A correction here on MF's trades.He sold 4 million...

A correction here on MF's trades.He sold 4 million ords(7/6/2006) but immediately converted 6 million options same day.A smart move in anyones books imo and may be simple maths but still shows he's no dummy.

One other thing on reflection re MF's holdings.Im interested as to why he has kept holding even though the sp had spiked 3 times through 07.One could argue that he's simply been keeping pace with the effective dilution by issuing/exercising more performance options to himself but one has to ask just where he sees the potential of the companies sp/market cap.Towards end of 07 he could have sold those 14.9M shares and pocketed close on 3M at an sp around 18c.If he was greedy to a fault he would have sold imho.

One can call him arrogant and over-remunerated in taking up these options(and you'd be right) but its still an interesting bellweather of the potential of the company if he's still holding something that he got for nothing espc given the weakness with the sp.In other words he could have sold and made quite a tidy sum but he's obviously prepared to go through the wringer with NS to maintain that holding and must see them worth a lot more than 3M.

And he's not the only one holding.Through all this we've had NS and JPM holding the majority of what they originally accumulated.

So its either that, even with the total capex equity dilution(as this was where they were heading prior to the current rethinking on the rest of the capex)he still saw the project numbers as very solid OR there was something else that made the numbers look even better than they are.

Oh well if the companies shocks the hell out of us and they do give us those targets by eo May then we might find out a bit more.

Just one other little tidbit is that apparently all parties were keen to renew the offtake letters of intent,not something one would find done if

a)the smelters knew they could get a better quality/better priced concentrate elswhere

b)the company would necessarily do if they knew they could get the same offtake conditions from the Xstrata/Boliden deals.

The second point may simply be the better numbers we get with cheaper logistics to the smelters given the apparent closeness of the smelters to the mine gate,but then surely the company could have negotiated similar terms with another relatively close offtaker/smelter if they wanted the offtake done quicker to assure revenue flow for any debt/equity raising.And this is where we are either seeing a simple smoke and mirrors game on managements part or theres a more convoluted reason for the delay in these offtakes.

There's also the NI 43-101 and how that may be effecting the offtake negotiations and ITS probably the most likely explanation for the offtake delays.One cannot commit to selling a certain amount of ore if one has assumed material errors in ones project numbers and the project may come up short with supply of concentrate.The first offtake wouldnt be an issue as they are simply taking the initial production which is a given,but the other two offtakes would be very much dependant on the potential final production.

Now it seems that with an upping of production by 35%,not an inconsiderable number,that the company may have been able to renegotiate the amount of concentrate supplied,which would also result in delays both with offtakes and the mining contractors.Until we actually see the companies findings on these new numbers then one cannot make any assumptions as to why this has been done but Im placing a hefty bet its to keep the numbers up around where they were in the baseline scenario.If its gives us better numbers then well and good.

d.