They will probably wait till the end of the month.
I get a little comfort knowing that Les will not be able to enjoy his stashs for the period that he will be encarcerated.Hopefully the lawyers can successfully get the goods on Les . I can only hope and dream.
Don’t get your hopes up. In fact, my money is on this whole situation being settled in a civil context and a criminal complaint not even being filed. Think about it: WE have an interest in getting this problem resolved expeditiously. Les has an interest in stringing it out - and with competent counsel he could do so for YEARS. Even if the case makes it to trial in a year or so, appeals could be taken for years to come. My best guess is that the impatience of certain shareholders will prevail and a “deal” will be made.
This situation also militates against any possible TO - why would a major buy MDMN out when we don’t even know our proper outstanding shares? Too much drama - the major will insist that the “deal” be made. Bet on it. By the way, I’m thinking a TO is not in the offing anyway, as Auryn is contemplating registration on an exchange, which means they will be attempting to raise the needed moneys to go-it-alone to the extent they can. Obviously some parts of the mountain are just too expensive to go it alone, but that should be taken care of by a JV deal, hopefully coming up soon.
…unless that’s where they raise the money for the TO, so they can really “go-it-alone”
I believe that Auryn is planning for more than one mining project at the same time on the Alto. Auryn for gold and maybe Freeport for copper?
"This effort will help us refine our business plan as we consider the development of the entire project, including the possibility of bringing on additional partners for the porphyry targets."
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What about Criminal court by shareholders with the appropriate district attorney representation after there is a civil court resolution?
That’s what District Attorneys are for - they make the technical (and sometimes “political”) decision on behalf of the people as to whether to prosecute. If laymen could do so, grand juries would be overflowing with people trying to hook their “enemy” with a criminal charge. Of course, if you’re good friends with a DA, ADA, or Attorney General, then that’s when the “political” comes into play.
Could Freeport be looking at the ADL as a replacement to the Grasberg mine in Indonesia ? Just a thought, not a rumor, I think everything is possible, that is JMHO.
Freeport is indeed having trouble in Indonesia, per a news release just minutes ago. Keep in mind that this demonstrates the VALUE of being in a mining-friendly country.
Freeport-McMoRan Updates Status of PT Freeport Indonesia Operations
PHOENIX–(BUSINESS WIRE) – Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX) is providing an update on the status of PT Freeport Indonesia’s (PT-FI) operations and its discussions with the Government of Indonesia on concentrate exports and other matters related to its Contract of Work (COW).
Following more than five years of discussions with the Government, in which PT-FI negotiated in good faith to be responsive to the Government’s aspirations while protecting the rights of its stakeholders, the parties have failed to reach agreement.
Indonesian government regulations passed in January and February 2017 require that PT-FI terminate its COW and convert to a special license (IUPK) in order to export its concentrate production. PT-FI has advised the Government that attempts to enforce this regulation on PT-FI violates its COW and that it is unwilling to terminate its COW unless replaced by a mutually acceptable form of agreement providing fiscal and legal assurances to support its long-term investment plans in Papua, Indonesia.
As a result, PT-FI has been unable to export concentrates and is proceeding with its plan to suspend investments in Papua, reduce its production by approximately 60 percent from normal levels and implement cost savings plans involving significant reductions in its work force and spending levels with local suppliers.
On February 17, 2017, pursuant to the COW’s dispute resolution provisions, PT-FI provided formal notice of an impending dispute to the Government listing the Government’s multiple breaches of the COW.
Richard C. Adkerson, FCX President and Chief Executive Officer, said: “Despite extensive efforts to reach an agreement with the Government, we have been unsuccessful in achieving a resolution that would avoid the negative impacts for all stakeholders, especially for our workforce and the local economy. We are simply asking the Government to honor our legally binding Contract. We urge the Government to honor the Contract and demonstrate that the Country remains open for foreign investment. This would be in the best interests of all stakeholders, including the Government of Indonesia, our large work force, the local community, local suppliers and Freeport’s shareholders.”
PT-FI’s first quarter production has been adversely impacted by the suspension of concentrate exports and a temporary outage since January 19, 2017, at PT Smelting (PT-FI’s 25 percent-owned copper smelter and refinery located in Gresik, Indonesia). PT Smelting has advised PT-FI that it expects to resume operations in March 2017. Assuming resumption of PT Smelting’s operations in March and a continuation of the ban on exports, FCX estimates its first quarter sales will be reduced, resulting in deferrals of approximately 170 million pounds and 270,000 ounces, representing a reduction of approximately 17 percent for copper and 59 percent for gold of its consolidated first quarter sales.
