Ann: Preliminary Final Report, page-5

"Do you have a view as to whether the company is doing the right thing stepping up investment into PP&E, thereby depleting cash, at a time when the resources sector is under significant stress?"

On reflection, the part of your question I didn't answer relates to the company undertaking a capital investment when the resources sector is under significant stress.

I am almost convinced that if we were flies on the wall of the ARB board room, we would see that the company's executives pay little heed to short-term issues and news; instead, they invest with a decade-long time horizon in mind, knowing full well that extraneous factors might ebb and flow and fluctuate, but that wont be of the remotest concern to them.

Instead, they will continue to focus on the things they can control, such as innovation, product quality, manufacturing excellence, premium customer service, best-in-class cost control and maintenance and expansion of manufacturing assets.

I honestly think they know that the resources cycle will boom again at some stage, as it will again slump, but they don't allow trying to "time" the cycle to get in the way of the core focus of what has made the business great throughout many previous cycles.