MLM - discussion, page-5

Asa substantial and long term shareholder I note that the MD and compliant Board members have reduced this company to a penny dreadful in the last 18 months. Our Ni-Co-Sc flagship project was sold off to AUZ whose share price instantly rose from a fraction of a cent to 13 cents while MLM at 6.6c at this date, fell steadily to its current 3.2c or less. During this time our MD has been rewarded with bonuses on top of a very generous salary but shareholders got nothing but frustration. AUZ is a perfect example of entrepreneurship.
Our bauxite ML was granted finally but we were then gobsmacked to find there was no access to the deposit. What will happen if this is finally resolved? Will we find the barging facility to get the stuff to a ship also has problems with more delays? We are never told the full story.
The wonderful high grade bauxite of the Solomon Islands surely must have problems but we know very little. What is its water content? What does it have to be reduced to before shipment? How will this be undertaken? What impurities are present? Why has such high grade bauxite been left untouched for so long? Who has looked at it previously?
The ilmenite proposal gives us a minority holding in a single low value product with a dubious future value per tonne. MLM has had a plant available for years to process much higher value zircon and rutile on a known deposit with a high exploration potential but has done nothing with it. In the last 12 months it spent nothing on exploration.
We need people with an entrepreneurial talent who can put the $6M cash into better projects than these and who have the negotiating talent to resolve the access impasse with RIO. The wonderful rewards and directorships for the Board if they successfully pull off this high risk deal with Melior have taken precedence to the risks involved and shareholder concerns.