Why would a EAR TKO of MKO be cleaner? In a situation where the...

Why would a EAR TKO of MKO be cleaner?

In a situation where the share registers were not aligned I would have thought that MKO would have a far stronger hand in negotiations but suspect that the destiny of both companies will be dictated by the common shareholders.

Re: Fair value of plant - obviously replacement cost of $80m+ is only of relevance as a note that EAR will have to spend far in excess of this to get into production if they can't get access to plant and associated infrastructure.

The BW mine was bought from the receivers for $4.82m in 2013 in much the same way that BLK bought the Matilda plant for around $2m from the receivers but these numbers have no more relevance than the $80m+ number.

The plant and infrastructure is hugely valuable when aligned with the right feed stock as has been shown with the rise of BLK.

Other than to take advantage of current POG I don't see any urgency for MKO to rush into marriage with EAR. It would be different if they were in production and had run out of feed stock but that is not the case.

I would prefer MKO to build their own reserves for the next year or so and if they can get to a point where they have their own initial few years production proved up.

I would imagine EAR will take some time to come out with their proved up reserves in any event.

The Julius mine I think is 60km away from BW - are the haulage roads etc. in place or do these need to be built?

Cheers,

Barry