urgent letter to ozl directors, page-8

Have recieved no response this afternoon but for those interested here is my email to BC....


Dear Mr Cusack,
I am writing to you as a long term shareholder (having bought into Oxiana in 1998).

Whilst there are many questions that I like most other shareholders have, my overriding concern is the perception that Oz Minerals is about to be broken up at an extremely low price, at a time when conditions are improving and alternatives are increasingly being discussed as probably having merit (including by financial outsiders/commentators).

An additional very concerning situation is how you and the Board can support Andrew Michelmore continuing as the head of this company when in parallel to selling the company assets he has also accepted a senior position to run those assets for the new owner? This has at the very least the perception of a considerable conflict-of-interest. The situation is becoming increasingly highlighted as conditions improve and potential alternative options are seen by shareholders and commentators as being worthy of investigating. Under the current situation any negative response to other options will always be viewed with scepticism due to the arrangements our CEO has placed himself in.

My many other questions do include how the company was allowed to get into this situation; why only one bank could hold six others plus the company to such ransom; why the management could not get the other banks to cover the “rogue” bank; would the banks not be now affable towards OZ, having provided seven months of extensions and with markets easing and commodities rising (not to mention Prominent Hill now up and running)? I am also intrigued as to what happened to the sale of Martabe to Owen Heggarty’s company in February only to see him pick it up through a "left field" arrangement just days after it was eventually sold to a different company. Why was it even necessary to sell Martabe at all when the deal with Minmetals was able to solve all problems anyway??

The continual blame placed on the GFC and dropping commodity prices has now been clouded by the fact that conditions are improving, commodities are rising, alternatives are appearing and yet we are seemingly locked into a low figure firesale… with a CEO who will move with those assets to the new owner!

There are many shareholders who have suffered considerable hardship through the deterioration and destruction of this company’s value and share price. So many of them will continue to hurt long after this mess is finally sorted. Believing that management did everything possible to salvage the situation would at least give satisfaction that no effort was left behind. Currently management and Board are far from showing this!!

Regards