re: Ann: Chalice and ENAMCO Sign Zara Mining ... I'm not so...

re: Ann: Chalice and ENAMCO Sign Zara Mining ... I'm not so pessimistic about the Eritrean's stumping the cash. It's Africa and anything can happen, but in this case the precedent (Nevsun) is positive. ENAMCO paid a down payment of $25M in 2007 (for 30% of Bisha) then paid 33.33% of the capex of $240M. I'm not sure if they have yet agreed the remainder of the 30% buy in.

Also - don't forget who stepped in to keep Nevsun going when their debt funding fell over in late 2009 and equity funding wasnt possible...

The Eritrean gov may not be flavour of the month with the west, but there are plenty of funding options available to them regionally (think Qatar and the middle eastern sovereign wealth funds generally).

Having said all that, the market obviously has reservations about whether the Eritreans will deliver and only time will tell, so it will be interesting to see how the SP reacts if all goes to plan.