Ann: Clarifications on suspension and AFR articles, page-18

Poor AVZ.

There are some pretty clear signs here that they are getting very desperate to save face, and I'm afraid to say this has some pretty large red flags:

1. The reference to incidental expenses. Surely immaterial unless you are concerned over cashflow?
2. Why bother with addressing the AFR. If it's unsubstantiated, and the stock is in a halt, it has absolutely no relevance at all. To address it means there must be some substance to it?
3. The timing, late business hours on a Friday. The BoD must be thinking "we need to get something out, anything!". It's totally unnecessary to release news at these hours when the stock is in a halt. Why not wait until Monday, or clarify it within the same day as the AFR article? It reads as indecision and panic.
4. They allude to a leak, but can't identify who or how or why. What confidence do we have in the governance of a project of this scale, if the news of a $1m appointment cant be traced back to the source of the leak?

This is emerging as a really telling story of the risk of investing in DRC, geopolitical game theory, information power and, above all, corporate governance.

This announcement really does not help whatsoever.