My buddy no longer lives in Leo so he had to ring some of his drinking pals from the Whitehouse, hence anything he told me is third hand and the usual disclaimers apply.
The mill is sitting on its stands and hasn't been touched. Nothing has arrived from Lawlers. Concrete is continuing on the ringbeams for the tanks and some earthworks are going on in various places.Drilling is all over the place with rigs going here and there and back again. The usual suspects have been spreading their prophecies of doom, life in a small town pub goes on. It is worth noting that some of the team working at Cardinia, or the LGP as they call it, spend some time in the pubs, so they are available for anyone who wants to talk to them. The Whitehouse has the Skimpies so most of their time is spent in that pub.
Right, so with the pub gossip out of the way, here is what I think is happening and I stress that is just my thoughts with no facts or evidence to back it.
We have two new board members, one of whom has taken on the role of Chairman, both of whom have experience in the corporate world. We have had a tumultuous few months with the resignation of the CEO and the attempted sacking, subsequently resignation of another director. So put yourself in the shoes of the new guys. If it were me I would want all the costings, timing and scheduling checked. I would want the management team to be able to answer any questions I might ask regarding the above. In short I would be covering my ass from any fishooks that are lurking out there waiting to snag me. I would have entered this with my eyes open and know that I am taking on a potentially career damaging task, so I will get all the bad knews, if any, out there now and start afresh. That way any good news will reflect on me and bad news on the previous administration.
Any review of costings and timetables will always turn up some errors as things change over time. If they are small or even moderate then so be it. If they are large errors then the two directors who are still there, as well as the Sprott team, need to explain how these errors were missed or overlooked. I don't believe that will be the case, but the possibility exists and needs to be stated.
I still don't know why Don Harper quit and probably never will, but I suspect that he realised the timetable and pricing was tight and he wasn't prepared to take the risk of it slipping or falling over. He got his performance shares for the DFS, so perhaps that was sufficient. He may also have had a brand new venture that excited him more, we don't know.
In any case it is all speculation, the gold is still in the ground with more to be found, the plant will be built eventually at whatever it costs to build and some time late this year or early next year gold bars will be rolling off the production line. I bought into this company on the basis of the Cardinia/Mertondale ground and that dirt hasn't deteriorated in any way. All the rest of the dramas whilst annoying, are short term distractions. My view has always been on the end game.
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