Dear developers,

During the last GRMF Oversight Committee (OC) meeting on 27 March 2018, there has been an important decision for those developers with an awarded surface study (SS) application. This OC decision is related to the GRMF rule that allows developers with a successfully implemented surface study to skip the pre-qualification stage stage (EoI stage) for their planned drilling programme (DP), and to submit directly a full application. In this regard, the GRMF Developer Manual states the following:

“In two exceptional cases developers are exempted from the pre-qualification stage, meaning that they may directly submit a full application after attending the obligatory pre-bidding workshop:

  • (…)
  • The project already has benefited from GRMF surface study grant with significant positive results (approved integrated resource report as final report of surface study being prerequisite).”

Therefore, the RGCU wants to inform that developers with an awarded surface study application will only be considered for this rule, in case they have a signed GRMF Grant Contract in place until 4 June 2018, 16:00H o’clock (4:00 PM Addis Ababa, local time).

This date is also the deadline for the submission of the full applications in the 5thGRMF Application Round (AR 5). Developers with a signed GRMF Grant Contract for surface studies in place (until 4 June 2018), and with plans for a drilling programme (DP) funded by GRMF, must submit their full application for the DP within one year from the above mentioned deadline, i.e. until

4 June 2019, 16:00H o’clock (4:00 PM Addis Ababa, local time).

The full application must follow the requirements as set for AR 5, and developers must use the application forms of AR 5. In case there are any changes in the requirements or in the applicaton forms, this will be announced on the GRMF website respectively.

Furthermore, the applicant takes the full risk that

  • he will not reach the threshold of 70 points in the application procedure and therefore will not be considered for a GRMF Grant,
  • he will not be considered for a GRMF Grant due to limited funding even if reaching the threshold of 70 points,
  • the GRMF Grant Contract covers only parts of the project that has been applied for (e.g. due to non-eligible costs being included in the project budget), or
  • the GRMF Grant Contract will not be signed for any other reason.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for any uncertainty.

Best regards

Your GRMF team