ICL has vetted the CAPEX with CEO Mr. Borgas statement regarding CAPEX being too low. There is no bank which will land money till CAPEX confirmed and exact cost clarified, agreed by ICL. ICL has expertise and their opinion is more valuable as well as more respected by institutional investors and in industry in general than ERCOSPLAN. Mr. Borgas did not say that it is his opinion but opinion of ICL experts with extensive experience and history of excellent performance. My opinion is that more delays will benefit to ICL in an attempt for buyout, (cheap one) which I would not like to happen. After the CAPEX statement by Mr. Borgas, Farhad and his doings are irrelevant, For sure ICL controls the game. Very clever move which made us suffer and wait more with no light at the end of tunnel yet. Bellow extract from Aug 7th 2014 conf call with ICL CEO Stefan Borgas held by Joel Jackson of BMO Capital Market. Please note that above written is my opinion only.
Extract - Stefan Borgas - CEO ICL
'After we bought 16% in Allana Potash, a Canadian company but with the project
in Ethiopia, our technical teams have started to engage very deeply with the
Allana team and what we already saw in the pre-acquisition phase
is that the CAPEX projections that Allana has for this project are rather optimistic. We feel it’s probably a very attractive project. We need a few more months in order to define some of the more really, really technical details that will determine the final feasibility of this project. So we’re positive about it, but the project is not attractive in the way the junior mining company has designed it, at least that’s what we see from today’s perspective.'
Question from Joel Jackson of BMO Capital Market:
'That was very helpful, Stefan.
I just had one more question on Allana in Ethiopia.
You mentioned that Allana’s prior CAPEX estimates were quite optimistic. Maybe you could just give it a little more elaboration here. So what specifically what is optimistic? Was it the mine plan? Was it the prices and the equipment? Do you need to do another feasibility study here?
And where are you six months after this with the timing and the technical
Challenges and opportunities on this project?
Thanks.'
Stefan Borgas:
'So, this is a junior mining company who did a very good job when doing a pilot and
doing some basic design. Now, in order to build a mine, you need to go into more
of a detailed design so that you can narrow the CAPEX range.
We knew this when we bought this option.
What we’ve found now is that our original assumptions require more investigations, so we're not nervous.
The project the way Allana proposes it is not possible at this level of
CAPEX, from our perspective.
What we have done now with our technical team, with contractors, and with
-in collaboration with the Allana guys, is trying to narrow down the
Capex estimate range to a level where we can feel comfortable to approve
this, at least as investors. If Allana
decides to go without us at their current level then I think we will take a step back,. If
they can deliver it, okay, we have the offtake agreement, then this is also okay, but then we would not engage-get engaged full scale.
I believe our guys who are, you know —operation experts, and who know how to deal with Sylvinite and Carnallitite alike, really know what they're talking about so
I have high trust in our team.'
GL to all Allana longs
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
