Exactly! Indonesia has confiscated the giant Grasberg mine.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo insisted that his government should take over control of the Grasberg mine, because it was located in his country. He forced Freeport-McMoRan to give 51% of the mine to his government, otherwise he said that he would stop all shipments of any mining production from the mine. Which he did, until Freeport agreed to his terms.
Rio Tinto, a major mining company, had a contract which guaranteed it a 40% stake in the Grasberg mine through 2022, but President Joko said that the contract was no longer valid, and confiscated the entire 40% position of Rio Tinto. (He did pay Rio a 'suitable' amount for their 40%)
In addition to the 40% from Rio, the Indonesia government already had a 9% stake in the Grasberg mine, so they only took an additional 2% from Freeport. Not a big deal in itself, but there is nothing to prevent Widodo from confiscating the remaining 49% of the mine held by Freeport. And he has given hints that that is what he is considering, because he said that he needed control of the mines' output and cash flow to cover his governments expenses. His irresponsible fiscal spending is leading his government into deeper debt, and Widodo may very well use this as an excuse to confiscate the rest of Grasberg. FREEPORT HAS TO SEE THE WRITING ON THE WALL.
Rio Tinto previously was one of Northern Dynasty's joint venture partners, and left the JV under duress from our EPA. We now have a new, HONEST EPA, and Rio has said, that because they no longer have a stake in the giant copper-gold Grasberg mine, they are actively seeking a joint venture with any company that has a comparable giant copper-gold deposit. THE ONLY COMPANY THAT FITS THAT REQUIREMENT IS NAK.
Freeport may (probably) be looking for a new JV agreement with any company that has a mine comparable to Grasberg. They could sell the rest of their stake in Grasberg to Indonesia, and use the money for their new JV.
PEBBLE's AMOUNT OF GOLD-COPPER-MOLYBDENUM IS LARGER THAN GRASBERG's Knowing that, Freeport would probably prefer to have NAK as a joint venture, but since Grasberg is already a producing mine, Freeport would normally stay with Grasberg. Now, however, since there is a strong possibility that they are going to lose Grasberg, NAK would start to look like a better option.
NAK would make a VERY ENTICING addition for Freeport.
NAK would make a very enticing addition for many many major mining companies.
And Northern Dynasty has said that it is in talks with many major mining companies. But first, I would suppose, they will wait to see how the permitting process proceeds, and if Northern Dynasty can get the Alaskan public to view Pebble favorably.
If those two criteria are met, Northern Dynasty would be in control of setting the terms of the Joint Venture agreement. OUR STOCK PRICE WOULD GO SKY HIGH.
