A new MD is coming. Personally I agree that a new change in md may well be the shot in the arm the company needs to get Coburn up and running. An improvoing resources sector wouldn’t hurt either. Happy to wait and see what the board comes up with. Also think D Harley should be there to help in the transition – that is just common sense. What surprises me is the absolute nastiness and ill-informed juvenile venom that comes out of these threads. This is over the top – give it a break and show some respect to a man who has worked for over a decade to try and bring Coburn to life. I recently turned 50 and I have seen my share of successes and failures. If you have ever tried to do something risky and really massive in your life and events take over you and you are left with sticks to work with and you try again to rebuild what was with broken sticks, then you know what I mean about respect. D Harley is leaving with the appointment of a new MD - I'm voting against the resolution. - If the resolution is not withdrawn or is voted For by shareholders and given these events then there is some seriously narcissistic people needing psychiatric advice.
We are investing in a junior resources company you know – most of the time projects don’t get up at all. At least the sand hasn’t gone away, the approvals are still there and DuPont wants to buy the ilmenite. Find a creditworthy buyer of the zircon and be a project partner and the mine will imho be built. The Zircon delivers 60% + of revenues but the price of the stuff has tanked from $2400 /t to $1300/ t. This makes it all the more difficult. Financing a mineral sands mine as not as ‘easy’ as a copper, gold, or coal mine. The financials look strong enough to support a debt facility from bankers but because zircon is a specialty product operating in an opaque market it means that bankers will need floor prices. The banks can’t hedge their exposure and they will refuse to take commodity price risk. Therefore the buyer of the zircon has to be financially strong and transparent with a good credit rating themselves. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. There are trading houses who will sell your zircon and take a 3% fee for the effort. Their customers are all the small time ceramics makers round the world with a lot in china. The banks can’t accept the trading houses as counterparties (they are all leverage and no substantial assets) and all the small end users have such opaque financial structures which make them unsuitable for the banks.
Dupont is the perfect buyer for the ilmenite and posco would have been that for the Zircon. I don’t blame D Harley for Posco deal falling through. Those that do blame him don’t really understand what has been happening with investment in Australian mining over the last 18 months ( Olympic Dam, BMA Qld, Port headland, Iluka and Rio Mineral sands shutdowns etc).
There have been a few decent comments about going forward in recent posts. The reality we have going forward is this; A good project approved and permitted, designed and engineered. Dupont to buy the ilmenite, new md coming soon. Btw a mate locally in Sydney told me there is a small time vulture retail shadow broking outfit apparently spruiking for a few disaffected day traders. He told me to be wary of greeks bearing gifts.
Overall, there is good reasons to be optimistic - at this market cap I'm putting it as a BUY.
cheers omg
GUN Price at posting:
3.2¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
