Today's AGM I can only sum up today's AGM as being simply eneventful - nothing earth-shattering.
FA handled the meeting with typical calmness & confidence; the project is proceeding nicely - Ethiopian govt is assisting with roads & rail, port development has started. $$$ in the bank on a 'when required' basis.
The water situation is a definite bonus. There've been talks with Yara about port-sharing, water & potash processing (Yara is not in the mining biz). The BFS is expecting by EOMonth - just waiting for some quotes to finalize the numbers.
The financing is being worked on - the BFS is key. Seems a lot of reputable & knowledgable companies are watching very closely.
Company target for immediate production is 1mm tpy, hopefully early 2014. Ramp-up will follow.
A question about the share buy-back arose - FA said about 1.3mm shares were acquired (low .40's). The BOD feel the current cash situation should be better used for meeting expenses - everything seems to be progressing as expected. The BOD is concerned about equity financing - AAA shares too cheap at this stage to try equity - once BFS is determined, focus will be on debt & off-takers.
A question about Argentina came up - the project is still there BUT not top priority. Focus is on the ponds for solution mining, determing the economics of transporting the product by truck (initially) via CAPEX or OPEX & the port development.
There were a lot more 'new' shareholder faces in the crowd, as well as the same old faces - Steve, Woody, etc.
The powerpoint presentation should be on the website so I won't waste any time because everything will be there.
It was, again, a very good meeting - NO concerns to this point. I'm sure others will post their take shortly.
BTW, FA stated that pp @ $0.80, looking back, was a great deal - given how junior financing is/was tough to get.
Looking forward the end of January - gonna be a gr8 yeat 2013.
Skipper