Ann: Request for Continuation of Voluntary Suspension, page-33

What an absolute mess. They talk about continuous disclosure, but this raises the question: did all of these cost-raising factors suddenly materialise after Anderson's upbeat interview about how well Morilla is going? And we still have no update on the actual gold production. This is critical information as progress on that front will determine the terms of any financing deal.

Ok, so hopefully we can all agree they are a bunch of clowns.

Now, on to the wild speculation (given we still have no real new information except a bunch of generic excuses).

My big question is why do the need a full month to organise a capital raise? If they need to raise 15%, there is no reason they couldn't do a quick and dirty raise (throw in some options to sweaten the deal).

So this suggests to me:
a. they are looking at a very substantial capital raising.
or...
b. they are looking for some sort of merger/takeover. As suggested previously, it may make sense to merge with another mid-tier player in Mali, like RGS, who is further along the development pathway and can better absorb the ramp-up costs, but may be interested in the Morilla upside and LLL shares. This would also solve the in-country management issues.

I think the long period of suspension suggests they might be going down this route, as I can't see why an equity raise or debt package would take so long (unless they only started looking into this whole problem after MA's departure, which would be absolutely damning). Also, with a merger, you need to time to negotiate with other companies and get independent expert reports written.

I hope people remember this and the squandered $100 million from the 'surprise' capital raise the next time these directors are up for re-election and have their hand out for performance shares/options.