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CEO Erin Chutter comments on the cobalt market and explains Monday’s standstill agreement regarding Global Cobalt’s option to acquire 100-percent interests in the Karakul and Altai Sisters projects.
When Cobalt Investing News last checked in with Global Cobalt (TSXV:GCO,OTCBB:GLBCF), the Vancouver-based company had just secured a lease agreement — including an option to purchase — for the Idaho-based Iron Creek cobalt-copper property.
As CEO Erin Chutter explained at the time, the move was based on the company’s desire to diversify. Though the company’s Karakul project, located in Russia, remains important, due to tension between that country and Ukraine, ”some shareholders are interested in projects in other regions like our Canadian Werner Lake project and now this US based asset,” she said.
Since that time, the company has remained committed to both diversification and Karakul. Global Cobalt’s plans for Iron Creek continue to move forward — on October 29 the TSX Venture Exchange accepted for filing the agreement for the property — and on Monday news surfaced that the company has entered into a standstill agreement with Imperial Mining Holding regarding its option agreement to acquire 100-percent interests in Karakul and the Altai Sisters projects.
As a press release from the company states, the standstill will be in effect until January 31, 2015, and is aimed at allowing Imperial to resolve a number of issues. Specifically, while Global Cobalt’s option agreement with Imperial requires it to make “staged exploration expenditures of at least USD $15 million on the Properties by December 30, 2015,” receivership proceedings against an Imperial subsidiary have “resulted in the [Global Cobalt’s] inability to extend the option agreement at this time.”
Essentially, as Chutter explained in a video interview with Cobalt Investing News, the standstill “is really an attempt to make sure that we could keep the Karakul project in good standing and continue to move it forward with our Chinese partners who are helping us analyze the economic and technical opportunities with respect to Karakul.” She added, “our partners had some difficulties and we wanted to make sure that we could continue to work on the project, but we needed a standstill period so that we could keep the option agreements in good standing while they work through their issues.”
For more insight on the cobalt market, as well as on Global Cobalt’s plans for both Karakul and its North American properties, watch the video below.
Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Editorial Disclosure: Global Cobalt is a client of the Investing News Network. This article is not paid-for content.
The Investing News Network does not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the information reported in the interviews it conducts. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not reflect the opinions of the Investing News Network and do not constitute investment advice. All readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence.
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