General Discussion, page-7212

Let us not become so stuck in our corners from 6+ weeks of fending off the spiteful trolls, stirrers & victory-lappers, and from staunchly defending “Simon” & the enduringly innate wisdom of the board at every turn, that we find ourselves now living in an illusion.

This investment has changed. The situation in Mali is significantly different to what it was and this has been building over time. The relationship with government is markedly different to what we have been led to believe. We have a shrewd & strategically smart “partner” that is now in majority control of the asset and owes its allegiance to its customers & own shareholders - not favours to us. Their rules of engagement & parameters of play are also fundamentally different from ours no matter how many times Leo management describes them as a purely “private” and professional operator. And this is not some sort of masked xenophobia on my part - it is a simple fact that Chinese companies usually operate quite differently to Australian ones because the norms are different for both, and if you’ve ever done business there you’ll know that.

No, the sky hasn’t fallen in, but this outcome is a real setback and is far from the rosy best-of-a-bad-lot that some here are trying to spin it as. We are not going to regain yesterday’s losses in a hurry, it is not “the retrace we had to have”. Yes, the market reaction is indeed overcooked, but we were clearly listening to different Q&As yesterday if you couldn’t recognise the slow creep of scepticism in the voices of some of the analysts who have a much more detailed grasp on the geopolitics (and share of resource) here than most HotCopper posters have (or want to admit). Sometimes it is perhaps better to just say nothing than to carry on like a programmed robotic cheerleader that is swept up in emotion when sentiment so clearly turns and the ground shifts. If the trolls trigger your defend-at-all-costs reflex or you really insist on an echo chamber, just put them on ignore.

tldr/: Holders here need to have far more critical eyes than starry ones at present IMO. The road ahead is manoeuvrable but still rocky.