Honestly, page-19

For old time sake I thought I would post......

Firstly sorry for everyone sitting on mega losses but whatever comes or goes I believe that it is most unfair to blame the board who, to this day, I believe are and were top shelf. But there are forces in the world that are far greater than any crack management team. In hindsight SDL was doomed from the day of the plane crash. People should be thanking George Jones for giving it a red hot go. He could have shrugged his shoulders and walked away and enjoyed his retirement and SDL could have fallen into heap then and there..... but he came back and gave it his best shot....he failed, but I believe he gave it one hell of a crack.....

Pull up just about any chart of any mining company or index. After looking at a few it becomes evident that the minerals bubble burst in early 2011 however it has taken time to pass before we could have known whether it had burst or if it was just a pull back. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. In retrospect I believe that this ebbing of the minerals tide is what was behind all the stuffing around that happened with Hanlong. I guess it is easy for me because my entry was post Hanlong at average 7.5c and my exit was ultimately average 9c so really for me it was more just a waste of time and opportunity for those months rather than a huge loss. When the Noble off take agreement was signed the sell of was aggressive. That was when I became really suspicious and sold down a bit......but imho the EPC deal that came with NO finance was the flashing ten foot neon sign that alerted us to the fact disaster was imminent. We have subsequently seen what has happened to the price of iron ore and to be honest not in my wildest dream did I believe the drop could be so extreme. Obviously there are people better informed than us who saw the writing on the wall and this is why a 5 BILLION dollar finance package was not forthcoming.

This game is all about timing. I have never forgotten Lion 2009's story about his colleague who entered FMG at 2 and 3 cents in 2002 and exited in 2008 with 180 million dollars. By my calcs his initial outlay must have only been 30 or 40k. I have recounted that story to various people many times over and in fact was telling it to someone just 2 days ago. It just goes to show what the market can do for you in you are in the right place at the right time.....but equally if your timing is out of phase the market can be a cruel mistress. So chin up everyone...even if it means you have to go back and get a real job for a while just decide that next time you are going to be like lion's mate. What you have lost on this swing down the track you might make it up on the roundabout.