African Minerals - AMI Stream Log

today update 16/01/2015 afternoon

In my knowledge , Chinese demanding it , they always says that those people useless , so not surprise

Dear All. It is with great regret that we inform you that due to the ongoing Ebola situation, depressed iron ore prices and funding issues between the shareholders, which remain unresolved, the Company has taken the decision to issue termination notices to London based Staff. The Company and Board continue to work tirelessly to resolve the shareholder dispute with SISG. Unfortunately at this time we have no material progress to report. The employment status of employees based in Sierra Leone remains unchanged and operations remain on the current care and maintenance program. Yours sincerely, Kevin McLean COO

The iron ore price managed a small gain on Thursday with Northern Chinese import prices stabilizing around the $70 a tonne level. The 62% Fe benchmark import price including freight and insurance at the port of Tianjin tracked by The SteelIndex added $0.20 or 0.3% to $68.00 a tonne. The price of the steelmaking raw material hit 65.60 a tonne end-December, levels last seen May 2009, after nearly halving during the year due to a flood of new supply hitting the market. Investment bank Macquarie in a new research note expects an additional 100 million tonnes to hit the market in 2015 following an 87 million tonne surplus recorded last year. Platts News reports the additional supply require further displacement of producers: "Rather than requiring this displacement to come from marginal operators with low capex and high opex, the next round of cuts will need to come from more structural mining operations that just 18 months ago could have been making $50/mt or more in cash margin. "These producers will be reluctant to cut output and it will probably be balance sheet strength rather than cost curve position that ultimately decides who lives and who dies," Macquarie said in the report. Industrial commodities are in the midst of a deflationary spiral After slashing its earlier forecasts Australia-based Macquarie now expects iron ore prices to average $68 a tonne this year falling to $65 a tonne in 2016 before picking up to $70 a tonne the following year. Moneybeat reports analysts at Citi also cut their forecast by roughly the same margin and now expects 2015 and 2016 price targets of $58 and $62 respectively: “The industrial commodities are in the midst of a deflationary spiral, driven by lower oil prices, falling fx and efficiency gains,” wrote Citi’s research team. “This is lowering cost curves and support.” 8 inShare

bt , it late in Paris but you have hit the nail on the head.Good night

the question is if the longterm or shortterm thinkers rule the negotiations.Thus far between Shandong and AML it has been longterm.The major shareholders may reject the first bid if it is too low or gives away too much..not sure what way the bondholders would go but sooner or later a deal willbe struck

While acknowledging Ebola as a “terrible” disease, corporate advisory firm SP Angel believes the failure of certain mining companies active in Ebola-hit African countries should not be attributed to the impact of the disease on operations. The firm’s comments followed an announcement by embattled West African iron-ore miner London Mining late last year that the company would be placed into administration after battling high costs, a sharp drop in iron-ore prices and the impact of the Ebola virus on production at the Marampa mine, in Sierra Leone. Mining Weekly Online reported shortly thereafter that miner African Minerals, which owned a 75% stake in the Tonkolili iron-ore project, in Sierra Leone, had been forced to place Tonkolili on care and maintenance in December, pending a $102-million cash payment from its partner, the Shandong Iron and Steel Group (SISG), or the securing of additional short-term funding. SP Angel stated this week that Ebola was not, in its view, the reason that London Mining had entered liquidation or that African Minerals had suspended operations. While these companies would have “undoubtedly” struggled at iron-ore prices of $70/t, the firm maintained that both would have had a “much better” chance of restructuring and continuing operations if costs had been maintained and if no royalty or streaming instruments were used. “African Minerals signed an offtake with SISG, with significant discounts relating to certain products of iron-ore being mined and beneficiated. “Forecasting revenues was nigh on impossible owing to the uncertainty of product generation and the discounts being applied. When costs rose, the company stood little chance of rescue, particularly with CEO Frank Timmis paying $50-million out to a Cyprus trading company without the authorisation of the rest of the board,” the group asserted. In London Mining’s case, SP Angel asserted that the company’s fall into liquidation was the result of inadequate cost control, the cost of royalties, offtake and streaming instruments taking cash off the top line and the “excessive” debt required to start up the operation. “Iron-ore prices did not have to fall far below most forecasts for last year for the company to close up, and the use of top-line financial instruments made it, apparently, impossible for the banks to rescue the business,” it stated. SP Angel added that Sierra Rutile’s Monday announcement that it had achieved its third-highest quarterly production of 31 025 t of rutile in the quarter ended December 31, despite having faced Ebola-related challenges, had highlighted the ability of a “well-run” company to continue to operate effectively in Sierra Leone, despite the Ebola outbreak. “In short, the failure of these companies has little or nothing to do with the emergence of Ebola in the region in our view,” it concluded

LordSnooty 16:45 RE: From Liu Well, I'm not sure of the date of that email,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,email sent today 15/01/2014 afternoon

internal email from COO

Dear All, Thank you for your continued patience and understanding. AML continues to try to resolve the future funding strategy with its major shareholders. This process has been difficult and has been taking more time than initially anticipated due to the complex nature of the challenges, namely Ebola and the ever declining Iron Ore Price. All parties are committed to resolving AML’s future as fast as possible. Unfortunately, there are still no firm outcomes to report to you at the moment. We ask that you continue to remain patient. As promised, we will update you all with any developments as they become available.