For each month of delay in obtaining approval to export, PT-FI’s share of production is projected to be reduced by approximately 70 million pounds of copper and 70 thousand ounces of gold.
FCX is a leading international mining company with headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona. FCX operates large, long-lived, geographically diverse assets with significant proven and probable reserves of copper, gold and molybdenum. FCX is the world’s largest publicly traded copper producer.
FCX’s portfolio of assets includes the Grasberg minerals district in Indonesia, one of the world’s largest copper and gold deposits; significant mining operations in the Americas, including the large-scale Morenci minerals district in North America and the Cerro Verde operation in South America. Additional information about FCX is available on FCX’s website at “fcx.com.”
Keep in mind that BHP’s Escondida Mine is also currently offline due to a strike. Mauricio told us at the informational meeting that the 2 majors that have been kicking the tires at the Pegaso Nero in addition to Freeport are both larger than Freeport. In an environment in which there is a 25 year low in new discoveries and shut downs like these are going on in the macro mining world you’d have to think that the ADL has made it onto the radar screen of several majors in dire need of replacing reserves. I’m wondering if the stage of development at which a major makes a move might be dialed back a bit. I recall Kevin’s comments upon meeting Mauricio at last year’s PDAC regarding how all of the geos and management teams of the various major miners all seemed to know Maurizio when they passed him in the hallway.
Freeport warns of arbitration as Indonesia mining dispute escalates
By Reuters
Monday February 20, 2017
U.S. mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Inc warned on Monday that it could take the Indonesian government to arbitration and seek damages over a contractual dispute that has halted operations at the world’s second-biggest copper mine.
In an escalation of the dispute, Freeport Chief Executive Richard Adkerson also said its local unit had made its first layoffs since negotiations started in January over a new mining permit, and it may let go of more workers this week.
The row, which centers around the sanctity of Freeport’s 30-year mining contract, comes as Indonesia seeks to squeeze more revenue out of its mining industry through a shake-up of regulations over foreign ownership and ore processing rules.
“Right now we are at an impasse with the government,” Adkerson told a news conference in Jakarta.
Freeport has been at loggerheads with the Indonesian government over the terms of a special mining permit to replace its contract of work after halting its exports of copper concentrate due to the new mining rules.
On Friday, the miner said it could not meet contractual obligations for copper concentrate shipments from the mine following a five-week export stoppage. Last week, all mining work was stopped at its giant Grasberg mine in the eastern Indonesian province of Papua.
Freeport’s existing contract of work was still in place based on legal advice, according to Adkerson, and the company has notified Indonesia’s mining ministry of what it says are breaches and violations of the contract by the government. That starts a 120-day period for the two sides to settle the dispute themselves.
“At the end of that period if this dispute is not resolved we reserve the right at that time to commence arbitration,” Adkerson said.
The company also warned of “severe unfavorable consequences for all stakeholders” if no resolution is reached.
The consequences could include “the suspension of capital investments, a significant reduction in domestic purchases of goods and services, and job losses for contractors and workers as we are forced to adjust our business costs to match constrained production,” it said.
Adkerson said about 10 percent of the expatriate workforce was laid off on Friday and that this week “we will be releasing contract workers.”
Of Freeport Indonesia’s 32,000 workers, only 12,000 are employees and the rest are contractors, he said.
WASHINGTON WATCHING
Adkerson said Indonesia’s treatment of Freeport was likely to be watched by Washington since a large proportion of the company’s shareholders were mutual funds and investment funds.
“I’m confident the U.S. government will want to see Freeport treated fairly,” said Adkerson.
He also said that activist shareholder Carl Icahn, who holds around 7 percent of Freeport-McMoRan shares, was “very concerned about what is happening in Indonesia.”
Adkerson said Freeport was committed to staying in Indonesia and that the mine was critical for Papua. Contributions from Grasberg represent nearly half of the province’s economy, according to the company’s website.
The chief executive of Freeport’s Indonesian unit, Chappy Hakim, appointed in November to lead the company through a period of regulatory uncertainty, resigned on Saturday. Adkerson said the company was still assessing his replacement.
Indonesia’s mining minister, Ignasius Jonan, on Saturday warned Freeport that bringing the dispute to arbitration could harm the relationship between the company and the government.
“But it would be a much better step rather than always using the issue of firing workers as a tool to pressure the government,” he added.
Under its current contract signed in 1991, Freeport said on Monday it had invested $12 billion in Indonesia.
But the company cannot make the $15 billion additional capital investment to develop underground mining without fiscal and legal guarantees from the government, Adkerson said.
