12/8/2023 0 Comments Avz mineralsThe Manono mine could be around twice the size of Western Australia’s famous Greenbushes mine. In May, AVZ requested a trading halt and first disclosed its ownership rights to the Manono project had been challenged by Zijin, Cominiere, and a Seychelles entity named Dathomir. rather than paralyse this great historical project which nourishes the hope of the Congolese people”. Mr Ferguson wrote that he hoped the government could “settle this conflict. In the letter, in French, Mr Ferguson said the AVZ joint venture had not been respected, and alleged the decision to revoke the licence – a “shock” and “surprise” – was invalid. In a separate letter obtained by The Australian Financial Review, Mr Ferguson on February 3 wrote to the Minister of Mines protesting the decision to revoke the licence, describing it as a “political decision”. The company’s managing director, Nigel Ferguson, said he “apologised for the continued frustration being felt by shareholders and our cornerstone investor”. In the letter, Zijin said it would not request the return of a $US33.4 million ($48.7 million) payment it had made to Cominiere in 2021 for a 15 per cent interest in Manono if the government agreed to a new joint venture excluding AVZ.ĪVZ last month said it was seeking legal advice regarding the cancellation of its licences and “expediting discussions to clarify the intentions” of authorities in DRC. Zijin did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. The lithium deposit is expected to be twice the size of Australia’s richest, Greenbushes in Western Australia, and could be the largest hard rock deposit in the world. Zijin’s claim to the project gained traction in late January after DRC’s Minister of Mines ordered AVZ’s licence at Manono be revoked. Shares in AVZ, which investor excitement propelled to a market valuation of $4.6 billion, have been suspended since May amid increasing tensions between the company and Chinese interests racing to secure access to key raw materials for the clean energy transition. One of the largest state-owned mining companies in China made a secret bid to seize control of a major African lithium deposit from ASX-listed AVZ Minerals months before officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo stripped the Australian group of its licence.Ĭorrespondence from Zijin Mining to a DRC state-run firm known as Cominiere sent on October 21 shows the Chinese company requested it be assigned the northern-eastern part of the Manono project, which AVZ claims a significant ownership interest in.ĪVZ Minerals chief executive Nigel Ferguson.
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