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07/12/15
18:20
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Originally posted by zog
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The problem I had was that SH's were being strung along by the company and given the impression that sales were buoyant (and likely to be profitable) and the tailings dam and water issues were holding up production which would be complete in Jun ready for nameplate operation in July/September quarter. The only indications were (21/9) - nothing on the actual production levels postulated from testing:
"Production testing has identified process bottlenecks which when removed will improve
grades, reduce processing costs and which are planned to increase production capacity by more
than 50%"
I for one took the assurances that the financing was proceeding normally (5/10) to imply that production in the July/Sept quarter was around what was expected. It was not until the annual report (26/10) that the dire situation on trade and other payables ($5.5m - table 11 pg 34) and the quarterly report (30/10) outlining abysmal production of 2T/day and drawdown of debt of $4.5m was announced. This was further exasperated by Mencel's address at the AGM which disclosed (slide 13) that the trade and other payables had not been paid and were still at $5.5m.
To me the question is lack of compliance with continuous disclosure obligations during the July/September quarter and announcements that were both misleading and highly "economic" with the truth. I cannot understand why Ian Patterson (on behalf of Chimaera) as a director allowed the company to drawdown $4.5m when they had $5.5m in trade payables on 5/10 when he should have been aware (as a director) of the dire production situation; maybe the facts were revealed to the board. I would love to see the board minutes for the June/November period (I was certainly mislead and now kicking myself for missing the window to sell between 1/11 and the trading halt on 12/11).
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Red flag for me when it seemed clear they could not meet the loan conditions, the main likely outstanding condition being that they had to prove they could repay the loan. That was a clear signal that, for whatever reason, they were not profitable. There was a lot of smoke screening around the resource upgrades and potential sales but the evidence of unprofitability was hiding in plain sight. Agree with you on the breaches of continuous disclosure.