End game - lowest cost wins, page-29

Except the smaller players had a much higher market cap during the boom. Only that rio and bhp has squeezed them through high production that they are small now.

The common complaint from shareholders is that management always buys bad businesses at the top of the cycles thus high capex with lousy actual return. That is what you are suggesting they should have done.

Or are you saying now that they have done the squeezing they should stop and buy them out now. Unfortunately due to the squeezing they don,t have the money. Chicken or the egg?

Money paid to management nowadays is certainly over the top, yes that could be better spent elsewhere. I bet there are hundreds of little projects site guys would love to do that would lower costs and improve efficiencies but never see the light of day.