As I'm not currently in BH, I have been getting occasional local Broken Hill ABC station news via the ABC Listen app.
I just caught the last part of an interview a couple of Fridays ago (I think 17/6) with Bryan by the local announcer.
I don't think there was anything that we don't already know in the interview, but what bemused--in fact irritated me was the language used by the announcer.
A lot of "wish you luck" and "will be great IF it goes ahead”, "hopefully” and my favourite- "it's all still just potential right now isn't it" .
At the moment, many of the locals seem to have the same "believe it when I see it " type of attitude
One example-I was talking to a relative of mine last week--he said he was "getting my son into some more Cobalt Blue shares" -I asked him why he didn't add some HIO ( seeing as HIO will dwarf COB's loftiest predictions once the mine is running)--he said "well, Hawsons is just talk right now, and COB has stuff happening" --referring to having a processing plant operating in town and mining beginning out on site.
Not sure whether the BH ABC is influencing local opinion--or vice versa?
As I've said previously, I think HIO needs a local information office in the main street (not a board out at their storage yard -which still has Carpentaria signage) to keep the locals educated about the our progress and the enormous potential.
I personally know there is a hard core cohort of locals who have a much better idea of the industry and are heavily into HIO and have been for a long time, (some -like over 6 years!..) but educating the grass roots locals properly-and importantly-often (note-as COB has done and still does), I believe will pay strong dividends in the future in many ways with local workforce enthusiasm and local government authorities at all levels , to name a couple of areas that immediately spring to mind.
It's not just about share price support which imho is mainly up to the big players now anyway.
As if to reinforce my misgivings, my wife, who listens to ABC BH local news religiously every day (iphone ABC listen app once again), told me there was another interview last Friday with "some finance or mining guy" and they spent the segment basically talking HIO down ( in her opinion) with things like "its going to be a lot more costly than they think (to get everything done before production) and "the pipeline and everything else is going to take way longer" (or words to that effect--she didn't take on board any real detail or names unfortunately) .
This bothers me in a number of ways.
If the Company has supposedly a Marketing/Public Relations type person, then what is he or she doing??
If the Company isn't actually aware of the local news about its activities-see above. I doubt this.
If the Company is aware or everything that is mentioned about it in the local media, then why are they letting this go?-or are they preparing us for a few timeline/cost blowouts??
Is it a "plant" by undercover secret agents from MGT--lol
The professionalism of Bryan and the team and their impeccable on-time performance so far , their ability to stay ahead of the game (eg the Myponie land leases) gives me no cause for concern regarding our future, but I thought this was worth mentioning as it's something of an anomaly imo.
I wont be back in BH until sometime in August, once there, I will try to talk to whoever I can and gather "intel."
Cheers
Stay Strong & Long
