Time to Go

It's time to go....Mr Netscher.

I was just looking at the Notice of Meeting and I was surprised to see Mr Netscher put himself up for re-election at the AGM. I'm voting against.

After the catastrophe at St Barbara, surely its time to retire just as he announced at St Barbara this week he'd retire as Chair at the end of April 2023. If you can't continue at St Barbara, what makes continuing at Gold Road any different. With Gold Road having a potential deal with De Grey, I do not want to see Gold Road overpay just like St Barbara did for Atlantic. Gruyere is quality asset, with some exploration potential still there (disappointing to date, but don't get me started on why they don't at least progress Gilmour and Smokebush!). St Barbara took their eye off Gwalia to look at PNG to acquire Simberi and then Canada to acquire Atlantic. I don't want the play book to occur at Gold Road.

Note - Mr Netscher wasn't a Director/Chair at the time of acquisition of Simberi, so can't be blamed for that, but was Chair at the time of acquisition of Atlantic and has been the Chair in the capitulation of St Barbara, resulting in selling its best asset to Gensis because no-one appears to back Board/management by funding an equity raise.

Interesting to see what the big end of town thinks on this re-election vote.

Questions is, who would the next Chair be....one idea - Ian Murray, the former Executive Chairman, now on a few other gigs.

On the issues at St Barbara, Barry Fitzgerald wrote a great article this week - here's the main criticism.

Instead of ensuring the Gwalia mine and supplementary ore sources for the mill got the right amount of attention, St Barbara took off to PNG and the Solomons in 2012, paying $556 million for Allied Gold. It was a dog. Emboldened again by a couple of good years at the mainstay Gwalia, St Barbara went shopping overseas again, paying $768 million in 2019 for Canadian gold producer Atlantic. It has also been a dog. So there has been more than $1.32 billion that could well have been spent in St Barbara's backyard of Leonora, and Western Australia generally, to ensure Gwalia remained on song and to grow group production from regional developments. But that cash capability - thanks to Gwalia when it was performing - went elsewhere, and now only exists in a greatly written down form at operations in PNG and Canada, both with uncertain futures. St Barbara's failings are Genesis' triumph as it now gets to set our becoming a plus 300,000 ounce-a-year producer with the Gwalia mine and mill at its core. And while it will all be in the execution, there is no rocket science behind's Finlayson's plans.