Ann: Shareholder Update & Extension of voluntary suspension, page-228

It is certainly being dragged out. We are treated like a donkey being led along by a carrot - though, it’s only the smell of an invisible carrot because we are not actually permitted to see it and no director can describe even the shape of the carrot to us. They wouldn’t even disclose what fee & milestone arrangements they have in place with Treadstone. A bit like saying a real estate agent’s commission to sell your house is a State secret.

After tuning into that AGM I simply do not buy that directors have been working assiduously, nonstop (as I would be doing in that position, out of sheer embarrassment if nothing else) to bring this saga to a swift conclusion. We’ve been in suspension for nearly a year, they pulled the lunatic 6c cap raise & monster dilution in Sept, they “walked” from Morila in Nov, and here we are in June still in “need to know basis” mode with no firm resolution in sight. I really do question what sort of 80% shareholder has such deficient corporate governance processes in place that it can simply “walk away” from an 80% owned asset it is bankrolling each week, and lose the operational control over it, anyway. This “quite different Mali corporate law” nonsense looks like a smokescreen to me, and I know a little bit about law. If FFX had insufficient checks and controls and reporting processes in place to govern the expenditure (and clawback, if required) of hundreds of millions of dollars then something is seriously amiss here.

Fraser claimed to not know any details of just about every key expenditure question asked of him at the AGM (including, incredulously, how long he was paid for and the total amount received!!). All he could say with absolute certainty was that directors had fulfilled their timely disclosure obligations(!) He even had the gall at the start to say he preferred to talk about the future rather than the year in review (thankfully it was succinctly pointed out to him that a review of the prior year financials and activity was the whole purpose of an AGM - I cheered out loud!). No detail was provided on any expenditure breakdowns despite all the key people being in the room. It was quite extraordinary and I could sense from Scott Lowe’s voice that even he knew Fraser’s responses were unacceptable.

I think directors have really crossed a line in the sand now. In their position, I’d be contacting my insurer already because this is not going to end tidily. In my humble opinion.