Well chaps,I'm not saying Gareth wasn't handed a tricky...

Well chaps,

I'm not saying Gareth wasn't handed a tricky situation, nor that he didn't do his best to deal with addressing those inherited structural issues around the DFS and others such as water in the pits and an underperforming recovery rates on our Spodumene production. That said, boy did he make some epic mistakes at the beginning that kinda marred him with many holders from the get go.

But to be fair, he has largely addressed these operations issues, along with the comms issues and while he won't be winning CEO of the Year anytime soon, I do feel like he did actually do some earnest work around improving operations there that largely go unnoticed. And between what's happened with the plummeting lithium prices which are just beginning to show the signs of bouncing off the bottom and some of the other poisoned chalice issues, I can see that for the sake of the company's future now is probably a good time for him to walk away with the baggage of the past and for a new fresh person to start with a clean slate and fresh situation which really can only improve from here as we're basically at the bottom now.

Given the early signs we are seeing around prices finally bouncing, I'm quietly optimistic we will see a mild recovery leading into better days later this year. There is opportunity upward from here and Gareth has actually got the Operations side of things improved to the point where we originally foresaw them under Stephen Biggins going.

My hopes are that we bring on a dynamic new leader who can exploit emerging opportunities but maintain the operational standards we require to ensure things actually hum along smoothly.

I suspect history won't be kind to Gareth (and perhaps more harshly so than he deserves given the cards he was served) but the situation while at rock bottom has actually been stabilised by Gareth and whoever takes the reins actually does have the opportunity to lead a company in an emerging market again and to potentially see us soar again.

Time will tell but I do think this bloodletting is for the good.