Exactly. Re your first points.The question IDK but I do know he...

Exactly. Re your first points.

The question IDK but I do know he comes from the Kalgoorlie area, has worked closely with gold miners for decades, and now seems to have a lot of connections and he's using them. I've previously mentioned Chris Ellison of MinRes fame and infamy as an analogy. But analogies shouldn't be taken too far.

The point being that CE wasn't highly educated; born in New Zealand, he grew up on a farm outside of Dunedin and attended Otago Boys' High School, leaving school in 1972 at the age of 15.

His background then was in the services and engineering field when he formed MinRes which was a combination of 3 mining services businesses. He also invested in mining stocks as a major shareholder. MinRes is of course now a leading diversified resources company with extensive operations in lithium, iron ore, energy and mining services.

Leaving aside CE's behaviour as director and poor later decisions on governance, the fact that he rose from humble circumstances reflects a mind that thinks laterally, and that's crucial.

This I think is analogous to Brian Rodan in some meaningful respects and not in others.

Looking at 'about us' on the AUG website,

Brian Rodan is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (FAusIMM) with 45 years’ experience.
OK so no formal qualifications mentioned here but he commands the respect of that institute and that's nothing to sneer at.
When you see him at presos he is across the matter and respectfully deals with the people who do the work, in our case the explorers. He knows how to put people and projects together.

Previously, Mr Rodan was the managing director and owner of Australian Contract Mining Pty Ltd (ACM), a mid-tier mining contracting company that successfully completed $1.5 billion worth of work over a 20 year period. ACM was sold to an ASX listed company in 2017.

For 15 years, Mr Rodan held various roles with Eltin Limited (including General Manager between 1993 and 1996 and executive director between 1996 and 1999), being Australia’s largest full service ASX listed contract mining company with annual turnover of $850 million.

Mr Rodan was a founding Director of Dacian Gold Ltd 2013 , and Desert Metals Ltd 2020 and the largest shareholder upon listing both companies on the ASX. Mr Rodan is currently Executive Chairman of Siren Gold Limited Limited ( SNG) and of Iceni Gold Limited ( ICL) and currently largest share holder in both companies as well as Augustus Minerals.

I think he's a smart operator he doesn't spend money unnecessarily, and the lack of CEO right now with AUG isn't a worry to me; it's a plus. The main thing at this stage is exploration and Ford does that, and for strategy Rodan as the Chairman does that.
AUG is being run on the smell of an oil rag and that's fine by me. Air drilling is cheap way of doing exploration I would expect we are going to partner once we get a decent sniff of more resource. It's not inside info it's logic.

There is probably a lot more to Brian Rodan than meets the eye. I do not underestimate people without tertiary education, often they're the smartest ones in the room. The respectful way he is treated and he treats others is part of that story.
JIMO