Good article, sharemadder. I'll add something to this comment...

Good article, sharemadder.

I'll add something to this comment from the article:

"The details of those talks are not known, but it is true to say that relations between TanzaniteOne and the government have been somewhat strained in recent years, and this may well be holding things up."

From a conversation around 6 months ago with two members of the management team, the top focus for STAMICO (Tanz Govt) was tanzanite, their national gemstone (I posted something about that at the time). The protracted part of the talks all stemmed around issues of tanzanite, security for the tanzanite gems, rights of inspection (so people couldn't steal tanzanite gems), and was the major roadblock to the process. Hopefully that will be all able to be resolved with Richland selling out of TanzaniteOne. I expect our exclusivity will be extended, and will signify that for all the hold-ups, STAMICO are still wanting to get an eventual deal done on the Merelani graphite, provided they are happy with new owners of TanzaniteOne and their plans for mining the gemstones.