My take is that there are two (likely) potential scenarios;1....

My take is that there are two (likely) potential scenarios;

1. There is an offer (or a conceptual offer as it may be) that is 'too good to ignore', which could come from any number of parties who want to come in and operate Koka (say Nevsun, Centamin, or a left field entity such as a state owned org??), but who aren't interested in exploration (i.e. don't want to take the company over outright)

This would be an unexpected development from CHN given the focus that has been placed on building an operational team moving towards financing etc, but if the offer is good enough then every asset has it's price and a bird in the hand is worth...'x' in the bush.

This is my preferred outcome; if the board receive an offer that provides adequate compensation for the future upside of the project, taking into account the impact of financing and development risk (and political risk), then I would be inclined to back their judgement. As Dorimus points out, management are at the coal face and know the intricacies of the government and key relationships better than anyone out in shareholder land.

I would be hoping to see something in the order of >$100M for the remaining 60%. This would translate to a cash backing of circa 55c/share taking into account current cash reserves and the $35M due from ENAMCO(excluding any taxes etc).

2. The Eritreans are playing dirty and are forcing a deal to either pick up the project themselves through ENAMCO (unlikely maybe (?) - who is going to operate it?), or pass it to their 'mates' at a knock-down price.

I hope it's not this scenario, but nothing in Africa surprises me...

Time will tell in any case. Regardless of the details - TG and DJ are not fools and have a substantial amount of skin in the game - I'm confident that they'll do the best deal possible in the circumstances.