Ann: Half Year Accounts, page-55

The board really need to start thinking about changing things up. You can't keep doing the same thing and expect a different result.
I don't criticise SM from an exploration/operational perspective. The problems with the last wells fall in the bucket of "drilling risk," which I can live with.
But transitioning from an explorer to producer requires more than just drilling holes in the right place and making sure drill rigs are available.
It also involves raising capital at decent prices (to minimise dilution) and managing capital efficiently. It also involves dealing with all the permitting and regulatory issues. This also entails an ability to navigate the local political situation.

After so long with no tangible progress on the regulatory side of things - not to mention a significant balls-up on the capital raising side of things - I think it is perfectly reasonable to ask whether SM is the right person to lead the company into the next phase of it's development. Because if things keep going like they are for another year or two, we're all going to diluted into oblivion, including SM.

Another side point - it is quite clear the Zimbawean government isn't playing ball. But management have been unwilling to be upfront about the real reasons behind the delay, probably because they are worried about spooking the market. Ironically, the information vacuum which has been created has produced the same result. In which case, it might be better just to come clean and explain the real reasons for the hold up. And if that ruffles a few feathers in the Zimbawean government, so be it. Perhaps a bit of public pressure is what's needed, as this really is turning into death by a thousand cuts, and the company's bargaining position is getting weaker by the day, alongside its market cap.

And I'm sure I'm not the only one who is starting to worry the goal of government insiders may be to get control of the company, or else, for the company to sign a deal that ensures very little is left over for the "greedy foreign investors." After all, the hard work of proving the gas is actually there is already done. And some of government insiders may be thinking to themselves "do we really need this small Australian-based company anymore?"

All this is pure speculation, of course, but it just re-iterates the point - in the absence of real information for so long, people begin to assume the worst.