rio will seek to negotiate a joint venture, page-17

"I'm surprised that RIO would show their hand like this and broadcast it to all other competitors. can anyone share their thoughts as to why they would do this and what advantage it would be to them??"

My guess on why is this (FWIW): if Extract's Board is doing its job, they can't just negotiate behind closed doors with RIO, without seeking alternative offers. By going public, RIO is saying to other bidders: "put up or shut up": NOW. The longer RIO leaves it (and hence the more driilling EXT can do) the more valuable Rossing South becomes and hence the tougher the terms of any deal they think they can get. So, if they want to go for it, they need to do so NOW.

In addition, planning the expansion of Rossing is rather important and has a long lead-time. Rio need to know ASAP whether they have access to Rossing South or not, as it will significantly impact their planning.

A "war" of some sort seems inevitable (unless it's a done deal). Best to get it settled ASAP.

As I mentioned previously, we have had the gunfighters staring each other out across the OK Corall. It appears that we didn't notice that RIO have actually fired the first shot.

Yup, {{Harls}} this is what every mining investor (& Peter Mc) dreams of. It very rarely happens. Great to watch it unfold and those that kept the faith benefit. :0))))))))

Cheers,

Mark