RE:Makes sense
I would be cautious about any final deal so long as we don't hear directly from RioT.
As for waiting for parliament, I believe one of the major objections RioT had at the OTLLC Board of Directors level was the Mongolian Board members saying they needed further approvals from Parliament, and RioT was not happy, given that was obviously unneccessary under the terms and structure of the project as envisioned under the IA.
There is a lousy story reported in Forbes yesterday about the big American engineering consultants Fluor quickly removing all their staff from the country after they reported to the Mongolians negatively on the proposed Saishand materials complex. Seems they feared a cooked-up tax dispute and exit visas withheld in another case of gold old ransoming f captives by Mongolia.
As far as I am concerned, and I am a booster of the OT project, have a stake in it, wish the best for Mongolia and its people as well, RioT should just keep tightening the screws on these jerks in their government, and a long, cold, miserable poor winter with their country and bank teetering on complete insolvency might be a good thing in the long run.
They only seem to understand blunt trauma, some of them, at least. As for the educated and progressive pragmatists, I'm on their side, but they have to carry the day internally and get Mongolians pointing towards a healthy, modern outcome.
Local clown Petronut a perfect example of the problem.
A happier reason for the delays might be there are still deals cooking - given the size of the investment already RioT would probably like some international partners on any smelter build-out, if not for the power plant component, and Chinalco looks like a dance partner perfect for that role.
I see China infused their big 5 banks with $81 billion of liquidity loans this week in a suprise move. State capitalism alive and well in our next world overlord's camp.
There is high grade ore at Hugo North and Hugo North Extension, the hoists are in, the concentrator is waiting, no matter what the delays are, there is going to be a gem of a mine at OT ... some day.
cg