trading halt, page-32

guys,

this is an interesting thread and thought I would add a little bit. Obviously life will go on if the worst news is received...clearly we are all thinking of the execs, the Board, staff and family.

Ok, George Jones (who was my Chairman at Portman, when I was CFO) is in the seat at the request of substantial shareholders. His role is to facilitate normal operations until the fate of the current Board is known. He knows the company very well as you know.

His job, along with the other two appointees, will be to select a Board (if it come to that, and we all pray it doesn't) with the appropriate experience to quickly take over where the other Board left off. That new Board will select a new CEO (if needed) and a new Company Secretary.

The end result for the Company will be that business is as usual..albeit they will lose a couple of months (who cares).

What I have written above is an objective view....I have met all the guys that were on the plane, and knew some of them very well...and I am a little shocked. In the mining industry we all take charter flights in small planes, I actually lived in West Africa for 3 years and caught small Cessnas nearly every week. This is just the environment you live in.

I really just wanted to point out that your company is in safe hands with George looking after things. It will be business as usual very soon.

That is the company side of things....obviously on the personal side, things will never be the same.

Selling your shares now would be plain dumb.

Still have my fingers crossed.

Cheers, Tony.