Exactly, the price is down because people are disappointed in...

Exactly, the price is down because people are disappointed in the production level in the quarterly.

Low production may be attributable to:
1. Difficult bureaucratic situation (eg. unexpected delays to blasting permission).
2. More stripping needed than investors would understand. (Management could have made that clearer for people)
3. Profits being intentionally suppressed while they negotiate for a royalty discount (sometimes things are done to make the government look better to the public).
4. Tight finances until the loans got renegotiated, meaning we were limited in equipment deliveries and hiring.
5. Weak management. (They've certainly over-promised at times. But I'm not sure that the low production is down to 'management being incapable of ramping up production'.)

Some of those points have been resolved recently: blasting, stripping, finances.

Community engagement is necessary. If not for the constant low-cost activities and local hiring, people would be multiples more likely to vote against us at community approval meetings.

As for the conferences...they appear somewhat wasteful.

The loans are relatively small considering where profit should be once we ramp up to 120k oz pa.

There was a bit of a bad surprise about 'the plant being in a bad condition after being closed for years' being the reason that we had to buy the new fleet. We were paying for C&M during closure, but maybe the finances were so tight they we couldn't pay for 'good quality C&M'.

NE - holding it for so many years without a sale put us into a tight financial situation, costing us a lot in interest and dilution.

Transparency has been weak, though that could be to do with TAFTA negotiations, maybe even suggested by our lawyers.


So overall, is he a bad CEO, or is he dealing with a tough situation that is not visible to investors? I'm uncertain. Some things like the women in mining seem wasteful (time and money) and maybe even holding NE was an avoidable waste, but some things could have plausible explanations that we're not privy to.