At this point I agree they should get a PR out -they've told us they were waiting for clarity and didnt want to make promises they couldnt keep by PR'ing things like shipments before the fact-(since we've seen so many delays-the underpromise type of thing) and counsel has been apparently telling them to cool it re publicity until sec negotiations are finished or at least past a critical point-still dont know whats been taking so long unless SEC was preoccupied w the elections-since they ultimately are political and 100's of new sec attorneys were reportedly hired by the political admin ca late 2009 to go after low priced pennies since they couldnt do much w big business due to big businesses political and legal clout, as noted by the author of Predator Nation.
I've been explaining just as a method of reassurance that the caution re publicity during such negotiations is normal attorney and negotiating procedure-
but it is a public company so at some point they need to sit down w attorney(s) and remind him/them that and of their responsibility to keep shareholders informed
They have had so many things up in the air due to Mr Murphy ,including fluctuating iron prices and steelmakers then full inventories,and 10 possible negotiations (including the sec matter) and obtaining of the export to the USA permit for the fertilizer.
So under those conditions they couldnt make any unconditional promises.
I noted before that it would be nice if they said in a PR once they had legal go ahead things like the following-and of course its very unlikely any PR would include all of the following things but these are some of the matters they could PR:
Example of possible PR items
1) "We are in the process of obtaining an export permit to the USA for the fertilizer product "
[something complicated by a change in the Mex govt-the Presidential election results were confirmed as of Aug 30 when the Mex Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the Presidential election-another example of Murphys law over which they have no control].
"Since the Fe concentration in the fertilizer product is greater than anything else we need an iron exporters permit for export to the USA for the fertilizer"
[as luck would have its possible they didnt realize the govt would classify the fertilizer product as iron or perhaps thats part of the newer Mex govt rules/vigilance re iron exports as of this year]
2) "As you know steelmakers inventories had been unusually full due to an unexpected supply increase-so that precluded any late summer shipment as steelmakers werent buying much during that period. But those inventories have been declining since ca Aug 1" [as per independent articles I posted] and prices have been rising.
"As always we are in contact with Bao and other parties re possible orders and expect to ship again in . ..." .
[that might make Bao mad if Bao intends, as it no doubt does, to be CWRN's only buyer for the core iron product-there are so many things they could say that could offend their buyers or negotiating partners so its hard to say anything until a concrete deal is fashioned in each case-and of course stockholders always want to know every detail so there is that tension in each company between what stockholders want to know ,what the company would LIKE to say vs what the company can actually say without offending certain parties or revealing to certain parties, like competitors and others too much]
3) "We are negotiating w Bao for a larger ship this time -hopefully in the 60k ton class to save on shipping cost"
[as CWRN has said-see also the 9-2011 PR--and then if those negotiations are not fruitful and they end up w another 40k ton class many would cry foul]
4) " We continue or have finished processing the over 200k tons of 0-1mm "waste" product (independently tested as 55.42-55.9% iron) as sinter fines and fertilizer by running all three screens 6 to 7 days /week. We took possession of the heavily customized, hardened trommel and the terex 400 loader for this purpose on May 19,2012 and received the separate magnetic separator for the trommel on July 3rd."
"As noted by the Apr 13 and 6-25-12 PR's the trommel is used to separate the 0-1mm into .5-1mm iron chips for sinter fines and the remaining under .5mm material as organic fertilizer.
We have been in contact and discussions w OMRI -the largest west coast distributor of organic fertilizer-to either sell the product to them as is or to build a JV plant on site to process the fertilizer further and thus enhance its value. Such processed fertilizer sells for 330 -550/ton depending on whether it is pelletized (the 550/ton stuff).
We have also separately had an offer of xxx for the fertilizer product"[as publicly noted]
[but if you are negotiating or having discussions with multiple parties for the same product you might not want to advertise that in a PR unless it was a purposeful pressure negotiating tactic in specific situations]
5) "We are negotiating or have finished negotiating with the Mexican govt for the 45k tons of ore remaining at the port after the Qin Hai sailed June 12 with 43829 tons".
"After obtaining a new 2012 export permit in early Jan,the govt required an unprecedented series of additional audits of all iron exporters because they were unable to differentiate between the illegal southern mainland wild west cartel mines and legitimate iron exporters"[see 6-25-12 PR]
[thats what they would like to say since shareholders knee jerk blame these companies for everything]
6) " We have been trucking an iron gravel mix to Cemex's Ensenada plant for use in their industrial cement products. Cemex was the original operator of the concession for that purpose. The revenues from this cement product have been covering 80%" [I'm just throwing out that figure as a reasonable guess from what has been publicly posted by CWRN] "of CWRN's overhead for the last xxx months/year."
7). "Iron ore was only 10-14/ton til 2002 and thus about 1/2 of junior miners still have a production cost under 13/ton. We have acquired some of our equipment at greatly reduced prices and reconditioned them ourselves to save the company millions in equipment costs. We have similarly employed many other cost cutting strategies in our operations.
Also, mining costs are much less in Mexico than the USA or Canada. Thus we have been able to hold the cost of production to xx dollars/ton. So we are clearly profitable at every iron ore spot price since we began operations."
"However, during the lowest iron prices in August and Sept , since we already have xxx,xxx tons of inventory" [which grajekk and I estimate at 500k tons], "we lent our crushing equipment to the Highway 101 widening project for additional revenue." [a guess based on publicly posted info]. "Highway 101 is Baja's main highway and approaches within 5.5 miles of the mine via the secondary Highway that borders the mine and from there is a direct link to the port of Ensenada."
9) At some point they may have news re further drilling (Sept 2011 and Apr 2012 PR's) and an onsite beneficiation plant w Bao (Apr 13 2012 PR) as well as an onsite fertilizer plant-[previous public CWRN posting] -though I'm guessing the initial load of fertilizer will be sold as "processed" by the trommel. Have I missed any other operational matters?
10) Mr Zhao says hello
They can't say much re negotiations w sec until those are finished--I see no reason why those should take much longer as the facts were determined in June and the doj matter has finished.
