I with about 35 others attended the AVZ presentation tonight in...

I with about 35 others attended the AVZ presentation tonight in Perth. Nigel spent some time reviewing progress and discussed in detail most of the issues. He also gave a presentation of AVZ's potential growth path. There was no question/answer at the end of the presentation, but key personnel were available for follow up discussions.
Obviously, there are still a few gaps in the path to construction with some minor delays in progress. However, these have been articulated many times and should not take away from the overall progress of the project. The meeting only reinforced my perception of progress as outlined in my earlier posting #52240621.
My perceptions are as follows and not considered to be Financial Advice.
1. The continual nitpicking on Hot Copper about performance to nominated schedules is a bit naive. We have a world-class project, in a difficult environment, during a pandemic, with key people unable to get to the site and reliant on a Government that has personnel changes occurring on a regular basis. Nigel is still optimistic that they will achieve March 2023 for the first product.
2. Share price. Like many shareholders, AVZ management has difficulty understanding why the share price is so low. They are making enquiries about this issue.
3. Getting the Mining application produced required a lot of extra work due to the need for additional French documentation. Nigel is optimistic that the time to get approval will be expedited as it is in everyone's interest to get the project started.
4. The FEED documentation is nearing completion and is proceeding as expected.
5. Capital requirements. AVZ has identified a small addition to capital requirements which will give a large reduction in operating costs. Nigel made a lot of comments about the debt component being readily available after the Mining license is in place. He made no comment about equity funding. At some stage, there will need to be an equity raising. The reason this may be up in the air is probably due to whether they can get further equity in the total project.
6. Comments on the SEZ seem to be that a document is not too far away, but fleshing out all the terms may take a while.
7. Yes, there are still some small issues about road and rail facilities in the Congo section but they are not insurmountable.

My overall impression still is that AVZ is making all the right steps to get this project into production. They should over the next couple of months achieve this objective, providing the DRC Government support AVZ's proposals.