I have been a long term SH in MLM for many years and lived...

I have been a long term SH in MLM for many years and lived through the development of the Sconi project up until the present day. I have heavily increased my shareholding after the bauxite project was announced and I am still happy to wait despite delays.There are a large number of SH and ex SH (including me who had forgotten over the years) that dont understand the journey and the timelines that were vital in determining its fate until it was sold to AUZ...they have in hindsight(including me) seen AUZ go up and deduced it was a bad decision

So here is Sconi for the last time from me...by researching it thoroughly it has given me closure...short version
The Sconi project started in 2007 and was deferred in June 2013 due to funding issues....$15 million was invested into the project
The early part of the project was proving up the resource,metallurgical studies etc which took several years.
This was Andrew Gillies baby the then CEO and it was Andrews vision...A SCANDIUM PROJECT
On the 4/7/12 a very detailed scoping study was completed which was announced to the market as follows...Capex $597 million,
IRR 16.7 % producing 5250 Tonnes of nickel metal, 700 tonnes of cobalt and 68000kg of Scandium. Prices of these metals Co $25000 tonne,nickel $18000 and scandium $2000 per kg long term ( scandium was in Andrews eyes a new age metal ,strong and light weight and could be used for example in aircraft and cars but it was produced as a small by product in the production of other metals...this was going to be the first scandium producer) It is to be noted that 3 options were explored including producing compounds ie nickel sulphate.. that features in the SK INV the South Korean firm in the latest offtake agreement with AUZ
Then on the 4/12/2012 he made the London presentation under the banner "its all about scandium"
19/12/2012 appointment of funding experts Cutfield, Freeman and Co to explore the options.
June 12 project deferred
INFORMATION TAKEN FROM MLM WEBSITE.

INFORMATION TAKEN FROM AUZ ANNOUNCEMENTS
Note 4 years time lapse
10/10 2016 AUZ and MLM announce a joint venture in which a binding agreement AUZ must pay $250000 up front by spending either $10 million on the project or completing DFS
10/10/2016 AUZ ANNOUNCES THAT 'IT POSITIONS ITSELF TO BE THE LARGEST SCANDIUM PRODUCER IN THE WORLD"
Cobalt $22000,Nickel $8200 on 10/10/2016
There next 3 announcements are all headlined scandium with cobalt in the main body of the announcement.
Then on the 5/4/2016 it becomes a cobalt,nickel scandium story.
10/2017 a PFS study at a London Roadshow talks up the production of 24000 tonnes of nickel sulphate and 3 tonnes of cobalt
8/12/ 2017 final agreement 100% of Sconi
Finally the agreement with the South Koreans SK INV for 60000 tonnes of nickel sulphate and 12 tonnes of cobalt...no mention of SCANDIUM.
TODAYS PRICE Cobalt $79500 tonne Nickel $13650 tonne

My Comments
The most important negotiation was the first one...10/10/2016 this set the course for the rest of the negotiations.It seems that the negotiations centred around scandium.It is also important to realise that although Simon Slesarewich replaced Andrew Gillies on the 1/7/2015 Andrew was still a director and may have taken part in the negotiations bearing in mind his vision was that of scandium.Also Andrew had plenty of skin in the game 9 million share.It easy easy to understand why MLM were happy to get out of the project...they were working off an old scoping study 4 years old that they were not going to update as they had changed direction.Even discussions at that time ...10/10/2016 ...no one could realise that cobalt was going to go through the roof and nickel price increased as it was now sought after in batteries They could not have realised that the final amount of nickel and cobalt off take per year could be so large at the time of first negotiating.They had examined 2 other options to optimise the parameters and the production of nickel metal over nickel sulphate was that they did not know at the time that nickel and cobalt mined together made strategic sense in the battery world.
Their last negotiation before the final announcement was their last chance to be forthright and demanding...it was clear that their original negotiation could be improved.It was no longer about scandium and they just needed to read the AUZ website and look at the cobalt price to realise the dramatic changes that were occuring in the project...at least get royalties and a large number of shares from them.Andrew gillies resigned as director on the 2/6/17 so was no part of the final negotiation .His shareholding at the 30/6/2017 had reduced from 9,000.000 to 3,145,500 from a year earlier perhaps a drag on the SP and still could be.
Whether Benjamin Bell from AUZ out foxed,out thought,out ran,out manoeuvered us difficult to say.