Agree SP - the irony is, why did not the board of Arrium buy the...

Agree SP - the irony is, why did not the board of Arrium buy the beneficiary plant for $50 million and install it at MBR back in October 2011 and NOT waste $600 Million borrowing from the banks to buy WPG (and the southern iron ore mine) which was closed after just 3  years and 4 months - and thanks to the board and management signing off on 5 year take or pay contracts, is still costing shareholders millions of dollars.

This is the question everyone wants to know - esp. given SI had a very high break even cost delivered to the port in China (250% higher than BHP or Rio Tinto's at the time).

Clearly, neither Smedley or Plummer were experienced Chemical or Mining Engineers who had worked at the front end and were not the right people for the job - this explains why Dr Bob Every never got on with Chairman Smedley - you see he was a metallurgist with proven operational experience in that industry and had lived through the cycles it always goes through - this is why he paid the debt down from $1 Billion when it was spun out of BHP as Onesteel back in 2001 and left it 4 or 5 years later with only $500 million of debt.

Questions will also be asked about the lawyers who were in charge of contract negotiations and pro-curement - Mark Elder and Naomi James to make a point - also why a young lawyer was put in charge of Strategy in 2011 with no proven experience in this industry before - clearly there would have been better qualified people for that job.

Ans this brings us to the potential shareholder class action lawsuit that may be coming soon when KM hands in its report.

September/October 2014 the rights issue of $754 million at 48 cents per share. The average break even price of iron ore for the 2 mines (SI and MBR combined) delivered to the port in China was US$73 as against the spot price then of around US$81. This was disclosed in the prospectus along with a comment in the key risks and disadvantages that should the price of iron ore and the exchange rate move adversely against the company, it may affect the balance sheet and financial position of Arrium.

But no mention was made of the separate break even price of the iron ore mines - Southern Iron was of course much higher - possibly above US$81 per tonne.

If, so and the iron ore price was less than the spot price and Southern Iron had to be closed, no mention was made of the significant closure costs and the ongoing closure costs thereafter due to the 5 year take or pay contracts. This certainly would have been material to anyone's decision to take up the rights issue and invest more money (or hold on to their existing shares rather than sell them).

All very deceptive and misleading conduct towards the shareholders who own this public company and were paying these idiots so much money to set the strategy and allocate shareholder money in a prudent and risk averse way. Smedley and his puppets - Plummer, Roberts, James, Elder, Nankvervis, Davis and Warnock - DISGRACE.

May explain why the board did not want the company in VA as KM will find out what the banks and shareholders have been denied for so long - the truth.

Can't wait for the KM report into this collapse and if there has been any wrongdoing, a day in court with the directors - present and past.

And if shareholders have a serious case against the company, and we can rank equally as unsecured creditors, it may just force the banks to take some debt writeoff and allow the shareholders something back (and it could be a lot too).