RE: Future of LMA my appologies for the typos and mispelling. It has been my old weakness to value ideas over style.
Few additional points:
The usual suspects, Barricks, Randgold, Anglo Golds, etc... may be interested in participating in what is shaping to be one of the biggest projects in Africa over the next five to ten years. The UN-imposed sanctions against Sudanese government , however, will act as disinsentive to partcipate jointly.
Any future developer of the multibillion VMH project in Sudan, in addition to very substantial access to multibillion $$$ for project development , needs to strike close relatioship with the central government in Hartum.
As LMA shareholders, do we care if a Chinese Sovereign Fund or a state back consortium acquire Areva' share in LMA? Currently Areva holds 63 % of LMA shares with the UK -based Baker Financial holding additional 10 %. The LMA management may own up to 10 % of the share float. All this brings the free fload os LMA shares to less then 30 million.
I hope that you now understand the relactence of the Khartum to renegotiate the share count in favour of LMA. Put it simply, controlling 60 percent of the VMS project, allows Hartum to strike a deal at its choosing.
Very interesting times ahead, indeed. AK