I'm hoping to make it to the AGM next week, but the timing at 10:00am is creating challenges for those on the East Coast for whom 2 nights away provides fodder for a battle I don't need to wage. If I can make it, these are the questions I intend to ask, unless asked by others or addressed by a presentation. If I can't, hopefully someone in attendance can.
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To the MD and the BoD, thank you for the last 12 months. The project has advanced tremendously in that timeframe, without a drill at all. Advanced in terms of unlocking the cake potential, articulating the making and baking process, identifying possible icing, and in growing the potential cake size. Congratulations to all of you for that. I, for one, am eagerly anticipating the next 12 months as drill meets tundra. But first a bunch of questions, if I may:
- Congratulations on the recent CR. Based on your recent assertions that the approx $13.7m budgeted cost of 2V (88e share) includes 15% contingency, can you confirm that we now have over 150% contingency?
- Or are the funds earmarked for another purpose? If so, what purpose? Why was that purpose necessary to be funded now?
- We all know that fund raising in some for or the other will always be needed for exploration and potentially development – is it the BoD’s intention to always take a similarly conservative view to fund raising – ie contingency in excess of 100%?
- With the recent CR, when did you meet the potential investors? Why was the money raised at a discount to the previous very recent CR? Were those investors provided an opportunity to participate in this given that it was our first ‘backwards CR’ since rebranding.
- Do you feel that you have now trained shareholders to expect a CR anytime an investor presentation takes place?
- Do you intend that shareholders confine their communications to you via the so called LTIG, or are shareholders free to communicate with you directly? If the former, do you think that is healthy? If your time and focus is being affected, perhaps an IR appointee is more in shareholder interests than a fan club?
- Do you have any intentions of having investor sessions, in the not too distant future, similar in structure to the London sessions, for retail investors in Australia? If so, why? If not, why not?
- It is reported that at some stage, around a pre Ice#1 CR, that you speculated that investors at 1c could be on a 100-200 bagger. Has the 2 sets of land acquisitions since then, added to this speculative figure? Have the share issues since then detracted from that figure? Do you want to reset a target range based on current price and your updated views on the journey ahead?
- What was the thinking behind issuing directors performance options at this point in time? Is that rationale consistent with a strike price of only 6.1c? Do you believe that such awards, at a time when the company must necessarily dilute to grow, can be viewed by investors as anything other than a low threshold dilution protection? If awards such as this are important, do you believe that the strike price should be challenging?
- Coming to 2V – under a success scenario of achieving results within the advised bands for vertical flow rate and horizontal multipliers – is there a scenario for keeping the well active and returning to it prior to the next winter? If so, what is that?
- You have described in various communications that post 2V permitting has been initiated. If all these permits are issued and are successfully drilled (implying funding) and provide the results that you hope for - will this complete the delineation of the Hue/HRZ resource across our acreage? Will it have tested the most attractive looking conventional leads? Should it have yielded all the data required for you to complete the curve creaming?
- Subject to funding of course, and no hiccups in the field, how many drilling seasons will be required to complete this permitted program?
- If the Alaskan Government decides to kill the exploration rebate program going forward, does this have a material impact on project economics? Please elaborate?
- In terms of the end game – the retail investor speculation has centred around an eventual take-over by a company focused on full field development and production. Do you agree that this is the most likely outcome (in a success scenario)? Are there other plausible outcomes that should/could be considered (in a success scenario)? What are they?
- It appears that within the JV for Alaska, our JV partner has the lead on the unconventional below ground and we have the lead on the conventional below ground as well as on all of the above ground (except of course, those internal to BEX). Is that appearance reflective of reality? If not, then what is a more accurate characterisation?
- Are there any matters on which the JV partners have struggled to agree on? Disagreed on? How are these matters resolved?
- What will you do when this gig is up (under a success scenario)?
Thank you, and again congratulations for the last 12 months and lets hope for a similarly successful next 12 months.
(20min delay)