Running discussion on SP, page-508

Google translated Chinese article:
刚果勘矿传捷报 AVZ连邀两中国巨头共举大事  Article date: 2018-03-14
"Congo Survey of Mineral Deposits AVZ Invites Two Chinese Giants to Crowge Together"

Mineral exploration company AVZ Minerals Limited (ASX:AVZ) announced today that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Beijing Guoneng Battery Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Guangdong Battery”) regarding “potential investment and acquisition opportunities”.

The announcement revealed that the discussion between the two parties “has continued for several months” and Guoneng Battery has been conducting due diligence. AVZ also invited Guoneng Battery to visit the Manono lithium project in Congo.

Guoneng Battery is one of China's leading suppliers of power batteries. Its headquarters is located in Beijing and was established in November 2011. It has six high-performance lithium battery production lines in Henan, Zhejiang, Hubei and Jiangxi, with an annual production capacity of over 3 billion amp-hours and sales of more than RMB 20 billion. Finding low-cost lithium is regarded as an important part of its strategy.

In fact, AVZ stated in its announcement on March 7 that "China is discussing cooperation with several agencies." In that announcement, AVZ announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Guangzhou Tianci Materials Technology Co., Ltd., which also contained "potential investment and acquisition opportunities."

Tianci is the world's largest battery electrolyte manufacturer and has invested in Ronghui Industrial and Lithium Carbonate production companies in Jiangxi. AVZ also invited Tianci to visit its Manono lithium project in Congo.

AVZ's Manono project may be one of the world's largest lithium-rich (lithium, niobium, tantalum) pegmatite deposits. In March of this year, AVZ disclosed the latest developments in the Manono lithium mine project, saying that "geological logging has proven that Manono is quite large."

Klaus Eckhof, executive chairman of AVZ, commented: “We are very excited to discuss cooperation with a company of the size of Beijing National Energy Battery Technology Company. After the Manono lithium drilling results were announced, we saw many interested parties, which once again confirmed Manono. The lithium project is a world-class asset."

AVZ's closing price today was 0.25 Australian dollar, an increase of 6.38%, and the turnover was over A$4.6 million.
full article here: http://ominet.com/articles/41693/


Also:
"铁矿石之后 澳大利亚竟又想赚中国新能源的钱！回应：不会再买了!"  article date : 2018-03-30  
"After the iron ore Australia actually wanted to earn money for China's new energy! Response: Will not buy again!"

From the first couple of paragraphs:

"Once, the four major mines in Australia and Brazil, like vampires, sold a large amount of iron ore to China at a high price, and squeezed nearly 100 billion yuan each year from China! This thought that after China implemented the capacity-reduction plan and launched the Chinese version of iron ore futures, it could no longer be led by Australia. As a result, Australia has also targeted China's future development priorities - the new energy industry! When the gold madness is on the line again, will China suffer again?
Unstoppable! Iron ore was closed, and Australia seized the new energy market in China.

Australia is an exporter of raw materials and has a high level of dependence on foreign countries. In particular, it needs a “big buyer” like China to pay for a large amount of iron ore. This "kangaroo" is very astute, not only trying to escape Trump's tariff stick. When China uses capacity to shut its doors to make money, it actually finds opportunities to target China's more promising new energy industries.

As early as 2017, BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining giant and Australian miner, began to reduce its iron ore industry because they saw new business opportunities from China's electric vehicles. The giants have repositioned and BHP Billiton has spent US$43 million to develop a refinery in Australia’s Western Nickel project to manufacture battery-grade nickel sulfate for lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles. That's right! Australia once again embraced the “printing press” China and began to lay out the metal industry related to the new energy industry.

Australia: China New Energy I'm coming! China: You walk away!



full article here: http://ominet.com/articles/41847/

Google translate:
BMI：对非洲的矿业投资将增加 article date :2018-04-04  
"BMI: Mining investment in Africa will increase"

BMI Research stated that the sub-Saharan African governments are sharing new wealth through the enactment of new laws, but this does not seem to have hit mining investment in the region. The agency believes that investment in the region will continue to climb in the third quarter of 2018.

BMI pointed out in its latest industry report that the recent revision of the mining law by the Democratic Republic of Congo is a clear example of the challenges faced by the participants. However, this is unlikely to dampen the interest of mining companies in investing in Congo.

According to the report, on March 10, the Congolese president signed a new mining law that will increase the total royalty for minerals. These changes have brought downside risks to the investment environment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, BMI stated that it is expected that these factors will not affect the mining prospects of Congo in the next few quarters.

The report pointed out that the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries will benefit from the mining mergers and acquisitions caused by the improvement of corporate balance sheets caused by the rise of key commodity prices in 2017. One noteworthy deal was that Glencore acquired remaining interests in the Congo-based Mutanda and Katanga copper-cobalt mine projects for US$922 million and US$38 million respectively.

full article here: http://ominet.com/articles/41885/

Just a couple of articles here for a read.
IMO today's morning news regarding Trump's "consideration for the $100billion tariff against China" didn't help with the sentiment for AVZ. Given time, I think and certainly hope the market will respond positively. The fundamentals are there as pointed out by the top posters here and the drill results!

GLTAH