQ are even eligible since that would obviously exceed our 3PL, unless the 3 tenements are being rolled into one perhaps.
I had a thought that maybe there has been a lack of interest in remaining tenements after the last EOI so the SIG are doing a bulk deal on them with KL since it seems to be the popular one, all speculation of course. Even if that was the case surely SMM would still be ruled out taking there PL to 6 if they were successful but I could see the Ministry of mines maybe bending the rules to 4 for someone.
I was reading in the SI mining law the other day that having 3 PLs was GROUNDS for refusing a 4th or more but not necessarily a rule (
www.pso.gov.sb/index.php/resources/doc_download/289-mining-manual-text)
pages 43-48 are interesting.
