Well said. I agree with most of what you say, however I would...

Well said. I agree with most of what you say, however I would add that Russia was forced to fight. Following the US backed coup in Ukraine to install their puppet government in 2014, Ukraine started bombing the Russian speaking Ukrainians in the Donbas region. The main game though was US led NATO wanting to install weapons in Ukraine aimed at Russian cities and that, understandably was unacceptable to the Russians. Too many people don't know the truth and just believe the lie that Putin just woke up one morning and decided to invade.

Anyway back to NST. The "elites", (I'd call them something else but I'll be moderated) and you mention a few of the main culprits late in you post, as majority shareholders, are acting against the interests of the company and shareholders. I'd argue these large American funds want the gold because they know how important it has become again but first and foremost they are agents for the USA and so their main function is to support the USD and US hegemony. Gold being the primary competitor to the USD, they do everything they can to cap gold, share prices of gold companies and drive down sentiment. These strategies work against the company making debt funding more expensive, paying off debt, inhibiting the available cash to expand, pay dividends and allowing inflation to have a larger impact on AISC.

So if this is actually happening, and I believe it is, then what do management think? And what are they doing about it? The answer to the second question is, clearly nothing. Management are bullied by these large funds, using their market position to get their way. Look what happened to Newcrest. The largest shareholders were the largest shareholders of Newmont and Newcrest, so Newmont said we are making a takeover offer and Newcrest's large shareholders said "ok".

There is a lot more that can be said on the subject and it would be worth putting some of these concerns and questions to management.