Hi
@buyhi,
Thanks for you comments. Its nice to be able to discuss this without getting shouted down.
The way I see it is that after the rebellion had succeeded, the incoming directors had little choice but to instigate some sort of review for their own sakes. Not many sane people would just take the helm of a publicly listed company, particularly one operating in Africa, and not do some due diligence on what they are inheriting. What I don't understand is why ASX seem so heavily involved, this isn't a full Chapter 1&2 re-compliance process, although it's starting to look a bit like a mini version.
On the subject of corporate governance in general, there is no magic formula, all companies have different levels and report as such when they give corporate governance statements to **promotion blocked**. Successful identification, exploration, development and maximisation of a mineral properties value can only be partly attributed to the level of corporate governance a company has, there are far more important attributes a board needs for overall success that I won't go into here.
And I agree with your statement about the rabbit hole, I'd say most junior explorers would dread that their affairs be put under the microscope like what's happening here and I'd bet you'd find much worse around the place. I actually haven't finished reading the whole announcement carefully but from what I've read I can't see a smoking gun of any major significance.
You said
"IMO the old board didn't believe in the lithium/battery/EV story and thought let's make a quick buck and put the money into a gold play which they do believe in."
I think you might be right and that's part of the dynamics of what's happened here. The company went from a gold exploration company to a lithium explorer and this brought a whole new set of shareholders over pretty quickly. I've noticed that the lithium bulls seem particularly evangelical when it comes to their stocks and discussing the future of their commodity. I'd also say the old board might have misread the degree of unity to the "cause" they had amongst their new shareholder base, which was a miscalculation on their part. I've noticed a certain irrationality around lithium that is driven because investors see new lithium story stock charts going up in a market that is otherwise pretty flat and there is a belief in the narrative of the lithium bulls, that lithium is a rapidly disruptive commodity whose demand will continue to outstrip supply for a long time. Not wanting to offend anyone but there is a certain lack of imagination involved with this. Most I think are just jumping on the bandwagon of rising share prices with little thought for value or risk metrics. The new African lithium play is a prime example. I've tried to outline some of the issues that can come into play in African nations on this thread but that one takes the cake. You've got normal people investing in a very abnormal country that is only held together at the point of a gun. The average institutional investor's mandates wouldn't allow them any where near a play/place like that and so you are left with the Chinese and investors in our market with a very high risk appetite and or people just jumping on the story without knowing or thinking about the real risk. The FOMO is just to strong. My rule is if you wouldn't go there don't invest there. I'd travel to Mali but I wouldn't set one foot in the DRC.
I sincerely hope you come out of this suspension in good shape and you get all you expect from your lithium deposit. Just be realistic about its potential value going forward as the asset is also now entering a more crowded space. Esh
