Ann: Operations Update, page-61

I am appalled at the caning you guys are giving me mate Pete. The poor guys lives in Perth. How can you expect him to understand about a wet season. And, the poor guy, seeing the yearly rainfall for the last 100 years, and seeing that rain in Feb and March, as a gambler (me mate Pete is a gambler)... as a bumbler, oh, sorry, gambler.... as a gambler, you can understand that after a 100 year run of bad luck, these wet months - he would reasonably expect 10 or 20 years of dry. It is only the law of averages. Pete has just been dreadfully unlucky. Give the guy a break.

Now in researching MACA, they are from WA as well. The outback even. So, you cannot expect them to be aware of what to do if it rains. But they are smart guys. They will learn. Just the other day I was having a short black with Pete and Bruce (an ops guys at Maca).... by short black I mean a coffee, not a Brazilian. Anyway, Bruce is describing to me a scene something like out of the movie Avatar. He is describing very, very tall, super bushy, green things. They are sticking out of the ground everywhere. And he is describing things hanging down from these tall, green, upright structures. He said they were like the chains he uses on the job, but without loops. And he saw some local animals (he thought it was some of his staff at first), but it was local animals swinging between the green, upright, super tall, bushy structures.

So, I was able to explain some of the things of Brazil to him.... rain, trees, vines, monkeys, jungle. He was amazed. But he (and me mate, Pete, they are smart guys. I am very, very sure they will work out from NOW, how to operate in this amazing, God forbidden place.

I was especially pleased about Pete talking about the firm roads that are already built UNDER this current mud. Now if you, like me, have been a mates of Pete's for a long time, you would remember that LAST YEAR he said the early 2014 dramas was because of the mud, and 2015 would be OK, as they would be down to firm ground. I did ask him how he knew that (last year), and he said his mate (and now me new mate, Russel Crowe had done this divining thing he (Russ) can do. And Russ said there was NO WATER at all under the mud, so that from 2015 onwards, she'd be sweet. Anyway, Pete has just got Russ back in (with an upgraded divining rod) and Russ says the he can divine some underground rock solid, road like structures that will be exposed and available NEXT YEAR. So, really, you need to give Pete and Bruce and me new mate Russ a break. I am sure it will all be aces from now.

And we can believe Pete, re the yearly guidance, because Pete (he told me)... he was reading here the other day and he saw John's (JID's) spreadsheet. And his eyes glazed over with happiness. And he said 'yes, let that be so; yes, let that be true). I personally think it is a circular argument. John reads Pete's announcements, then John makes his sheet, then Pete reads Johns sheet, and announces to the market, the sheet.

Pete also did pick up on some of my earlier, slightly negative, posts (sorry, Pete) that he was giving a bit too much time for the insiders to trade. And we came to an agreement that he would cut that back a little. So, he has released this now, instead of mid July. And the insiders have only had 4 to 6 weeks to sell and short. It is a good compromise, I think, between me and me mate, Pete.

I can only see blue skies ahead.