pluses & minuses, page-2

Great post Aldous...and I can tell you BJ isn't the only one tearing his hair out. I'm not a happy camper either and the hairline is now so thin I'm seriously looking at either the rug or the plug as a cover up!

I'm ever hopeful this is just a temporary fumble...but let's examine the cost of this apparent oversight which can be fixed by a lousy $200k!

In assuming the SP dropped from 14 to 11.5 as a consequence of this event, that's $18m wiped from our market cap. Surely that deserves a bloody hefty bum kick to whoever has adopted a "Steptoe & Son" mentality to the plant configuration and construction.

Surely the rule on remote area plant construction must be over engineer not under engineer. And make sure you have plenty of spares as insurance.

Frankly, these incidents affect ones confidence. Any more such incidents and one will be left with the feeling that we have constructed a plant with all the certainty of a dodgy second hand lawn mower filled with dirty fuel.

But, maybe there is some redress: this from the announcement:

"It is the Company’s intention to investigate the prospect of claims for damages against some of these suppliers."

The term "some of these suppliers" implies an identified, direct cause of the problems and admission, on the other hand, that there are many parts of LL plant operating very well.

Unfortunately, we can only operate at the speed of the slowest part of the process...so hold their toes to the fire BJ.