sitting duck, page-2

Unless they have some definite plan for the use of the cash, I agree with your comments, jhui. However, I've been hoping for some time that they had plans to acquire another producing or near-term asset, so that all the production eggs are not in the one basket.

I was happy to see Bendigo put on ice, as it was burning cash, and for the focus to switch to Henty, but I thought some time back that they were looking at another acquisition. I think that they looked at Ballarat (which Castlemaine got very cheaply - probably a missed opportunity for UML) and Maldon (which Octagonal took - not sure how that one will go), but there appears to be no prospect of anything new on the horizon (except maybe a full tilt at GoldStone, but I hope not - no prospect of early cashflow).

I would be quite happy for them not to pay a dividend or introduce a share buy-back if they would put the cash to work to produce more gold, or even to branch out into producing other metals (e.g.copper), but I'm not keen to see them spend money on another greenfields project at this time. Solid cashflow should be a priority in the current uncertain economic environment.

Cheers,
Mike