The non-holder comments appear to be from a few different...

The non-holder comments appear to be from a few different places. 1. I suspect some are from ex-employees, who are negative on South32 no matter what it does and just see an opportunity to pile-on. 2. Holders of a couple of small manganese companies which seek to benefit from GEMCO being out-of-action. 3. The usual non-holders who appear on Hot Copper when any company experiences a set-back. 4. Possibly it's people who are short-selling S32 shares and are looking for a place to post their thesis.

The big dividend in 2022 -- I wish it had not been paid and the money held in reserve to pay for Hermosa. That 25 cent dividend was too high.
Coal -- I have mixed feelings. I wouldn't have sold it, but there is a bigger picture as you say.
Buybacks -- cancelling this was prudent (sadly) and Goldman Sachs anticipates it being re-instated in August. I hope it is.
Some guy from an online website called The B.ull whom I've never heard of with his S32 buy recommendation? I don't care.
A rise in short selling -- I also don't care. Pilbara Minerals is at 20% with no shortage of opinions recommending to buy. All the short sellers form a whole cohort of enforced future buyers. There is a thinking amongst some retail investors that short sellers' opinions are gospel, somehow. That retail investors should worship these investors because they've taken a different side of the trade to us.

That said, shorts have risen over the past month. Like most, I dislike this practice. However I can see the logic. South32 shares went UP after the GEMCO announcement by 4-5% from memory. This is crazy. It's like the market hasn't priced in the strong possibility of a months-long outage of this mine at all. Not at all!! Short term, it is reasonable that South32 shares probably will fall ten percent. I am not selling though. I'm not a trader and will end up getting myself into trouble if I try to be a smart Alec and buy back at a lower price. I can certainly see why others with stock trading skills might do so. I expect the short selling percentage to rise higher over the next few days as the delay in reporting catches up with us.

My complaint about the negative posts isn't that they are negative, but that they are often not balanced, and cherry-pick information (as we all probably do to some extent!).

@Jameshunt thanks for the great post and information. I learnt a lot from reading what you wrote.