re: time to run asx 200 coming Yep I loaded up too yesterday....

re: time to run asx 200 coming Yep I loaded up too yesterday. Gold should push to 630 soon, and SBM looks like a major gold mining house is born once again ;)

Did you see the post from micam on ss

"SBM AGM
I attended Thursday’s meeting here in Perth. I like to go to these meetings to get a “feel� for those who govern our company. This was a VERY professional lot. Early on I figured that they must have a lot of credibility with the big end of town - certainly by the number of suits in the audience. In fact, for a relatively small company this was one of the largest attendances at an AGM that I’ve encountered. The meeting was run very formally with the chairman in particular giving off an “air� of quiet authority. Ed Eshys (for those like me having trouble with the pronunciation – Esh hoos) would give anybody confidence in letting him run your company. He’s quietly spoken but (Geez! I’m trying to come up with synonyms for “professional�) this man is on top of the job. He tends towards a conservative commentary but you can’t help feel confident this is a team leader that has our interests at heart.

I can’t really offer too much that hasn’t been covered in company announcements. There were no major surprises at the AGM except to hear of the move to Melbourne. Despite what they say I’m sure the move is largely because of convenience as most of the board are Victorian based. A couple of us pleaded for a retention of Perth remaining as the AGM presentation centre but no promises were given.

Over the last three years since I’ve been investing I’ve attended quite a number of AGM’a and other company meetings. Without exception this board of directors are the most knowledgeable of the company’s operations I’ve come across. I should add to that – they are the most approachable and willingly give their time to explain in detail what for them are probably very basic questions. No matter who I’ve approached either this year or last, each of the directors is thoroughly on top of any aspect I’ve enquired about. (Believe me, this is often not the case. Given my limited knowledge of mining I’ve been to meetings here in Perth when I’ve had more information than the people running the meeting. This was not my research but questions supplied by members of this forum. We investors assume that the people with impressive remuneration packages should be on top of the company’s operation but instead many seem to only be involved within their expertise. SBM board members are definitely an exception.)

In my opinion the success of the company over the last couple of years is epitomized by reporters targeting SBM as likely buyers of Croesus or Barrack Gold. Treated with skepticism so short a time ago and now being looked upon as an acquisitor says something of the management’s success. I asked three of the directors independently about these reports – they’re not interested in either operation although I did get hints that the company had run the proverbial ruler over both resources. Ed admitted that he’s keen to find other lucrative operations and does not discount take overs. The three other targets mentioned are definitely not joint ventures but ones they’ve discovered as having promising underlying structures.

Two of us at the meeting questioned the strategy of buy back’s in months when the company is raising further finance. (I’m trying to recall Ed’s exact wording here) The raising of further capital was as much to gain further institutional support on the share register as it was to help exploration. The buy backs were strategic plays when the board believed the share price was too low or when the board felt they could arrest “emotional� sell offs (“emotional� is my word but I gained that impression when talking to Ed about traders following trends rather than listening to their own analyists.)

I can’t offer much else in the way of new info. Exploration for the next 12 months will be in the order of $20m. Of this $12m will be for further extensions to known resources and the remainder for gaining Greenfield information.
Two rigs are being moved from Gwalia to Marvel Loch where they will concentrate on high quality lodes. This mine will be the cornerstone of Southern Cross operations. We were reminded that when purchased this operation had a 12 month life. Already the company has extended that to 2008 and they hope to discover further extensions to known formations.

I gained the impression that there seems little doubt that Gwalia will become the flagship operation for the company. At this stage they’re expecting it to have at least an 8 to 10 year mine life while looking towards 2.5moz of gold. The further deep the mine goes the greater the engineering challenges but the directors exude confidence in handling any situation that arises. I was given assurances from 3 of the board that none of these geological possibilities is unique and that other mines have successfully managed similar problems.

I’m not sure whether others out there have the same difficulty as I do in interpreting the language that mining companies use. I’ve found several sites that give explanations to the glossary of unfamiliar terms. By attending these meetings I at least get to see first hand some of the impressive engineering illustrated on large easel mounted diagrams. Here in Perth the State Govt is making much of the new rail tunnel beneath the city while seven or eight hours east SBM is quietly going about constructing an impressive 4metre square incline to the bowels of the earth – to my mind a far more difficult operation. After studying the complexity of such an operation I’ve formally asked if the Board will consider an open day for share holders so that those who are able may gain a greater understanding of what the company is endeavouring to achieve. This request was received favourably.
As an adjunct to the above I’ve often wondered naively how confident are they that the drill bit has gone in the direction they suggest on exploration diagrams – curved lines with “daughters� branching off in given directions???? As an example of their patience I had two directors giving detailed explanations of how surveying probes are sent down each 20 metres or so into the drill hole. I’m still blown away at the glimpses of advanced technology that these people seem to consider ‘ho hum’.

I apologise for being so long winded but I’ve attempted to pass on the confidence that was exuded by those at the top table. It really was interesting again this year to see so many ‘suits’ in attendance (and remaining for lengthy discussions after the formal part of the meeting). As another aside Colin Wise made mention of how gratifying it was that so many of the proxies were returned by investors with relatively small holdings. I guess those who have taken a longer term view of this company are reasonably happy with the share price movement from 28c at the 2005 AGM."