Former Youanmi JV partner Venus Metals has applied for a mining licence for its Bellchambers project, 70 km from Youanmi. The company plans to truck ore to Younami for processing.
As we know, Matt Hogan CEO of Venus is a director on the Rox board and has teamed up with Q Gold to own nearly 20% of Rox jointly.
When Rox consolidated to own 100% of Youanmi, Hogan got a sweet deal because of a clause inserted in the original JV contract with Rox stipulating that if a specific timeline was not met, the Youanmi project had to be sold.
The timeline was not met.
This put Hogan in a very favourable position in the consolidation negotiations.
Apart from getting a free major stake in Rox, Hogan insisted on being a director on the Rox Board.
That was reluctantly agreed to.
Rob Ryan knew he had to get the deal done.
Hogan also wanted Rox to guarantee to process Bellchamber’s ore.
This was resisted, and the final agreement was that Rox would consider the idea at the time.
But now, with Hogan on the Board, and the large shareholding in Rox he controls appears to have swayed the Board to look favourably on the offtake deal.
This is another vote of confidence in Youanmi advancing to production and suggests that Hogan has grown his influence on the Board.
@smartdude. A TO is not always to become the operator.
It can be a cheaper way to get a bigger stake in a company than buying on market or via a CR.
Hawke’s Point has tried this strategy before.
When Capricorn was in its early development, Hawke’s Point teamed up with a third-party mining company (the proposed new operator) to launch a lowball TO.
The Capricorn Board came under pressure to accept the offer but ultimately rejected it.
They turned to non-Hawke’s Point advisers who had a very different view of the TO proposal.
I thought so but it appears that the Rox Board does not consider the Venus/Q Gold stake a lowball TO threat.
Was the Bellchambers offtake deal a bargaining chip to keep Hogan on board Rox?
https://hotcopper.com.au/threads/ann-bellchambers-mining-lease-application-lodged.8367933/
(20min delay)