RE:who will be the money guyjazzlistener2 wrote: they will need someone who can get the money to finance the mine. If they can get the Nfld government to guarantee the bank loan it will be easy. Lots of jobs for the people there and taxes for the Nfld government. Would not cost a penny for the government since Atlas should easily pay off the loan themselves. Their tpr shares are unable to get any traction and are dormant. No collaterall there. Money is the grease to make things happen. I wonder if Pat has already talked to the powers in government previously. I would not doubt it. I think the turning point , good or bad, will be where they get the money from. Limbo till then.
It's a good point you make.
Problem with governments guranteeing private enterprise loans is it sets a precendent for other projects so I expect potentially the capex will be covered with the usual variety of grants, debt, off-take and convertible new shares or even financing via a partner but the FFS will set the perameters for lenders and all of this is LaBelle's skill set. The capex is not really that substantial and with a ramp access is a fairly low technical risk.
One of my concern has been how long the permitting would take with all the environmental and countless other surveys involved but LaBelle bringing in a specialist team to work on this is a big plus. I would hope the groundwork was done on permitting pre LaBelle but Atlas have been very quiet on this throughout.
I am assuming the delay in the release of the FFS from the timeline Rowland announced only 4 weeks ago is due to both amendments requested by LaBelle and/or the preparation of the scoping study in support. The combination of the release of the FFS and the appointment of the new team will be the trigger for Atlas to work on the capex fundraising and permitting in tandem.
I also think to clear the decks for a sale LaBelle will want to get the Vulcan royalty off the books. Quite how I'm not sure but possibly issuing Vulcan more Atlas shares in lieu. It's in Vulcan's interest to make Atlas as salable as possible after all and that royalty is a burden prospective purchasers would not want to take on.
All just my opinion but I feel we are beginning to see some light through the trees now.