Grasberg was expected to produce 800,000 tonnes of copper in 2017, about 3.5 percent of global supply, said Jefferies analyst Chris LaFemina.
“Freeport declares force majeure at Indonesia copper mine”
DOC - Thanks for the article!
A Force Majeure clause (French for “superior force”) is a contract provision that allows a party to suspend or terminate the performance of its obligations when certain circumstances beyond their control arise, making performance inadvisable, commercially impracticable, illegal, or impossible. The provision may state that the contract is temporarily suspended, or that it is terminated if the event of force majeure continues for a prescribed period of time.
The list of events to be included is a matter of negotiation between the parties. A typical list of force majeure events might include war, riots, fire, flood, hurricane, typhoon, earthquake, lightning, explosion, strikes, lockouts, slowdowns, prolonged shortage of energy supplies, and acts of state or governmental action prohibiting or impeding any party from performing its respective obligations under the contract. So if, for example, a hurricane occurred that shut down a port, the seller planning to ship its goods through that port would not be liable for late delivery of the goods.
In the absence of a force majeure clause, parties to a contract are left to the mercy of the narrow common law contract doctrines of “impracticability” and “frustration of purpose,” which rarely result in excuse of performance.
https://www.contractstandards.com/clauses/force-majeure
Also thanks for your earlier posts pointing out areas of the ALTO that have argillic alteration rising all the way to the surface and that these are typically found immediately above a porphyry. I think AURYN is quite confident in initially exploiting those areas of high content gold veins for what is easiest to extract on it’s own, but the Fortuna may be quite different from the Caren’s multiple high grade gold veins. Only a few of the Fortuna’s veins were artisinally mined. There are many narrow veinlets in the area not easily mined. As already referenced, the Fortuna exhibits argillic alteration (high sulfidation?) at the surface with a suspected porphyry immediately below.
At October’s info meeting I specifically asked if it had been determined to start with an open pit on the Fortuna and was quite surprised to hear Maurizio say that decision had not yet been determined. I’m thinking FCX may well be involved with a JV for the Pegaso Nero (only?) to be done in stages, and it has been interested for quite some time. Perhaps another player (Hochschild Mining would be my guess) will bid for a JV on the Fortuna and what lies below. Pure speculation on my part, but Dr. Jannas knows exactly what it would take to get an open pit started, and definitely has experience and many mining contacts. Could the plans for an IPO be a conditional requirement in formulating future JV partnerships that allows for sequential and progressive cash buy-ins in exchange for a class of “treasury stock” as milestones in drilling and mapping out deposits are reached? Would each of the current equity owners have a number of free trading shares issued proportional to their ownership as part of an IPO for immediate cash or future dividend use? I would expect current equity owners (MASGLAS, Medinah Minerals and Cerro Dorrado) to maintain special voting control rights as suggested by DonD:[quote=“DonD, post:528, topic:1735”]
Pre-IPO Owners Don’t Give Up Control in an Up-C Offering
To do so, when the corporate entity goes public, the pre-IPO owners receive Class B shares equal to their ownership stake in the company. The shares generally provide super voting rights to control the publicly traded corporate entity, are not publicly traded and have no economic rights, Shannon explained.
[/quote]
Many interesting possibilities to contemplate for the year(s) ahead. More immediately, we await results of the shipments already sent to ENAMI, and updated expectations for production this year.
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Medinah files to seek removal of attorney Ori Kowarsky from representing Les Price due to conflict of interest…
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Pretty much answers, in my mind anyway, of why Medinah chose to answer and file countersuits in BC and not move legal cases to US jurisdiction.
Good Stuff;
I hope it costs Les a huge amount of money to get a new lawyer & defend himself in court.
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IMO, Les will be representing himself
No rumors, just actions!
Thank you Kevin!
Ps like to see what Auryn has in store for the monthly news letter.
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Thanks to Gary on this one as well.
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After reading the Notice I truly do not understand how that legal firm in good conscious could continue to represent Price and the defendants. On the flip side I too wonder what information they might have that could prejudice Medinah in its claims against Price. So is this tactical, or a real concern or actually both? Let’s see if the Judge agrees, and if he does I believe this would be a big win for side. JMO
CEO Update - Chile Trip Report and Legal Updates Posted
February 21, 2016
From February 10th through the 16th, 2017, I was in Santiago, Chile as both the President & CEO of Medinah Minerals, Inc. and Communications Director of Auryn Mining Chile SpA. The full trip report is available on our website.
In addition, I have updated our legal page with three new links regarding an application to remove Les Price’s attorney due to a conflict of interest.
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