Two local mining companies have been forced to provide clarifications to the ASX this morning, with Flinders Mines responding to a presentation given by BBI Group, while lithium-focused AVZ Minerals told investors to ignore a Twitter post from one of its strategic advisers.
Two local mining companies have been forced to provide clarifications to the ASX this morning, with Flinders Mines responding to a presentation given by BBI Group, while lithium-focused AVZ Minerals told investors to ignore a Twitter post from one of its strategic advisers.
Flinders shareholders raised concerns with the company after a presentation from Todd Corporation-controlled BBI inferred the Pilbara iron ore project would use the group’s planned rail infrastructure, despite no formal agreement currently being in place.
New Zealand-based Todd is also Flinders’ major shareholder, with a 55.3 per cent interest in the company.
After consulting with Todd, Flinders said the presentation should be disregarded.
“The directors wish to make it clear that the company does not have any existing commercial agreements in place with BBIG and any future negotiation with BBIG may or may not result in a commercial agreement to use BBIG infrastructure,” the company said.
BBI is developing the Balla Balla infrastructure project, which is a rail and port project located between Dampier and Port Hedland to be used for iron ore exporting.
The group has signed a term sheet to farm-in to Brockman Mining’s Marillana iron ore project in the Pilbara.
Flinders has previously indicated that if the BB project proceeds, it would represent a potential transportation infrastructure option for its Pilbara project.
Brockman does not feature in the presentation.
When questioned about the presentation, Todd advised that:
- the document was not prepared by BBIG for external distribution. It was prepared for internal purposes only and some of the information in the document is preliminary, not verified, indicative only or out of date;
- future completion dates for certain activities in the document are current target dates only and are contingent on many factors outside TIO’s control. As a result, they have the potential to change significantly;
- forecast financial information in the document about operating and capital costs, is a number of years old, unverified and based on various high level hypothetical assumptions; and
- the nature of the document, including the circumstances in which it was prepared, means that the document should not be relied on.
Shares in Flinders were up 1.25 per cent at 8.1 cents each at 330pm AEDT.
Meanwhile, AVZ has responded to a Twitter post from Airguide International principal Michael Langford, warning investors not to rely on the information used in the post.
Airguide is AVZ’s strategic adviser in relation to contract agreements in China.
Mr Langford uses a table to compare AVZ to a number of other lithium companies, which includes mineral resource estimates.
“The company advises that it has yet to report a mineral resource estimate in accordance with the JORC Code 2012 or any technical studies involving production cost estimates to a level where it has ‘reasonable grounds’ under ASIC Regulatory Guide 170 to disclose this forecast financial information to the market,” AVZ said in a statement.
“The company warns that investors should not rely on information in relation to AVZ securities other than the company’s announcements made through the ASX market announcements platform.”
Shares in AVZ were off 9.09 per cent at 10 cents each at 340pm AEDT.
