The hold upThe hold up these days seems like it should only be political these days, or perhaps just beuricratical lumbering.
Our Geo Elaborate was produced from the same data as our CIM standard PEA, so there is no objective reason to reject the document.
The Stage 2 documents or equivalent of a Prefeasibility Study is a pretty basic report compared to the Elaborate. Way back when, Tim estimated the cost to be less than half of the Elaborate. It is well under way and being worked on by 3rd party Engineers based in Serbia. I assume our staff is still working on the other periferal reports that go with it, but the main work is being done by outsiders.
The only thing that stops up from finishing our mining licence work is the Serbian Mining Ministry and the political fear of being perceived as being the evil of Lithium and Borates like Rio Tinto. Other than the potential irrational perception of the public, I see no reason we don't have the work done on time. It's all just desktop report writing.
So I don't quite see the recent doom and gloom. I do wonder why the hey we haven't heard from the Ministry though. I have to say, not really Tim's fault at this point.
From my humble perspective, the work is all but done now, or one would assume. If we don't get our Certificate of Reserves, it would be based on political fears. And further to that, our documentation will demonstrate a clean operation. If the government was truely going to halt Lithium and Borate mining in general in Serbia, why didn't we get the axe with Rio and others like us last year??
I think we get our Elaboate and we dawdle along to the last minute and get our PFS work in at the last minute. To me, if things drag on after the cut off, it will be with lawyers and court battles over our right to proceed, not getting the work done.
Anyway, time for the Ministry to step up and do their part as Erin/BONE have been dumping millions into the Serbian economy and it's time to proceed. Their slow-pokedness is costing us dearly.