management disappointing, page-26

You cant compare UMC to AGO in terms of what they have achieved/announced in the last 6-9 months. Have a look at how much they have spent on exploration in the last 9 months alone and I think you will find that it is around the $40m mark. Now compare what they have in discovered in terms of resources compared to UMC and the amount UMC has spent.

If we had the same size management as AGO (with the same size pay packets) and spent as much on exploration then UMC would be insolvent by the end of the quarter. I am sure if we had raised $100m+ @ $2 a share then things would probably be moving a bit quicker.

But to be clear, I am in no way defending management. I have had my doubts since the beginning and those doubts still remain. It is about 2 years since they started drilling and to be honest I thought things would of happened a lot quicker then it did. IMO management has never seriously contemplated the development of the project and there is plenty of evidence that supports this theory i.e. why not join the iron ore alliance, what has happened to our port access negotiations, no replacement of project manager (not at all happy about an in house team of 5 people, this probably includes the receptionist), lack of progress on certain aspects of feasibility studies such as environmental, water studies etc despite them being announced a very long time ago, no appointment of experienced operations staff. There are other reasons but I am not going to go on. Even if the project was to be sold all along, it would have been smart to progress the development option in parallel to make sure we don’t arrive at the situation where there is no buyer (by that I mean at a realistic price that represents the best option for shareholders) and the project is still at its infancy in terms of progressing towards production. I have many other issues with management including the PR side of things but there is no point bagging them out any further.

At the end of the day, management is here to stay, they control too much stock to be over thrown so if you invest in UMC then you are investing in management as well as their assets. For me my investment focuses way too much on the later for my liking but since I have come this far I am going to continue to hold despite there being better places to put my money IMO. The only comforting thought for me is that management own lots of shares so they too want to cash them in at the highest price possible.

Hopefully the settlement of Fe prices will inspire some corporate activity in the near future.