Traders Cafe with Zak Mir: Arc Minerals and Asiamet

Arc Minerals (ARCM): Dispute Settlements

We have recently been able to point to strong upwards moves in Arc Minerals, helped along by news announced late on Friday evening regarding the settlement of their ongoing disputes with ex-director Mumena Mushinge.

The details of the case and settlement are less important than the implications that the removal of Mushinge’s many legal cases against Arc may now have for shareholders; effectively that of paving the way for their being able to sign (potentially) a Joint Venture deal with one of the several parties showing interest in their vast copper exploration licences.

Arc’s ever energetic Executive Chairman Nick von Schirnding more than hinted at exactly than in his accompanying comments:

“I am very pleased to have executed the Settlement Agreement which allows us to move on from what has been a lengthy period of uncertainty. The settlement… allows us to focus on operations and also accelerate our discussions with interested major mining companies”

Whispers in the City are that there are some big players who have been waiting for favourable settlement of the various cases brought against Arc (by the disgruntled former director). The would-be Joint Venture partners would logically prefer not to have any legal liabilities coming with the deal should they choose to acquire part of or whole of Arc’s Zambian copper projects. Watch closely to see how this story unfolds, especially as we are now into the run up to an Investor Update Conference Call on Friday 25 at 10am. Investors usually like the run up to a tight potential newsflow window, something which could cause the stock to squeeze higher still.

Asiamet Resources (ARS): Deal with DOID?

City Brokers like to talk / gossip, and they are getting excited at another bit of M&A with the prospect of Asiamet completing their own deal with would be acquirer Delta Dunia or DOID as they are also known,  injecting $50million to kickstart the project upon completion of a technical DD process.

Look out for momentum and interest beginning to grow in the stock again especially as DOID’s current technical due diligence period draws to a conclusion; it is likely that the big players will pick these up whilst the market is looking the other way.

Rumours are that larger debt advisory players are beginning to show considerable interest and keen to get a seat at the table; also that potential offtake partners in the form of major commodity trading houses are knocking on the door to get first dibs on copper output from the proposed BKM mine. The market will welcome further on deal progression and especially if further elements of the Asiamet / DOID financing package are lining up simultaneously.

As with all these things, a deal is not a deal until it is signed and Asiamet’s JV is eagerly awaited, we expect that if it continues to progress as it should then shareholders should expect to see significant gains over the coming weeks and months especially with copper prices near all-time highs.