quarterly reports are out, page-23

Management certainly shot themselves in the foot with unrealistic timeline expectations, and by conditioning the market to expect constant updates, no matter how irrelevant they were. Those who bought the stock believing in these timelines certainly have the right to be upset that they were not delivered upon.

I consider that management has learnt a difficult lesson, but in the long term I'd rather that they don't shoot their mouths off. I'd rather they tell us significant stuff when they have significant stuff to present. I'd like to think that today's announcement represents a "clearing of the decks" in this respect. No longer will they be painted into a farm out timeline corner, and hopefully, justified as the anger maybe, this will be the point from which the upset on missed deadlines begins to subside.

Focusing on the content of today's announcements, I don't think anything major has changed:

-Seychelles talks remain ongoing with the clear requirement that more work needs to be done to reach a deal that gives us good value
-La Bella talks are taking place with a view to getting a deal that is good enough
- Palta drilling is due in the foreseeable future, though the exact timelines, and consequent newsflow, are out of "our" hands

If the communications policy really is to not bother us with the little stuff any more, then the corollary is that the next news should be big and relevant. It might not happen overnight, but longer term there is still great potential in this stock IMHO.

I sympathise with those showing a loss, but if you've held on this long and are a fundamental investor rather than short term trader I don't see why you'd sell out now.