Slashwood Mining vs Indigenous Law: A Zimbabwe Lesson
Slashwood Mining (SM): Based on Zimbabwe filings, SM is an Israeli owned company funded by members of Astra Diamonds (see Avi Schnur). A non-native upstart gold mining company with 6-8 gold milling facilities and gold bedrock claims. Through its acquisition, LLSR owns 10% via their affiliate, TAG Minerals Zimbabwe (Private) Limited. Zimbabwe passed a law last March requiring non-native mining companies to surrender 51% of their company to either the government or native mining company. Currently, SM is 90% non-native and 10% native. While the original time frame for complying to this mandate was redefined in the 3rd quarter last year to give non-native companies more time to comply, SM is faced with meeting this requirement at some point in time. Since SM had invested millions of dollars provided by their parent company prior to the Indigenous law being passed, the option to walk away is the least desirable. Ideally, SM will either sell their entire operation or sell the remaining 41% of their company to a native owned mining company. TAG Minerals (Z) is in the leadership position either way as they already own 10% of the native portion and Tapawa (The "T" in TAG) is the local officer running SM.
Bedrock gold mining requires a lot of infrastructure, time and money upfront before being placed in a position to generate revenue. Diamond drilling/core sampling is needed to locate the gold vein deposits. Mining plans developed leading to building a series of mining tunnels/infrastructure... and then a lot of additional processing steps to maneuver into their gold milling facilities and onto revenue production. As customary, initial revenues are directed towards the loan obligation which may take a number of quarters before meaningful revenue is recognized by TAG (Z).
It is my opinion SM is unimportant today to TAG (Z) and hence LLSR because they are many quarters away from materially drawing down their loan to produce sufficient quarterly revenue such that 10% has meaningful value.
TAG (Z) sits in a favorable position to watch events unfold to determine their future role, if any, concerning SM. SM has to maneuver itself to comply with the Zimbabwe Indigenous Law. Tapawa is in a great position as the manager of SM to watch the company from within. Should another potential native buyer engage, TAG (Z) will know immediately. Is the company performing well or are their problems?.....we don't know as we can't "see" their revenue stream as they appear to be drawing down their loan.... but TAG (Z) has to know since Tapawa is the local manager of SM
It is my opinion that as the noose of the Zimbabwe Indigenous Law begins to tighten around SM's neck, TAG (Z) with its 10% ownership will closely monitor the dynamics to either walk away (if the company is performing poorly), acquire the remaining 41% (so SM meets the 51% native owned requirement) or take over 100%. If SM is performing well and there are no other native mining companies interested in working with SM via a 41%/49%/10% split (as Tapawa should be the direct interface for these discussions), then TAG (Z) will sit back and buy low..... as SM has to comply at some point in time and the time to make the deal is when the last of the rope is starting to stretch around SM's neck.
In summary, SM should continue to draw down their loan for a number of quarters before 10% of revenue has any value to TAG (Z)'s bottom line. As such, SM is unimportant to LLSR at this point in time.... and even in volume production, 10% is not a large amount. The story is what happens down the road as the Indigenous Law is finally applied to SM..... SM has to know the longer they wait and do nothing, they continually loose leverage. TAG (Z), a native owned company, sits in an optimum position to discourage other local native owned companies from engaging... and if there is a potential suitor, TAG (Z) will know immediately.... and if SM is geared for success, then TAG (Z) is the frontrunner to determine how big of the piece of pie to acquire.... the other 41% or 90%.... that will be the question.
Thank you.... there are reasons they call me the,
Warrior of Wisdom
AI
