I have a very good relationship with AT and he just rang me on...

I have a very good relationship with AT and he just rang me on the way to the airport (not going to Brazil) as he saw my posts on HC and wanted to clarified a few things for me. Pat Burke, although named as a non-exec director, actually does alot of hands on legal and other corporate work for the company as part of his fees too so he is not a "typical" non-exec director who just shows up to meetings as I have portrayed him. He was also integral with assisting AT with all he legal and corporate work etc...in regard to the acquisition of the Brazilian gold projects and spends many hours each week working for MEI so part of his salary is actually for consulting work too. The new director, Paul Kitto, who is also going to Brazil for 3 weeks shortly, will be integral with helping AT with the project as he has many years experience working for some big miners and so again doing much more than a typical non-exec director would as well.

AT also told me that although yes they got options and have requested performance rights in the AGM notice, it is actually very difficult for him or any director to actually exercise and sell the shares as doing so obviously portrays a bad image for the company and in the many years he has been a director in a company he has never actually made any money from his options even when they were in the money for this very reason so while they are nice to have they are very often not the big bonuses that I guess us shareholders see them as being.

AT also said that the advisor rights are going to a person/s who actually brought him the Brazil opportunities and are not the advisors who got all the other options in regard to the cobalt projects a couple of years ago.

It was a good discussion with him this morning and based on this I now retract and will request my above posts be removed.