Running discussion on SP, page-3423

Ozblue

Despite what the trolls will have you believe the DRC is a very successful mining friendly area. Huayou(Chinese mining) who have a large stake in us have a very successful track record in building mines in the DRC. In in the last 12 months they got 5 copper/cobalt projects up and running. There is no reason they could not build the mine for us.

Also there are less impediments to mining in the DRC, including the Chinese's very good relationship with the DRC government, less red tape hurdles, lower labour costs and no native title issues(e.g.LTR(lithium) needed over 2 years! before they could fully drill Kathleen Valley in WA in what the CEO described to me as too many radical elements). This is why I believe that the sovereign risk discount is way too high when one looks at the objective reality. Also 63% of the world's cobalt comes from the Congo. The lithium-ion battery industry(computers, EV's, energy storage etc.) would therefore not exist without the Congo, which bascially means that despite what the doomsdayers tell you the stuff is mined and shipped out.

I also believe that the Chinese and nearly all major car companies would not be restructuring their businesses(e.g. VW going 100% electric with 80 new EV models/48 billion battery contracts) if they did not believe the Congo was safe enough to supply them their cobalt.

Regarding mining code changes what the naysayers do not tell you(lie by omission) is that the government and major mining companies are at present having a one month negotiation period to fine tune the mining code regarding stability clauses and the implementation of royalty rates.

Also, no government would be stupid enough to shoot the goose that lays the golden eggs to disinsentivize mining; the source of their greatest income! This is specifically pertinent to AVZ for which the government holds a 30% stake. Trolls can also speculate, pull figures from where the sun don't shine, to scare off the punters, but one must remember that AVZ is not yet mining and we do not have any concrete figures on how the government will negotiate their deal with AVZ, so the trolls numbers are not credible

What I will also say with the potential resource size of AVZ(potentially humungous) for lithium and tin, AVZ will have an economy of scale to offset any royalty increases, and tin is not a strategic metal so will not incur the higher royalty increases. We also do not have the problem of the large brine producers Albermarle and SQM where for them every unit of lithium comes 10-15 units of potash or fertilizer. So they have a delicate balance of trying to increase their lithium production without crashing their fertilizer business due to oversupply; especially when you think that PotashCorp owns 32% of SQM!


Looking forward to the next batch of assays of holes 6 to 12 due in a about a week or so. This will confirm the grade and homogeneity of spodumene in different areas along the strike further de-risking the resource, and may be a green light for big investor entities(JV/Offtake/Takeover), BNBT?, Huayou?,Tianci?,Greatpower?, CATL IPO? Sinochem IPO? to make the next move!


Exciting time to be holding AVZ!

Cheers M8

AIMO