transparency, page-13

DF's move from MD to EC should not be viewed as a promotion. MD is the head role in AGO, and for that matter any serious company, and in my opinion the EC role is a token gesture to provide DF and AGO with a face saving demotion from the top job.

All the talk is that it will take a different set of skills and management style to build AGO to 50mtpa, hence the transition to KB from DF. However I believe there is more to this, perhaps around the takeover denials, perhaps around management style, perhaps something we are not even aware of. Unless there is a leak we can only speculate on the real reasons.

Don't forget that on 31 August DF will move from Executive Chairman to Non-Executive Chairman. This is significant and IMO further confirms that EC is a token gesture.

The role of EC also goes against the ASX corporate governance best practice recommendations, which flies in the face of AGO's history of being absolute sticklers for corporate compliance; however there aren't any other titles of significance outside of MD/CEO/EC that could have been used for the face saving PR transition.

Anyways, going over old ground on this one.