where are the farmins?, page-2

Yes, we're all a bit impatient to get some firm news about a JV or farm-in, but the reality is that for one reasonably straightforward JV to be negotiated with an Australian-based company, the negotiations and documentation probably take about 3 - 6 months on average.

When you're dealing with overseas-based companies in different time zones and with different corporate regulations and requirements, and possibly different languages, which often require translation (which in itself can take quite a lot of time, particularly when legal and technical terminology is involved), the average deal can blow out by weeks or even months.

And if you're trying to negotiate several deals with several possible partners all at the same time, there's a lot of horse trading to be done to get the best deal. So I wouldn't be too worried about a two-month delay.

However, having said that, I would expect that negotiations with some prospective partners have been going on for several months now, and I had been half-expecting that we would get an announcement by the end of this month.

But if it takes a little longer to try to get the best deal or deals, then I'm quite happy to wait.

Cheers,

Mike