And do not forget to leave out Smedley and Plummer - these two...

And do not forget to leave out Smedley and Plummer - these two culprits were the main ones to blame given the 2 people running Arrium that bought WPG and developed it with A$600 million of bank debt, signed the disastrous 5 year take or pay haulage contracts, pushed away a takeover offer from Noble/Posco Group of 75 cents per share (which was later increased to 88 cents per share), ignored analysts warnings to raise capital to pay down debt (and after Plummer departed), sheepishly raised $754 million in October/November 2014 at 48 cents per share.

Chairman Peter Smedley would have also been involved in choosing CEO Plummer, Chief Legal officer Ms Naomi James (appointed at an unusually very young age to that job back in 2005 at 27 or 28 - with no proven experience at that level with a major corporate such as Bluescope, BHP or RIO ) Chief Financial Offier Bakewell, and Plummer's successor Roberts.  And you can add Greg Waters who was earning A$ 1 million a year as "Head of Mining" and he was only a transport and logistics guy (like Plummer). All does not look good does it. The price you pay for putting people in charge of a Steel and Mining Company who were not the right ones for that job and that industry - perhaps that explains why Smedley was happy when Dr Every (who had a PhD in Metallurgy) left in late 2004 or early 2005.

Oh, and when Smedley raised that whopping $754 million at 48 cents, no mention was made in the key risks and disadvantages section that if the spot price of iron ore fell below the break-even price and Southern Iron Mine had to be closed, what the very material initial and ongoing closure costs would have been (and they knew this figure as they would have had the contracts in their draw and signed off on them only a few years earlier).  

Only 3 months after the raising, Southern Iron was closed. Not very detailed disclosure to shareholders even though they knew the finer details of these contracts.  So typical of the people running this company - deceptive, sheepish, withholding information from shareholders and (towards the end) the banks and creditors as well.  Taking US$100 million from a Vulture Fund and suggesting the banks take a 45% cut in what they are owed and then (possibly as investigations will have to prove this) continuing to draw down the last lines of credit up to 7th of April 2016.

DISGRACE.

I wonder whether they feel guilty about the massive loss of shareholders money (savings, super funds, pension funds, and some using loans).  Smedley and Plummer live in Multi Million dollar homes.  I wonder what they would say to shareholders now - along with some of the appalling independent directors as well - - who have shown they were not up to scratch either in managing other peoples money with skill and care that should be required at that level.