Horco, you got me thinking about why everything is taking so long at Barra - FMR getting going to mine - the whole cobalt story etc. and the relative diligence of the board. That is now clearly weighingont he SP. I thought I might do some research.
Gary Berrel joined the Barra board in 2010, but according to Linkedin joined Barra in 2004. Seems to be a full time director at Barra and probably the bloke who does all the work since Sean Gregory left and that there is a great deal to be done just to keep the wheels turning and the ASX happy.
Jon Young is the Chair of the major shareholder - FMR - the people BAR has the JV with. He also seems to work pretty much full time at Pattesons - which i gather is now owned by Cannacord Genuity. Now I wonder who managed the last private placement at 1.9c ...
We shareholders know very little about except that they seem to give a lot of latitude to FMR as to when they start mining and profit shares that shift without announcement. It would for example be very interesting to see what expenditure FMR can count as a JV expense before profit share kicks in.
However, I'm sure that Jon would absent himself from all board or executive discussions or negotiations regarding contracts with related parties to avoid any potential conflict of interest.
Grant Mooney has several board positions and appears to have his own consultancy firm. One of Mr Mooney's other interests is very interesting. He is a non-executive director of Talga Resources. Have a look at their web site, and this page in particular:
https://www.talgagroup.com/irm/content/cobalt.aspx?RID=424!
I have to say that there is no evidence here or in anything I have seen of any inappropriate behavior. We would expect that corporate governance i's have been dotted etc along the way.
However, given the various connections, a bit more transparency would not go astray!
In any event, I'm starting to think that some new (and completely independent) blood on the board might not be a bad thing come next AGM. I suspect there are enough shareholders reading this board to make that happen - if they want to make it happen!
