feel the tension, page-18

morning VT
very sorry to hear that you have the black dog snapping at your heels, not a good place to be.

I get the feeling that there is some confusion surrounding the incentives package.

The directors of the company do not determine what the shareprice of EXM will be at any given point in time.

Some here seem to suggest that the current board will only work as hard as they need to to get the sp to 3c by 2012 in order to recieve their incentive options. IMO this is a ludicrous suggestion. The expiry dates of these various tranches and milestones are not in anyway indicative of where the company expects its shareprice to be at these points in time ie; 3c 2012, 4c 2014, 5c 2019. The dates are simply the latest point at which the shares can be vested or expire worthless.
Milestone related incentive shares are a widely used and cost effective means of incentivising management.

These shares are not being granted free of any consideration, infact the directors will have to fork out close to $15m in order to fully vest all shares and options. That is on top of the $560k that directors and related parties have contributed to the current raising.

Lets not get confused here, this is an entirely new board brought together to with the purpose of taking this explorer to the next level and into production. Between them they have the appropriate mix of corporate, finance and technical skills to get the job done imo. As their 1st action they have successfully raised a considerable amount of money, sufficient to comfortably complete all the work necessary to take the company to a decision to mine in late 2010. The work completed over the next 18 months will add significant value to the project and in turn the EXM shareprice imo.

In some ways i sympathise with the stance that some are taking on this issue, it has been a rough ride for shareholders and some are a bit wary. However, i think you are misreading how this will play out.
Ask yourselves this, why would Bell Potter Securities and its top 'resource guy' put their names and their clients $$$ into EXM if they did not think there was a compelling case for investing in EXM.
The placement, managed by Bell Potter, was made on a global basis to a range of institutional, professional and sophisticated investors. These entities did not stump up $10m because they were anyones mates and i would wager that they did not buy in on the prospect that they may see the sp hit 3c in 3 years. They can smell serious money here, having seen the companies plan for transition to mining, having looked at the size and quality of the asset and having scrutinised the studies which suggest very low costs per ounce and robust economics.
Follow the smart money !!