Yes, I am very happy the bid has lapsed, as expected, and I don't begrudge the cost of helping Mawarid.
On the Iranian front, one commentator here likens the situation to a slow motion version of the Cuban missile crisis. Khamenei will be required to make a major transformative decision (something he has failed to do in the past according to Karim Sadjadpour): back down on the nuclear issue (accept the right of the West to impose its forfeiture-of-right-to-enrich penalty for concealing past activities Iran had an obligation to disclose) or kick out the IAEA inspectors. The carry-on as before option won't work for more than about 6 months because there will be an uprising or USA, Israel, UK and France (symbolic participation of the latter two?) will launch a pre-emptive strike, imo. I think our Board's best option (if it has one) is to let the scenario play out.
On Sandpiper, I would hope our directors can re-engineer the up-front capital costs in some way so that some of the costs are deferred until we are cash flow positive. I would also hope some costs can be eliminated e.g. by moving the processing plant closer to the dredger discharge point.
It should not be necessary to shower the debt financiers with zillions of dilutive options or debt that converts into shares. I would hope $100m can be raised as just a straight bank loan.
Before the directors do any equity capital raisings, they need to be properly informed on Iranian, American and Israeli politics - otherwise how can they know if they are timing the capital raisings in the best way to minimise dilution? And I expect them to demonstrate they are thus informed through what they write in the quarterly activities reports.
There is no excuse for "director ignorance" on Iran. A good start would be to read the Cordesman Report on "US Iranian Strategic Competition". About 400 pages long, but it would be quite an easy read for someone who has been to Iran (e.g. Mr Jordinson). Have to leave it there. The minimum competence for any director dealing with Iran is apart from having read the 30 most relevant books and all the leading Iran thinkers' views is to have an extensive knowledge of all the dilution scams imaginable to redirect the economic rent of Mehdiabad towards undeserving corrupt Iranian officials as well as the ability to purchase a Persian carpet from an upmarket retailer in Teheran at lower cost than in the West.
My slag-off of Gulnara Karimova about the sort of corruption and dilution scams connected with mining in this part of Asia can be read below (the comment below the money laundering article of "Frank from London" is me. I get no impression at all our directors are remotely street-wise about anything in Asia. Dr. Frank Reid certainly was clued up.
