cdo update, page-26

Holdonman,

You refer to the voiceless Filipino people who are suffering as a result of RED not being able to provide the opportunities with respect to jobs and other direct and indirect services to the mining operation. Did it ever occur to yourself, if you truly have those people in your heart and mind, that they will benefit by the company re-starting its operation (of course with proper controls and arrangements appropriate to mining).

A couple of facts with respect to those voiceless stakeholders for you to consider (and I'm happy for you or anyone else to amend those amounts as I don't want to waste time researching it more than whats in my head at the moment):
1. RED contributed more than $100 million in exploration and development costs during the pre- and post- feasibility study periods;
2. RED expensed more than $90 million in capex, a large part of which was spent and went directly to the Philippine economy.
3. RED provided direct labour opportunities for more than 1,000 Filipinos.

That sort of provision of jobs and general expenses over the coming years is also possible if the operation can get re-started.

The more that you continue to send your negative sentiment into the market place, the more chance that investment in the company will be reduced. If there is any slight chance that the position of the company is affected by the sentiment of investors, which ultimately affects those Filipinos that you refer to, surely you should encourage positive sentiment, not negative sentiment.

When you refer to the current MD being on $400,000, I also believe the former MD who was finally removed about a year ago, was paid similar ridiculously high amounts over many years despite all the stuff ups that occurred during his tenure. I believe that the total management team (Board plus senior execs) over the past 3 years has been paid more than $2 million annually. Clearly as a team all failed dismally and we the shareholders have suffered due to appalling share price performance. Shareholders do have the opportunity to vote against the remuneration report if its considered unacceptable, but strangely not many have bothered to vote against the remuneration report. So the voiceless are not just the Filipinos but also the voiceless shareholders who can only vote with their feet!

With regard to the 'mine plan', that you refer to that 'has not been followed' as you suggest, do you regard the original mine plan as being like the 10 commandments, written in stone and never to be changed? Maybe a new plan needs to be re-submitted with the mines department (I'm not sure of the procedure for this), but no mining operation, could continue to operate successfully without constant revision to the mine plan - Mining 101 - I realise you are not a mining engineer but just in case you don't realise it, mine plans are dynamic, they need constant revision to be workable. And for goodness sake, RED5's mine plan has been dead in the water from the time the company began operating - they had to change the mining considerably due to poor production and ended up mining more waste as a capital expense than was ever contemplated in the original mine plan. Much of that was caused by the former management failing to properly dewater the pit. They got it wrong from the start - and they didn't follow their mine plan. So I don't think its appropriate for you to keep referring to some bible that was handed down by the gods at the time of the feasibility study.

I suggest that the majority of current shareholders are like myself, hoping that the company can get the operation re-started, and without the involvement of detractors who have no interest other than to stir the pot for some self-serving reason, and to create as much negativity and havoc amongst the stakeholders. I do hope that the Philippines authorities do continue to consider RED and its submission as an impartial body, without being affected or influenced by stakeholders that are not actually representing the true position of the company. I believe that RED can continue to contribute to the Philippine economy if it re-starts.