ReconAfrica is a Canadian company with a license to a massive land area in Namibia and Botswana. Without evidence, they declared they found ‘the world’s last great onshore basin’. and called it the Kavango Basin.
Many reddit and discord groups have been created by investors to discuss the stock they own., Think of Wall Street Bets for example on reddit. For many investors this is a place to compare thoughts and express themselves. In the ReconAfrica Discord and Reddit chat rooms, it is different. if you say anything critical of the Recon Africa narrative you can be summarily removed by one of the mods. Many have accused moderators in these groups of creating echo chambers where misinformation thrives and dissent is unwelcome.
This post has been updated.
Greg Martin https://x.com/gmartinusc is a promoter of ReconAfrica. He and his colleagues have a history of making misleading claims on behalf of ReconAfrica. Such as when Greg and his colleague Jim Rye equated the company’s paid ad on the WSJ and Barron’s website with a news story by the media houses.
ReconAfrica often tries to glom onto larger and more established companies to give themselves the credibility they lack. There was the call to nowhere with Goldman Sachs and the constant attempts to associate themselves with the potential offshore finds of Shell and Total.
Greg insists he is just an investor who does not get paid for promotional activities, yet he performs a host of duties for ReconAfrica including compiling a regular list of short positions and posts frequently on Yahoo and reddit. Greg also ran their merchandise store.
In Discord a series of posts began to assert that the company was ‘flaring wells’. Greg took to reddit and wrote a lengthy analysis of this phenomenon despite the fact you could easily see it was not on the drill site and is on the other side of the road.
Scrolling out, you could see many similar heat signatures in the area. Makandina is one of many hot spots.
It took about 40 seconds to debunk the notion by scrolling in and out. Nonetheless one of the Greg’s post began earnestly: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReconAfrica/comments/xqwigm/reconafrica_82_well_possible_flaring_detected/)
‘Several Discord members who track satellite imagery have detected a heat signature at the 8-2 Makandina (P33) well that might indicate flaring detected by thermal imaging available on Zoom Earth. To see this image, check their web site which is centered on the 8-2 well in this link:
https://zoom.earth/#view=-18.363522,19.920384,11z/map=live/overlays=heat,fires (to disprove the ‘flaring’ thesis simply scroll in and out=Ed)
While using this site, you can zoom in and out using your mouse wheel. As you zoom in, you will see the thermal images overlaid on older satellite images which were taken long before the well site had been prepared.
For a comparison, one member created two sets of images which show that this heat signature took place at the well site. This image provides the latest satellite image at the top while also including the Zoom Earth image at the bottom (zoomed in over older satellite imagery).’
Greg continued to make the case for flaring. He did this even though he has previously stated he speaks to company insiders frequently, but did not bother to ask apparently . He continues.
Thermal images on Zoom Earth are updated every 24 hours. At the time of this post, this hot spot has remained at this location while the hot spot to the east of this location is no longer visible. If the refresh update indicated on Zoom Earth is correct (24 hours), this would suggest that this thermal anomaly was present for at least 24 hours. Since it did not move during this time, it is highly unlikely that it is a brushfire.
Greg apparently then went and researched the permit to find out if flaring is permitted under the law, and felt he had found a few suitable exceptions. He took a screenshot of the appropriate section.
Then he explained how just because the drill rig is not there, it does not mean it is not flaring.This Is a lot of unnecessary work for a guy who could have just asked his pals if there was flaring. Nonetheless Greg urged people to ‘check for themselves’:
Please note that, although the heat signature detected is clearly at the 8-2 site, this may not be conclusive proof of flaring. Please use your own judgement before coming to any conclusions. Some of us on Discord are currently in the process of obtaining higher resolution images to see what equipment remains at the 8-2 site as many are confident that much of it has been moved back to 6-2 for the sidetrack. Even if the Jarvie-1 rig has been moved, a service rig (perhaps the one involved in drilling initial water wells) could be on location to perform testing (DST/flow testing, MDT, etc.).
After writing his report on reddit he posted it on Yahoo and Twitter, On Twitter Greg Martin tagged CNN, Bloomberg and more.
Yahoo posters pointed out that this narrative was bogus
Twitter account Helios called it a red herring,
But Greg continued to make the case
until the narrative became unsustainable. Then, after spreading the news on multiple platforms, writing a report and tagging CNN and Bloomberg, he says ‘I told you to be careful’ with all the sincerity of Lord Baelish.
In the comment of his report Greg made a similar backside covering disclaimer after pumping misinformation across multiple platforms. He suggests the evidence available left him no choice.
Greg then deleted his tweets.
Greg then went back to blame misinformation on short sellers and said it was in fact a brush fire.
This is curious because his reddit report had ruled out that possibility. His post included this statement and posted an image showing an ‘actual’ brush fire.
The following is an example of what is seen with an actual brush fire. The first image is from the NASA FIRMS system. The second image shows the aftermath of the brushfire that was detected by this system.
Greg says he doesn’t understand why ‘FUDSTERS’ (FUD stands for fear uncertainty and doubt) are “spreading lies.”
It is notable that a ‘brush fire’ would be the cause of the thermal hotspot though since ReconAfrica were very specific about the fact they are drilling in the desert.
They tell investors over and over that they are drilling in the desert. Grayson Anderson does investor relations for the company:
And even after being shown the drillsite clearly surrounded by lush vegetation,
Recon Africa’s IR guy doubled down by posting a picture that was clearly from Erongo Region on the coast about 900 kilometers away on Sept 2, 2021. They use that narrative to push back against environmental concerns about groundwater contamination. They don’t want investors to know that this is a crucial biodiversity hotspot holding the nations most productive farmland. It is clearly not a ‘desert’.
The question for Grayson and others is obvious.How did the desert catch on fire?
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