Very early on in his tenure as MD Simon Lawson was very humble...

Very early on in his tenure as MD Simon Lawson was very humble in his presentations and gave full recognition to the four fingers, and again in his most recent presentation he was generous in his comments about his team. In a few presentations earlier this year though I found him to be a bit me, me, me. Now, it doesn't worry me if a bloke is up himself, but it is important to know what drives the people you work with. I thought this most recent preso by SL was his best, so it seems he's learning and adjusting, which is a good attribute in a leader.

Also, on the frequent references and comparisons to Bellevue Gold, I've not followed what clearly is a success story. From what SL has said it seems the Bellevue crew are ex-Northern Star so SL sees them as being in his peer group. Where I have come across them though is with Cygnus Resources, which is a junior lithium explorer in Quebec which the Bellevue crew set up and control and where I believe they confected a resource estimate for the purpose of "earning" a massive bunch of performance rights for themselves. With their Bellevue hats on they may well be highly professional and competent but when it comes to Cygnus I thought they've carried on like a footy team doing their mad Monday in Bangkok.

I also reckon there is a point of difference between the journey that Spartan is currently on and the one already travelled by Bellevue. Bellevue did not start their journey with a near new low cost 2.5mtpa mill half a click from their company making deposit, whereas Spartan is in that situation right now. Spartan is figuratively sitting on its best asset, the idle mill. As they say, use it or lose it. I think the pre-Christmas MRE will deliver the 5+ year life of mine SL indicated he was looking for to turn the mill back on. Given it will take some months (6 months?) to run the studies, service the mill, organise the equipment and prepare the ground I expect him to initiate those processes before Christmas. I also recognise that I am about the only one who thinks that will happen or that it is a good idea. That's okay, I'm used to getting it wrong.