re: merging mid tier company by 2008 mookie, good AGM, pretty...

re: merging mid tier company by 2008 mookie, good AGM, pretty good crowd with a mix of old money/new money/ brokers and fund guys.

I have to say the board is impressive, Jim Wall, Bob Besley and their new operations guy are mining engineers to their bootstraps.

Good discussion about the stope collapse, they were perfectly honest about the fact it was their fault because their internal geo guy and team did not properly assess an adjacent fault system before removing a main pillar. They have since retained outside technical support and advice to cover these types of mining decisions.
"Will it happen again?" was asked from the floor and the Chairman was honest in saying there could be no way a 100% guarantee could be given but they were doing everything in their power to make sure it does not repeat.
I have not had time to read the reports on the net but several of the power point slides fouled up, their operations manager at this time seemed to be ad libbing and let slip that September was 10,050 tonnes of zinc concentrate, October was 11,000 tons plus I got the impression that is not the end of the increases.
So they are now producing record tonnages so with record prices to boot revenue must be at an all time high.

Interest was very high in the informal get together afterwards so it was hard to get much time with any of them. Wall really impresses, if I remember correctly he sold Savage Resources right at the top after a great run for shareholders and he certainly gives the impression that he can handle everything, even Toho which would be a handful. He knows zinc and lead and their markets backwards. A wise, highly experienced, cunning old fox?

If you like give me an email to elleburra at yahoo.