Without trying to sound alarmist, I am just sweating on the very slight chance that initial progress at Morila - and the genesis & acceleration of the slow-to-demerge Leo - was assisted early on in certain simple ‘old skool’ ways (that were once considered par for the course by old skool Western Mining Co execs when navigating African local politics). Ways that a new Minister of Mines, however, who is trained in the law, likely more sceptical, and presumably committed to better transparency, may not have liked once uncovered. Ways that are often then dealt with in a more tribal fashion because the hard proof can be scant, rather than via traditional western justice. Ways that may have contributed to the old Minister - incidentally, also named Traore - being sacked, with reports subsequently emerging from Africa of him
carrying large sums of cash through French airports & making visits to Saudi Arabia, as well him having been at the very epicentre of the (apparently heavily funded by gold bullion through the backdoor) Wagner group’s hold over Mali.
Ways too that two incoming governance-focused non-exec directors to FFX quickly spotted and did not like. And that somebody here had to take the fall for (and, another, a separation-in-silence payout over). And which may now be delivering a fresh sh!t sandwich to Leo’s (cleanskin) management through no fault of their own.
If so, we have a real big Morila problem. It would certainly explain why current directors don’t want anyone coming in with fresh & inquisitive eyes.
Note: this is hypothesis and speculation on my part, but it really is getting very hard now not to connect what I think are quite conspicuous dots. And with no answers or clarity or logic forthcoming from FFX, it is little wonder that we wonder.
