Michelle Ash (and Barrick in general) didn't achieve much in the...

Michelle Ash (and Barrick in general) didn't achieve much in the period 2016 -2019 so not quite the high powered appointment that Edgar Basto gives credit for, certainly not a 1 for 1 replacement for Andy Cole thats for sure. During that period Barrick shrank from an entrepreneurial worldwide global gold miner to a low performing rock factory in Nevada.

I think once the OZL management and workers are exposed to BHP's workplace culture we will see an outflow of qualified skilled people from OZL elsewhere, I think thats the danger in the transaction for BHP in that all the acquired skill and expertise might be wasted and god only knows, the South Australian based BHP team need all the expertise and help they can get if they are going to try to do the Olympic Dam expansion, mine Prominent Hill and Carrapeteena profitably and get Oak Dam developed.

If I were Edgar Basto - I would have made the deal conditional on keeping the entire OZL management team together, and then fired all the BHP senior management at Olympic Dam and let Andy Cole and his people run it.