asic, page-25

Vintage, I can see your point and its perfectly valid given the information I assume you have. The problem is that - and I am not going to speak on behalf of Gus - there are internal workings that we are often not exposed to. This is going to sound like a cop-out but if Gus communicated all the internal discussions, as well tactical and strategic options available to the company it would inevitably add a great deal of volatility and confusion. The over-arching company message needs to be clear and consistent *slight cringe*.

On:
1. Again internal discussions progressed, as did some of the 'inputs' into the document. Hence, the delay. Again, I take your point but the DFS due date had moved a number of times - it is, across any mining company, a detailed and complex document. You wouldnt believe how much effort goes into determining something like optimal-COG, but less of an issue with PEN (and this is just one input)

2. I think as the picture becomes clearer, the company will make a statement to that effect; i.e production in 2013-2014. If you are smart about it, you can build this into your own risk model i.e there is no reason to rush into the stock or more stock given the risk that project delivery is looking to be pushed out rather than pulled in.

Also as an aside, there has been various comments re: confidence in Top10/20 holders. Let me tell you, the entire market is nervous. I personally dont believe the significant holders of PEN are holding because they are 100% confident. Like the rest of the market, there is an element of nervousness and doubt and if they were looking for an exit I dont believe they could execute it, given:
a) The equity value is far below cost
b) There are no significant buyers given the environment (balanced against the risk)

..and as an additional aside re: Gus & ASIC. I actually dont mind issues like this being raised. Arguably it was raised under dubious circumstances, but issues like this - to me at least - points to price discovery. i.e it was thought to be an issue, it turned out to be a non-issue, and now we are back to where we started. The ASIC rubbish aside, this happens against legit concerns like grade, DFS timing, project partners, CAPEX, etc etc. Sentiment will ebb and flow until we understand the 'true' picture.