agm update

Well I went to the AGM, and I can't say I went as a happy shareholder. I have to admit my confidence has been bruised somewhat lately. Mike Oppenheimer the acting CEO and proposed next Chairman after Bill Cash retires gave a short but frank presentation. I got to air my principal concern, and ask the question publically as to whether the cost blow out by Glencore on the project from $80M to $180M was incompetence on their part, or are they trying to squeeze us out. Yes I know part of that increase was "mine improvements", but as I pointed out, if they improve it too much more we wont own any of it.

Mike's answer was long and seemed very frank. He doesn't think Glencore has any interest in taking advantage of us. He said that he didn't think Glencore's performance had been "stellar". He also said he didn't think Blackthorn had done a good enough job in maintaining the lines of communication. I took that to mean that because Glencore were running the show the previous attitude had been to let them run it. Mike's attitude seemed to be "we need to be all over this even if they are running it".

I took the opportunity to speak to everyone after the presentation. The CEO appointee Mark Mitchell was there. I spoke to him at length and also voiced my concerns about Glencore. He was frank with his views, and even though he hasn't started, was taking responsibility for the company in his answers which I liked. I was impressed by him.

I spoke at length to Mike Oppenheimer. I was also impressed by him and his no BS approach. I asked every hard question I could think of and he didn't duck any of them. I'm not going to reveal any private discussions but he did hose down a lot of my concerns. I am very happy he will be the next Chairman. I spoke to the previous chairman Bill Cash he seems like a very nice reasonable guy, but I sense Mike is looking to take the company by the throat when he takes over and I think we need that at the moment.

I will reveal from my conversation with Mike that he doesn't think the share price is being manipulated by anyone interested in the company per se. He thinks it's mostly short term computer trading and funds getting out for reasons not necessarily related to Blachthorn. Oh and he told me he has as many shares as me and a slightly higher buy in price.

I spoke to Chris Brown and Tony Santos too. The think l learnt which I wasn't really congizant of is we won't be getting money out of Perkoa any time soon. We have that 5 million coming maybe next year some time, but there's a lot of project costs to be paid back before we get any more.

All in all I left the meeting happy. The price is what it is. I'm impressed with the new team that will take over next year, and the support people around them. There are lots of variables of course and lots of risk, but I think with the current team and their attitude we have a shot at getting our money back and maybe turning Kitumba in the lottery win we'd all like it to be. Happy to answer questions.