Hey Vegas - thanks for the input and I agree with all that you say. That was one of the best posts I've ever read! Mea culpa. As I mentioned before, it is a personal opinion I have of DG and it shouldn't colour the forum nor should it jaundice my view of him on an ongoing basis with AVL. There is another poster here who has a similarly negative view of Langford yet is pro DG so horses for courses. I suppose I just wanted to give a bit of personal history behind another 'HC guru' for those who have only caught (and profited by) his tips. If you can imagine me bashing out a similar diatribe, day after day, for two months in sync with another poster then that is the campaign he waged upoon AJM in the early days. He had one or two salient issues but bashed them until he was blue in the face - I could never understand why it was so relentless and then the sudden volte-face he performed and I know of three investors he scared out of a large part of their holding. Yes, they should have held firm and even though they were aware of the issues it seemed like such a co-ordinated attack they fled. Ironically, being perverse and contrarian (and reckless probably), I went the other way and stuffed another heap into my SMSF when DG was at his most vitriolic when AJM was hovering around 1.2/1.4. Looking at it that way I suppose I should thank him. (Thank you DG but no thanks for the ulcer it caused!) So that's my personal experience. Once he was on board his research was very solid, albeit rather 'gushy' and 'spruiky'.
I think it's important to accomodate some contrarian views on these forums from time to time. As to why I only really post on AVL. Simple. It's the one holding that has (and still does) frustrate me more than any other I've held over the years. I note that another former AVL afficionado, Ozgoldtrader, who had held for a long time and was an AVL fanboy similarly totally lost his mind and fmaously wigged out on this forum!
So why does AVL have this effect on some people? Put quite simply, the LTs here have all assessed the potential, are schooled on flow batteries and Windamurra and steel rebar and China and TNG etc etc etc, yet here we still are without a DFS. We've never been able to assess whether the damned project is a goer. I remember four or five years ago when we roped in a gun CEO to look over historic figures and oversee yet another scoping study just before Vince. He ran away after only 6 months. Conspiracy theories flew around at the time but, in hindsight, I reckon he took a cold hard look at the figures and was privy to hard facts that we weren't and simply saw that the project didn't have legs. Simple as that. In the interim and subsequent to that, the shareholders have been led a merry dance. The frustration stems from the opaqueness of AVL. Looking at it that way, perhaps Vince has been a brilliant MD, tap-dancing his way around the abyss for a couple of years and stringing us all along and keeping the company alive. It's been a long haul.
Many of us Long Termers would just like some hard facts and figures rather than the can continually being kicked further down the road. DG was very good at providing statistical infill with AJM. My fear is that now he's on a retainer, he might become part of the problem rather than the solution. How objective will he be even with a large personal holding if he's on retainer? So yes, I'd like to see details of that retainer but I do still welcome the contributions of his various minions and mouthpieces here which provide valuable information (although I often wonder why certain things are leaked out and why certain people are privy to technical information that the vast majority aren't which goes above and beyond simply phoning Vince up for a chat).
I suppose I should take a leaf out of long suffering Red Frog's book who's been here even longer than me and maintains an even keel in adverse conditions! If DG can take this by the scruff of the neck and force management to the trough and make them drink then all well and good. More power to him and it is laudable that he is being pro-active. We can all only benefit from that. Again, my natural pessimism makes me wonder why the hell does it take a visionary investor to get involved rather than management being able to open their eyes but that's an old chestnut.
Ultimately to keep me happy, and perhaps others, and persuade me to buy back in, I want to see some cold, hard figures. What price does Vanadium need to be for this mine to be a goer and to attract finance? Simple question. How much vanadium is required in a flow battery? More importantly, how many flow batteries are currently sold worldwide. What's their projected sales in five years? I see Bpinvest currently trying to ascertain this information. We had vague answers to these questions a few years ago although I haven't heard a squeak from our electrolyte 'project' for quite some time. We keep on fluffing around with various studies and touchy feely generic twitter posts yet never get the nuts and bolts figures updated. What's Daniel Harris up to? Can we get him more involved? Is he heavily involved - again, I just can't fathom what's happening behind the scenes, if anything.
So for God's sake DG, put a firecracker under this management. I am very fond of AVL and have always believed in its potential. Yes the ASX is a casino but betting on AVL has always been a case of not being allowed to play with a full deck of cards. Time for a reshuffle and some clear direction.
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