Sign off on the formal Tenement Acquisition Agreement for the Lennard Shelf Zinc Project Hi Everyone,
This week Meridian and the Teck/Xstrata joint venture company Lennard Shelf Pty Ltd signed off on the formal Tenement Acquisition Agreement for Meridian to acquire the Lennard Shelf Zinc Project. This is a major milestone not only in the process to acquire the Lennard Shelf Project but also in the development of Meridian as a company. The next step for Meridian is to hold a shareholders’ meeting and to seek approval for the acquisition of the Lennard Shelf Project and also a $10.5M investment in to Meridian by North West Mining and Exploration, one of China’s top five mining bureaus. We are currently finalising a Notice of Meeting and our expectation is that the General Meeting of shareholders will be held in early October.
Once the shareholders meeting is held and the two deals approved, we can really hit the ground running and get our drilling program underway. Within the next couple of weeks all our onsite preparations for the drill program will be complete and then all we have to do is roll up with the drill rigs. Later in the year the wet season is going to commence and that is the time that drilling usually stops. However, we are going to attempt to push through the wet season in order to complete the drill out of the Kapok West resource as quickly as possible. Normally, we would not attempt to drill through the west season, but because there are tarmac roads on the project area close to where we want to drill, we should be able to push in to the wet season without the worry of getting drill rigs bogged and those sorts of issues. If we are successful in drilling through the wet that will allow us to come to a decision point on the profitability of Kapok West sooner rather than later. As usual we are focussed on getting outcomes in the short term.
The last few weeks have been frantic, as we have worked on finalising the tenement acquisition agreement and cranked up our field preparations. The Meridian team has really hit its straps during this time and shown its ability to do excellent work under a lot of pressure. This stands us in good stead for what lies ahead. Quinton Hills, our Exploration Manager, has been managing the field work side of things and he and his contract team from Euro have done a great job in a short period of time getting ready for the drill program. To help us finalise the tenement acquisition agreement we have been using Hynes Lawyers here in Brisbane and Olivia and Scott have worked like Trojans to get the agreement all done. A big vote of thanks you to Olivia and Scott and the rest of the Hynes team. Ros, Emily, Rick and Stewart in the Brisbane office have kept the whole organisation running while I have been focussing on finalising the agreement. Together we are a formidable team.
Over the next month we are planning a series of broker presentations and promotions in order to give the broader market an appreciation of the potential of the Lennard Shelf Zinc Project. I am sure we will be well received.
Cheers
Jeremy Read
21 Aug 2009
MII Price at posting:
6.4¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
