Late night here too now and I really don't have time either....

Late night here too now and I really don't have time either. Should either go to sleep and get up early to work or work till midnight!

I agree, Newmont do have bigger fish to fry. It was commented to me several months ago that there'd been a few unexpected hiccups, of which the Telfer dam wall was only one.

It is also interesting to read the smaller print of the Wilki Farm-in agreement. The broad farm-in terms are:


Bu also in the original agreement announcement of 28 February 2020:

1. Newcrest can indeed elect to extend the Stage-1 earn-in agreement by up to two years, so perhaps there is not the pressure to reach the 51% by spending this current $10M by 28 Feb 2025 after all.

2. Newcrest can elect to withdraw at any point during the Stage-1 farm-in, leaving Antipa with 100% of the Wilki tenements

3. Newcrest can satisfy any amount of expenditure outstanding during the final 3 months of the Stage-1 farm in period, by paying Antipa the outstanding amount in cash. So if by October 28, 2024 they have only managed to spend another $3M of the $6M I reckon the had to spend to get to the 51% JV position, then they can simply give Antipa the extra $3M in cash.

4. For Stage-2, Newcrest can indeed then proceed to spend the next $44M to take their intertest to 75%, but at any point during this 8-year period, they can cease to spend, in which case the JV remains at 51%:49%, with each patty contributing pro-rata to ongoing expenditure or electing to dilute.

5. Standard pre-emptive rights apply - presumably meaning one party can preferentially buy the other party out, all other things being equal

And so on and so on..

It is probably best that I just go to bed, get a decent night's sleep, and wait and see what eventuates over the next couple of weeks!