This really was another disappointing announcement. There are some obvious positives: short term funding looks ok now, which buys us some more time and we look like we will get an offtake agreement (which will in turn allow us to finance the project). BUT what is the direction the company is taking in relation to the capex etc? I was expecting there to be some statement saying that the partner would acquire a stake, say 30-50% for providing a significant portion of the capex, not just for a measley $30 million! The DFS alone will probably cost more than this!
It really isn't clear from the announcement what the partner will be expected to fund over the life of the project. One would hope that if they are getting the shares so cheaply that they will be stumping up extra cash elsewhere. If they are only going to be paying for 30% of the capex I will be really annoyed. The obvious reason for a lack of information regarding capex is that this hasn't been agreed/negotiated yet. In which case, the deal seems mostly pointless (apart from getting some short term cash and the offtake deal) and ill conceieved. We've pretty much just cut our ties from any other possible partners at the worst possible time (low share price, crappy PFS etc) to partner with some obscure Chinese company than nobody has heard of. Do we then expect to be in a position of power to negotiate a good deal when it comes to the capex? We are again painted into a corner. Sorry Tony, but this deal doesn't fill me with confidence and I think the majority of shareholders agree. I think you need to make another BRR appearance and let everybody know what the plan is here, because your announcement really doesn't tell us much about where PLV is headed. What the heck happened to the MOU with the JTC? Communication from management needs some serious improvement.
PLV Price at posting:
26.1¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
