Gold Reserve rose 17¢ to $3.35 per share. The company recently received Venezuelan government bonds with an estimated market value of US$88.5 million as payment towards the December 2017 and January and February 2018 monthly installments under a 2009 settlement agreement. The latest payment brings the total amount Gold Reserve has received so far to US$276 million. (Venezuela is five months in arrears at US$29.5 million per month). In addition, about US$8 million previously tendered by the Venezuelan government was transferred recently from the company’s trust account in Venezuela to its bank account in North America, leaving US$37 million left in the trust account.
In October 2009, the company started an arbitration claim against Venezuela to get compensation after the country terminated its Brisas project, in violation of the terms of the treaty between the governments of Canada and Venezuela for the promotion and protection of investments.
In September 2014, the ICSID Tribunal unanimously awarded Gold Reserve $740.3 million. In July 2016, Gold Reserve signed the settlement deal, under which Venezuela agreed to pay the award (including interest), and buy the company’s mining data. Under the amended agreement, Venezuela will pay Gold Reserve $792 million to satisfy the award and $240 million for the data for a total of $1.03 billion.
Shares of Select Sands dropped 22¢ to 24¢ apiece after the company lost a key customer. Liberty Oilfield Services ended its frac sand supply agreement with Select Sands effective in November. “Although it is possible that Liberty will purchase frac sand from the company following termination of the agreement,” the company stated, “there are no assurances that any such relationship will continue.” Select Sands had been supplying Liberty with frac sand for the last 18 months and no reason was given for the termination. Select Sands expects third-quarter sales will be between 65,000 and 90,000 tons of frac and industrial sands from its properties in Arkansas.
Standard Lithium has appointed industry veteran Robert Cross to its board. Cross co-founded and serves as chairman of B2Gold. He was also a co-founder of Bankers Petroleum and Petrodorado Energy, and until October 2007 served as non-executive chairman of Northern Orion Resources. Standard Lithium’s flagship is a brine project in Arkansas. It also has lithium projects in California’s Mojave desert. In August, the company reported four brine samples from two wells in the Smackover Formation in southwestern Arkansas showed lithium concentrations between 347 and 461 milligrams per litre lithium (mg/L), with an average 450 mg/L in one of the wells and 350 mg/L in the other. Standard Lithium closed the trading week at $1.20, down 20¢ a share.
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