Semantics my friends!
From a pure point Kry is correct when they say there are no problems. They have followed their contract to the letter and beyond. They have delivered everything that was asked including any changes requested after the permit was denied on environmental reasons. They are operating under a normal business assumption that when a deal is struck such as our MOC and one party fulfills their end of the deal the other party will fulfill theirs.
Are their problems? That is obvious since we are still without a permit.
I believe Kry has recognized that the problem isn't fact based but political which they have no control over. There only path to clearing up this political problem was to either sell their MOC to someone that would receive the permit or file for arbitration.
I'm fairly confident that Russia has made an unofficial offer for LC just like Rusoro made an offer for LB and the offer wasn't worth pursuing.
Kry brought in another partner (China) that VZ said was acceptable. Bringing in China was done after assurances all the way up to Chavez himself that this would fix the political problem that shouldn't have been there in the first place.
Kry can honestly say there are no problems at this point in time since they have once again done everything VZ has asked of them.If there is a problem it will be between VZ and China. This is why many people believe the deal will get done. What possible reason can Hugo come up with to tell China they won't be getting the permit.
If the permit isn't issued at this point the only option will be arbitration.
Some have suggested that China and VZ are in cahoots and plan to screw Kry together. Anything is possible but I find that very unlikely. If that was the plan why go to all the trouble of doing a JV deal and loaning Kry money.
We all sit here waiting and there isn't a single this we can do about it. I mentioned before that Khan going to China could be about other mining projects that have been announced in the past. If we get no news when Khan returns to VZ today it doesn't mean our deal is in trouble.
Time always seems to work against us but as often as I've said this time we will get answers we do have a final time frame. The arbitration deadline is less than 5 months away. If VZ really wants to avoid arbitration the clock is ticking on them this time.
JJ
