@KBN I'm pleased you think some of my concerns are legitimate, but I'm very concerned that you don't understand what it takes to extract gold from the ground. $10-15m is probably a bit on the conservative side if anything. If you are going to invest in a exploratory/mining company you must understand mining and just how complicated and capital intensive it is, otherwise you might as well be at the casino. Prior to investing I did a lot of DD on the asset, but sadly overlooked the ability of the management, as anyone can make themselves sound very capable writing their own bio.
To give you an example of just how much things cost, if VAN were to proceed with the K2 underground the refurbishment costs would be in the range of $6-9k per meter, and there is 1.2km of it.That's $7.2-10.8m just to get down to were they can start doing some drilling to see if there is enough gold to warrant continuing. None of that cost includes camps, medical staff, infrastructure, corporate or the drilling program that would need to be done immediately to plan the design of the mine. And then then there is a delay while feasibility studies and mine plans are done, best case scenario is the feasibility adds up, you still have to spend the same amount again getting to the ore and extracting it. Then pay to have it processed, and then a delay until you receive payment for and gold. Bearing in mind, if it is via a toll treatment agreement, accept that you are having 20% of you gold stolen. Do you think an Accountant and a Investment banker can handle all that? If the company tries to do the K2 underground with the current management, or worst, Dampier, they will go broke. It is insane that with all the surface resource on the tenements that this is not be looked at as an easily accessible and low cost way of getting cash flow. This further highlights that the directors have no idea what they are doing. And when I say lower cost, still a minimum of $10-15m required.
To address your comment regarding contacting the board about my concerns, I have, and it was a waste of time, at best a lip service. You should understand there is no way they would take any notice of one share holder that is pointing out their failings, so HC is exactly the place to be venting about management, in the hope that other share holders take notice and together demand answers as a collective, this is the only way boards are changed/removed/held to account. I don't want to see this asset wasted and if the share holders let the current Board carry on like this, there will be no more company, probably as soon as the year end. We all need to take control of this soon!
One of you comments was very concerning.
"which after all, is a flourishing company and well rewarded shareholders".
Have you tried to sell any of your shares recently? There are currently only buyers for 470,000 shares and that would drive the price down to 1.1c. Please explain how this is a flourishing company and is rewarding shareholders? Again, this is the responsibility of the board, they have failed to attract any interest from investors or institutions, hence having to raise money at 25-30%.
This AGM will be an interesting one, and I would be a bit nervous if I was the Executive Chairman.
